In over 25 years of existence, The Charlie Daniels Band, led by fiddler Charlie Daniels, has played a range of styles, including bluegrass, hardcore country, Christian, Dixieland jazz, Cajun, blues, and country rock.

Daniels was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1936, and spent time in both North Carolina and Georgia as a child. His father, a lumberjack, often took him hunting as a boy. A son of the South, he loved bluegrass music and began to teach himself to play on a borrowed guitar at age 15. He went on to learn the mandolin and fiddle as well and played the fiddle and guitar as a teenager for various bands.

Around 1953, he wrote his first song, and by the time he was 21, Daniels had decided that he wanted to make his career as a professional musician. He soon put together a bluegrass band, called the Misty Mountain Boys, that played instrumental music. The band managed to quickly get a recording session in 1959 with Bob Johnston of Epic Records. The result was an instrumental single, "Jaguar," and the band changed its name to the Jaguars shortly thereafter. Daniels stayed with the Jaguars through 1967, playing endless gigs and writing lots of songs. His biggest success during this period came when Elvis Presley recorded his song, "It Hurts Me," in 1964, which was released on the flip side of "Kissin' Cousins."

Bob Johnston re-entered the picture in 1967, as CBS Records' folk and country producer in Nashville, when he asked Daniels to move to Nashville and work with him as a studio musician. Since the Jaguars didn't look like they were ever going to do more than continue to play the dives and honky-tonk joints they'd been doing for nine years, Daniels accepted and immediately began work as a session musician.

Daniels was told that he played too loud by many at CBS. But when he backed Bob Dylan on electric bass on his Nashville Skyline album, Dylan liked his style, and Daniels soon became one of Nashville's most popular musicians. He was soon playing on other sessions for Dylan as well as major stars such as Marty Robbins, Earl Scruggs, Ringo Starr, and Hank Williams, Jr. By 1969, Daniels was ready to try producing, and Johnston put some of his own workload onto Daniels, arranging for him to produce some of the Youngbloods' recordings.

Next came Daniels' first self-titled solo album in 1970, that was released by Capital Records. The following year he formed the first of the many Charlie Daniels Band lineups. That became one of the first of the Southern rock bands to sweep the South at the time. (Original keyboardist, Joel "Taz" DiGregorio, is still with CDB). Kama Sutra Records signed the group in 1972, who quickly recorded the first album, John, Grease and Wolfman. The group's next album, Honey in the Rock, released in 1973, produced the band's first hit, "Uneasy Rider," a bluegrass tune that went to No. 9 on the Billboard charts.

In 1974, Daniels brought members of the Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker Bands together with the Charlie Daniels Band in a concert called the Volunteer Jam (so named because Tennessee is the Volunteer State). The concert was so successful, the Volunteer Jams became an annual event, broadcast across the nation and to the rest of the world by the Voice of America. A wide range of artists who would not normally perform together have appeared over the years, including Roy Acuff, Alabama, Black Oak Arkansas, Boxcar Willie, James Brown, the Dirt Band, Crystal Gayle, Amy Grant, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Little Richard, Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, the Oak Ridge Boys, Ray Price, George Thorogood, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Tammy Wynette. Volunteer Jam albums began to be released in 1976.

Two CDB albums were released in 1975, both of which generated hit songs: Fire on the Mountain, which went double platinum and produced the Top 30 hit, "The South's Gonna Do It Again," and "Long Haired Country Boy" that made it to No. 56 on the charts; and the album Night Rider, which included the Top 40 hit, "Texas." In 1976, CDB moved to Epic Records, and the band's first album for the label, Saddle Tramp, went gold. That year Charlie Daniels became an avid supporter of U.S. Presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter, and when Carter won, CDB was one of the performers at Carter's inauguration.

Though CDB had been fairly successful since its formation, it had never had any records that had gone through the roof. Because of this, and with Southern rock losing its momentum at the time, Daniels decided it was time for the band to change its emphasis to hardcore country music. The first of the group's albums in this vein, High Lonesome, appeared in 1977, followed the same year by Midnight Wind, that went gold.

The Charlie Daniels Band finally hit the big time in 1979 with "Devil Went Down to Georgia," from the Million Mile Reflections album. Daniels' fiddle was overdubbed seven times to get the energizing effect of Johnny battling with the devil on fiddles. The single went to No. 1 on the country charts, No. 3 on the pop charts, went platinum, and the Country Music Association named it Single of the Year. It won the Charlie Daniels Band a Grammy for Best Country Vocal, and Million Mile Reflections went on to triple platinum, in large part because of the song. CDB appeared in the 1980 film, Urban Cowboy, and "Devil Went Down to Georgia" was a favorite of the songs on the movie's soundtrack.

Ironically, though CDB had switched to a hardcore country sound that had given the group its first smash hit, the band's next successes were not on the country charts but with rock audiences. Full Moon (1980) went platinum and included the single, "In America," a patriotic statement in the face of the Iran hostage crisis that went to No. 11 on Billboard's charts. And 1982's Windows went gold, whose single, "Still in Saigon," went to No. 22.

Another hit on the country charts finally came in 1988 when Homesick Heroes was released and generated the Top Ten hit, "Boogie Woogie Fiddle Country Blues." The next year brought an even bigger hit with the album, Simple Man, that went platinum and made it to No. 2 on the country charts.

The Charlie Daniels Band moved to Liberty Records in 1992, and the band's first album for the label, America, I Believe In You, was released in 1993. The Door, CDB's first Christian album, followed in 1994 on Sparrow Records, and included the single, "Sunday Morning," that went to No. 1 on the positive country chart. The Door received a Grammy nomination and earned Daniels a 1994 Dove Award.

The band appeared on the 1995 Grammy Award-winning album, Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel, and Daniels appeared on 1997's second volume, Amazing Grace 2: A Country Salute to Gospel, that also won a Grammy. Other gospel/Christian releases include Steel Witness (1996) and How Sweet The Sound-25 Favorite Hymns & Gospel Greats (2001).

Other releases in the 1990s included 1997's Blues Hat and 1999's Tailgate Party. In 2000 Road Dogs was released, followed by 2001's The Live Record and Live: Greatest Hits.

The Volunteer Jams concerts continue, with the proceeds of the 1999 Volunteer Jam Tour going to Habitat for Humanity. The Charlie Daniels Band remains popular, easily drawing audiences for its concerts, and continues to record regularly.