That was Charlie Daniels's exhortation to the musicians and fans who attended his Volunteer Jams during the seventies and eighties.  It was a fitting sentiment from a man who loved his country — and the South in particular — with a passion.

A North Carolina native, Daniels began playing guitar before he was in his teens.  After graduating high school, he performed in several dance bands throughout the South, playing mostly country and Elvis-style rock-and-roll.  He developed a good enough set of chops to become a Nashville session musician, playing bass, mandolin, and fiddle in addition to guitar.  He worked on albums by several country artists and on two by Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline and Self-Portrait.  When he was not in the studio, he assembled a team of younger, rock-oriented musicians and began playing what one critic called "raunched-up country" to young Southerners.

Daniels's political outlook at this time was liberal, and his music reflected it.  His first hit as a recording artist was "Uneasy Rider," a funny talking blues about a self-styled hippie who finds himself stuck in a redneck Mississippi town.  Despite his liberalism, he was annoyed by the New Left and wanted as little to do with them as possible.  He always considered himself an American first.

Daniels and his band caught on gradually, and by 1975, they were recognized as leaders of the Southern Rock movement, along with groups such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, and Wet Willie.  (The Allman Brothers Band, which had paved the way for other Southern acts, had by that time fallen into existential troubles and internal bickering.)  Daniels's love of the South was reflected in songs such as "Sweet Louisiana" and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," which was his biggest hit.  The libertarian anthem "Long-Haired Country Boy" appealed to an even wider range of listeners.  However, he was livid when the Ku Klux Klan began playing his song "The South's Gonna Do It Again" at rallies.  "I'm damn proud of the South," he told Billboard magazine, "but I'm sure as hell not proud of the Ku Klux Klan."

The end of the 1970s found America in a threatened position.  Concerned, Daniels recorded what seemed like an anachronism: a patriotic tune.  "In America" was dismissed by left-wing music critics, but ordinary Americans appreciated the song and Daniels's unabashed affirmation of his country.  He followed that with "Still in Saigon," a song about a troubled Vietnam veteran that drew praise from both the left and the right.

Southern rock was pretty much played out by the eighties, but Daniels continued to tour and record.  He influenced several "new country" artists such as Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, who paid tribute to him in her hit "Redneck Woman" ("I know all the words to every Charlie Daniels song").  He also recorded contemporary Christian music and defended its practitioners from the wrath of traditionalists: "The Bible says, 'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.'  It don't say, 'Make sure the choir director has a degree from Vanderbilt.'"

The events of 9/11 changed Daniels's politics for good.  He became a voice of Hannity-style conservatism: tolerant of others' beliefs but firm in his opinions and his conviction that America was worth protecting.  By the 2010s, he had settled into his position as an elder statesman and was a gracious if colorful presence.  He enjoyed his retirement and the bounty of his hard work over a well-spent lifetime.  He will be missed, but his music lives on.