Athens, Georgia, outfit Dead Confederate is definitely down with the Southern rock, but they’re also far more into Neil Young than Lynyrd Skynyrd ever was. Neil and Crazy Horse’s epic, stomping cosmic-rock jams provide a launching pad for Dead Confederate’s compelling attack, but so does the atmospheric psych-Americana of My Morning Jacket. Even the furious howl of early Nirvana plays a part: Just listen to “Heavy Petting” and try not to hear the ghost of Kurt Cobain in singer Hardy Morris’s tortured holler.
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2010.