Charlie was born in 1936 in North Carolina which he left for Nashville, Tennessee, at the end of the 1960s. There he worked as a session musician and played on several Bob Dylan albums and some recordings by Leonhard Cohen. In 1970 he released his debut solo album, entitled Charlie Daniels. His first Charlie Daniels Band album Honey in the Rock followed in 1972. This excellent piece of work already indicated the musical direction the band would take in the following years: southern rock with distinct borrowings from country music. Charlie Daniels' Rockpalast concert at Westfalenhalle, now released the first time on DVD and CD, opens with one of this album's songs, "Funky Junky", a sweeping and swinging song which wins the audience over right away. It's not the big pose that counts but "honest" handmade music, staged in an unspectacular way, yet performed in a spectacular manner. The quality of this live recording is superb considering the conditions of that time. Especially the sound is outstanding. TV sound engineers usually know how to do their job; that also goes for the WDR sound engineers. This is why it is an entertaining feast for the ears to experience Charlie Daniels Band's one-and-a-half hour show which ends with a fiery nearly ten minute version of the country classic "Orange Blossom Special".