Lynyrd Skynyrd – God & Guns ( ) 2009

1. Still Unbroken
2. Simple Life
3. Little Thing Called You
4. Southern Ways
5. Skynyrd Nation
6. Unwrite That Song
7. Floyd
8. That Ain't My America
9. Comin' Back For More
10. God & Guns
11. Storm
12. Gifted Hands

I’ve seen the reunited Skynryd many, many times over the past decade. I was able to see the band in 2009 before the release of “Gods & Guns”. On that tour they played two new songs. They opened with “Skynyrd Nation”, as song which saw Ricky Meldocke and Johnny Van Zant sharing lead vocal duties. This is a fairly hard rocking song and made me wish that the current incarnation of Skynyrd would pull out a couple of old Blackfoot songs live. It is my opinion that Rickey is a great talent. I was 100% blown away by this song. Later during the set they performed another excellent, hooky song called “Still Unbroken”. Both songs impressed me to the point that I rushed out to buy “God & Guns” soon after it was released. “God & Guns” has song hooky tunes, including the two aforementioned tracks. As well as those two, the ‘70’s sounding “Southern Way” is quite good, and has a flair not unlike “Sweet Home Alabama”. The swampy, bluesy, hard rocking "Floyd" (featuring guest vocals from Rob Zombie) is also a good song. However, much of the rest of the disc has a new country feel to it, rather than Southern rock. As a longtime fan of the band, I found the obvious attempts at country crossover a bit off putting. “Unwrite That Song”, “Gifted Hands” and “That Ain’t My America” sound more like something off a Toby Keith album than they do Southern rock and roll. Perhaps Skynyrd have seen the success that Kidd Rock and The Eagles have had in the country market and are trying to ride that train. Unfortunately for me, I’m not really a fan of this trend, so these songs don’t really appeal to me.

It’s also interesting to note the subject matter of some of these songs are very American as apple pie, baseball, and Ted Nugent. Skynyrd’s sing loud and proud about issues such as kids praying in school, owning a Bible, spending time with the family, thanking vets for their service and the right of Americans to bear arms. These are some feel good lyrics for sure. However, I couldn’t help but wonder what Ronnie Van Zant would feel about the subject matter of ‘God & Guns’. The lyrics, which tout the rights of Americans to pray and to bear arms, seem somewhat at odds with a song like “Saturday Night Special”.

"Here's to the women and men, in their hands they hold a Bible and a gun
and they ain't afraid of nothing when they're holding either one".
- God & Guns

"Well, hand guns are made for killin', They ain't no good for nothin' else
And if you like to drink your whiskey, You might even shoot yourself
So why don't we dump 'em people, To the bottom of the sea
Before some ole fool come around here. Wanna shoot either you or me"
- Saturday Night Special

Calk it all up to change. Times change. People change. Band members have passed on to eternity. New members are added. This is most certainly a different Lynyrd Skynyrd, but still one that sounds vital. Here’s hoping for more songs like “Synyrd Nation” and “Floyd” in the future. I’d also like to see Rickey take the mic a bit more in the future.

There is a double disc, deluxe edition of this CD as well. Disc two contains 3 live Skynyrd tracks, and 3 bonus studio
tracks, as well as expanded artwork. Live tracks recorded at Freedom Hall in
Louisville, KY.

I can hear what you mean but there's enough here that I like that it's ok. I think modern country has gone the way of sounding more Southern Rock then the other way around but who knows.

I liked some of the songs, but their pandering to several different potential audiences made it an unfocused listen. A couple of the songs were excellent hard rock with an almost modern feel (think Blackstone Cherry etc). Several more straight up hard rockers and otherwise interesting songs. But there is that modern country thread running through the thing which reminds me of listening to my family talk about politics. Banal retrograde nostalgia that will indeed probably be all over new country radio. Bottom line is that it's a keeper, but it's gonna put some wear and tear on my "skip track" buttons.

Call it what you want, I still dig the new Skynyrd album.

I don't think it's a case of Skynyrd going country; I think it's more that New Country has gone Southern Rock.

I do think that Unwrite That Song and That Ain't My America have a decidedly country bent but IMO, every Skynyrd album contains songs about which you could say the same thing.

Pandering, inept lyrics aimed squarely at the redneck populace was basically what I would have expected from an album with that title. The fact that they are trying to branch out into new country also fits that same "demographic".

I've never heard Driveby Truckers. From your comments, I guess I am not missing much. LOL!

It's probably just me because the critics love Driveby Truckers.