Rounding out the cast is Rodena Preston (sister to Billy Preston) and her 40-strong choir as the ‘Voices of Deliverance’. For an album that’s almost structured like a mini-series, it needed a romantic interest, provided by Jessi Colter, who plays Matthew’s sweetheart, Polly Ann Stafford. Meanwhile fellow Ozark, Steve Cash, represents the poor Southern white class as Caleb Stone. Fuller, the young son of a wealthy cotton planter who joins the Confederate Army as a captain. Ozarks vocalist John Dillon steps in as Matthew J. Jennings plays the “The Drifter” and serves as the album’s narrator who was wounded fighting in the Mexican War and roams from town to town. In order to bring some authenticity to the project, Waylon Jennings was brought on board along with the Ozarks involvement.Įach musician was cast as a fictitious persona, who sing of the high hopes and deep sorrows of the Southern people through the eyes of the four main characters, who are each credited on the album rather than the musicians themselves. Telling the story of Southern Pride from the vantage of four white Southerners during the Civil War was a hard sell, but it was slightly offset by the fact that it was being told from an outsider’s perspective with so much UK talent involved.
Glyn then took the idea to Derek Green and then Jerry Moss at A&M Records, who immediately signed Kennerley to a record and publishing deal. The project came to Johns almost fully realized, with Kennerley going so far as to mailing him a folder of the lyrics and demos along with a handwritten letter. By that time, Johns had already produced the Ozarks debut album and their follow-up, It’ll Shine When It Shines as well as Clapton’s solo record, Slowhand(among a host of other landmark works). Kennerley had always felt Glyn Johns would be the ideal producer to help him with the project.
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