DVD Reviews: Billy Powell Provided Anchor of Rock 'n' Roll Ship

Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama/DVD” (Eagle Vision)

Behind the three-guitar attacks and either of the Van Zant brothers – Johnny or Ronnie – at the microphone, Billy Powell provided the anchor of the rock ’n’ roll ship called Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Powell was the band’s classically trained pianist, who, as legend has it, simply sat down one day and played a piano version of “Free Bird,” then won a place as a regular band member.
Many of the band’s signature songs – “What’s Your Name,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Call Me the Breeze” – feature Powell, playing his fluid piano runs seemingly with little effort.
In concert, too, like a show last September at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., Powell would shine. At that particular show, actually, Powell provided the brightest spot on the stage.
Never again.
Powell died at age 56 on Jan. 28 – following in a sad succession of other Skynyrd band mates, all dying long before their golden years. Most famously, the band’s original lead singer, Ronnie Van Zant, died in a 1977 plane crash.
Undaunted, Powell survived the crash and became the most prolific of all Skynyrd members, recording albums with .38 Special, Alias, Rossington-Collins Band, Allen Collins Band, Vision and, ultimately, the reformed Lynyrd Skynyrd.
On a newly released DVD collection, “Sweet Home Alabama,” Powell provides a strong supporting role for Skynyrd on stage in concert appearances from both 1974 and 1996, recorded in Germany for the “Rockpalast” TV series.
The earliest material shows the band when most members were less than 25 years old. Here, they play “Sweet Home Alabama” as an exhilarating encore to an explosive “Free Bird.”
The later material captures the group at the onset of its mid-1990s comeback, when guitarist Rickey Medlocke and the late Hughie Thomasson joined founding guitarist Gary Rossington. The band runs through all the customary classics, evoking a definite edge on “I Ain’t the One” and “Saturday Night Special.”
Today, with Rossington at the helm and so many members gone, it’s unclear how much longer this band can keep calling themselves Lynyrd Skynyrd. More than likely, they’ll keep rolling on. Old bands just have a way of doing that.
But, without Billy Powell, Lynyrd Skynyrd will definitely find itself coursing through unchartered waters.

*_ * _ *

Elvis Presley, “#1 Hit Performances & More, Vol. 2/DVD” (RCA)

Casual fans may not recognize “Don’t Cry Daddy,” “Wooden Heart” or “Bossa Nova Baby.”
But, as the late Elvis Presley sings in a 1968 clip, “That’s All Right.”
Having a few relatively obscure songs simply makes Presley’s recently released “#1 Hit Performances & More, Vol. 2” DVD more charming.
Starting in 1956 with the young, swivel-hipped Presley crooning “Blue Suede Shoes,” this sampler set satisfies, simply, like “A Big Hunk O’ Love.”
From 1957, witness the controversial Presley shown from the waist-up only, singing “Too Much” on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
Then, see a slice of one of Presley’s many movies with “King Creole,” which features the song “Trouble.”
Fittingly, the collection concludes with 1973’s “American Trilogy,” an over-the-top opus performed with a backing band as part of Presley’s famous “Aloha: Live From Hawaii” concert, seen by more than one billion people in 40 countries.

jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704