Southern is the second album credited to Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie, following Bill Emerson & the Sweet Dixie Band on Rebel in 2007. It was released on 12 January 2010 by Rural Rhythm (RHY 1053). George Hodgkiss produced and recorded it at Phoenix Productions in Browntown, Virginia, in 2009, and Bill Wolf mastered it.
Emerson plays banjo on eleven of the twelve tracks. Tom Adams plays guitar and sings lead on most of the songs, Wayne Lanham plays mandolin and sings harmony, and Teri Chism plays bass and sings lead on three songs: “I Can’t Find Your Love Anymore,” “Sometime’s the Pleasure’s Worth the Pain” and “The Lord Will Light the Way.” Rickie Simpkins plays fiddle on four tracks and Frank Solivan on one; John Miller is credited with guitar and harmony vocals, and Janet Davis with banjo.
The songs come from a range of writers: Tompall Glaser (“Don’t Care Anymore”), Chris Hillman (“Love Reunited”), Vince Gill (“Life in the Old Farm Town”), Alton Delmore (“The Midnight Train”), Hazel Dickens (“I Can’t Find Your Love Anymore”), Carl Jackson and Tim Stafford (“Little Stone Lambs”) and Marty Stuart (“Sometime’s the Pleasure’s Worth the Pain”). Pete Goble wrote “Grandpa Emory’s Banjo,” Janet Davis wrote “Grandma’s Tattoos,” and Adams wrote “The Lord Will Light the Way.” Emerson, who played in the original Country Gentlemen in 1957 and later spent twenty years in the U.S. Navy Band and its Country Current ensemble, was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
Tracklist
- 1 I Don’t Care Anymore alt version 2:25
- 2 Love Reunited 2:40
- 3 Life In The Old Farm Town 3:18
- 4 The Midnight Train alt version 2:03
- 5 Old Coal Town 2:52
- 6 The Black Fox 3:16
- 7 I Can’t Find Your Love Anymore alt version 2:45
- 8 Little Stone Lambs 2:45
- 9 Sometimes The Pleasure's Worth The Pain 2:27
- 10 Grandpa Emory's Banjo 2:59
- 11 Grandma's Tattoos 3:22
- 12 The Lord Will Light The Way 2:31
