Premiere: BlackHawk's 'Brothers of the Southland'

BlackHawk's Henry Paul and Dave Robbins pay tribute to the acts Southern-rock roots with Brothers of the Southland, premiering at USA TODAY.

Before forming BlackHawk in 1993, Paul had been a member of The Outlaws, known for its '70s hits There Goes Another Love Song and Green Grass and High Tides. He'd also had success on his own, fronting the Henry Paul Band. BlackHawk took him into the country world, where he, Robbins and Van Stephenson had 10 top-20 hits between 1993 and 1999.

Brothers of the Southland, the title track to the first BlackHawk album in 12 years, pays tribute to Southern rock's fallen heroes, like Ronnie Van Zant and the other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who died in a 1977 plane crash; the Marshall Tucker Band's Tommy and Toy Caldwell; Duane Allman; and the Outlaws' Hughie Thomasson, Frank O'Keefe and Billy Jones. With its somber pride, it's like a cross between the Charlie Daniels Band's The South's Gonna Do It Again and George Jones' Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes.

"There are so few members of my peer group from that generation left," says Paul, 64. "There have been so many tragic footnotes to that story, it's almost like documenting where you come from, so that you don't forget."

This new recording of Brothers, a song that originally appeared on BlackHawk's 2002 Spirit Dancer album features fellow Outlaws members Monte Yoho and Chris Anderson, along with original Marshall Tucker Band drummer Paul Riddle and founding Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King. Paul and Robbins wrote it with Jim Peterik of Survivor.

"I always loved the song," Paul says. "I was proud of the fact that I had been part of two other groups before BlackHawk that had significant success and a significant impact. That has largely gone unknown, and this song gave me a chance to tell that story again."

"It let me plant that musical flag and say, 'This is where we come from, this is what we did, these are people that mean something to me, and this song is part of my legacy.'

Additionally, the Brothers of the Southland album will include songs that should please fans of the group's harmony-rich hits like Goodbye Says It All and I'm Not Strong Enough to Say No. It also contains three recently unearthed early '90s demos that Paul and Robbins recorded with founding member Van Stephenson, who died of cancer in 2001.

"The record is a little bit broad," Paul says. "Some things sounds reminiscent of the group's popular personality. There are intimate snapshots of the group's beginning. On a palette with everything from deep blue to bright yellow, this has a primary musical color, in that it gives the record a bit of dimension."