When last we encountered the wit and wisdom of Charlie Daniels, it was the summer of '98. America, Charlie's much-beloved land of the free, was knee-deep in the Bill-and-Monica scandal that season.

As a result, the "Uneasy Rider" of yore was traveling a rocky road.

And he wasn't happy about the shocks that he, and America, were being forced to absorb.

Complained the author of "Simple Man": "I don't think we realize yet the damage he (Bill Clinton) has done to that office (the presidency) - the lowered expectations, the 'what-can-I-get-away-with?' mentality. The truth is the truth is the truth, and you can't sidestep it with semantics, with half-truths, with saying one thing and meaning something else."

Further beefed the creator of "In America": "I was looking for an apology, for him to sit down in that good-ole-boy way that he can. He's a likable person. I've met him before. He came onto the tour bus once and talked awhile."

And, added the man who penned "Long Haired Country Boy": "He wants to be remembered as a great president. But he will only be remembered as the president who introduced the term 'oral sex' to kindergarteners …"

That was the summer Charlie Daniels played a one-shot event called the Wild West Summerfest at the Bloomington Sale Barn.

Ten years later, he's coming back, in a somewhat reduced form, as Charlie Daniels & Friends, a compact version of his full band that he takes on the road to reduce expenses when money is at stake.

That's the case with his nearly sold-out performance Tuesday night at a Kids of St. Jude fundraiser at the DoubleTree Hotel & Conference Center in Bloomington (see accompanying story for details).

"It'll be me and a couple of the guys doing the show, not the whole band," he affirms. "That allows us to go and do a show without the huge expenses."

And since Daniels is basically donating his services to the cause at hand, that becomes an understandable consideration.

Unlike that contentious summer of '98, he's feeling what can only be described as frisky - or as frisky as a 71-year-old elder music industry statesman can feel after half a century on the road.

Which is pretty dang frisky.

A month ago, he was inducted, at long overdue last, into the Grand Ole Opry.

The night before this interview, he was honored with a Career Achievement Award at the Country Music DJ and Radio Hall of Fame Dinner.

And his current CD, "Deuces," pairs him off with a roster of some of country's finest, including Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Brooks & Dunn, Gretchen Wilson, Montgomery Gentry, Brenda Lee and Marty Stuart.

"To be considered worthy by so many people is really humbling," Daniels says of all the recent attention. "Especially, when there are so many people who probably deserve it all more than I do."

Fat chance, his fans would likely say.

In a strange turn of events from the summer of '98, Daniels is returning to Bloomington with another Clinton dominating the news.

And in ways even he couldn't have forecast as kindergarteners were getting their advanced education 10 years ago.

"I'm in the dark right now," he confesses. "I have a lot of apprehension."

And it's not just because of the re-emergent Clinton factor.

"I don't know much about McCain - I thought he was in the graveyard as far as politics is concerned. He's out of it, he's history."

As far as Obama goes, "I haven't heard him actually say anything. I hear him talk about hope and, yes, we can do this and that. But I haven't heard him say anything."

And Hillary? "She's still part of the machine."

Bottom line: "What scares me really about this whole thing is that we have seen so much broken and fixed, with one group breaking something and another fixing it. My feeling is, if it gets broken again, that's it - we won't be able to fix it this time" - Daniels' thinly veiled reference to the post-9/11 world we live in.

Which makes the "Uneasy Rider" uneasier than ever.

Certainly the evolution of that unease has been as much a surprise to Daniels as to those of us who recall his like-named hit from the summer of '73, a "talking bluegrass number" in which Daniels and his cronies adopted the personae of some long-haired hippie freaks who wander into a redneck bar with memorably confrontational results.

But subsequent hits such as "Long Haired Country Boy," "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," "In America" and "Simple Man" seemed to peg Daniels as less a misplaced hippie than one of the "Uneasy Rider" bar patrons.

What gives?

"'Uneasy Rider' was a novelty song, that's exactly what it was, and it did really well on the radio," says Daniels. "But it was not really a career-builder - it wasn't that solid sort of thing that makes people want to go see what else you've got. Back in those days, it took a special album that a radio station would do two or three cuts deep into."

The album from whence "Uneasy Rider" sprang, "Honey in the Rock," was not that album.

"As I look back, I realize that it wasn't that great. And I never liked my vocals on it," Daniels confesses. "Part of the problem was that this came from a man who had spent too many years playing in cover bands. That kinda goes against you in the area of being original. I tried to sound like someone else, and I was never happy with most of that stuff."

At that point, Charles Edward Daniels of Wilmington, N.C., had been plugging away at a career for nearly 20 years, beginning with his first band, circa 1953, a bluegrass garage group. He then moved on through a succession of rock/R&B groups, including a lengthy hitch with the chameleon-like Jaguars, which eventually moved into jazz and "Louis Prima shuffles" in the early '60s.

It also explains his song-writing credit (and first big career break) on the B side of the 1964 Elvis Presley hit, "Kissin' Cousins," a lush pop ballad called "It Hurts Me."

Though it was the record's B-side, Daniels' song (co-written with Bob Johnston) meant that "I had Elvis Presley for whatever. It was a big thing to me."

Stardom was still a decade away, alas, and the musician for all seasons began plying the session circuit, joining CBS Records in Nashville, circa 1967, and landing a gig on Bob Dylan's classic "Nashville Skyline" album. Sessions with everyone from Ringo Starr to Leonard Cohen followed.

It wasn't until 1970 that Daniels cut his own self-titled solo album, followed three years later by the aforementioned "Honey in the Rock" and its Top 10 pop hit.

But the "solid, career-builder" album that Daniels deemed necessary to survival was still two years away. When it came, in 1975 as "Fire on the Mountain," there was no turning back.

"Whatever came out of that was Charlie Daniels, and not Ray Charles or James Brown or the other guys I'd been copying. We had a good combination of songs, a good band and a good record."

More than three decades and a thousand turns of the pop world universe later, the mountain still smolders, with no extinguishment in sight.

And so what if the fire-starter himself has reached an age where he can no longer play the long-haired hippie freak upsetting a bar full of rednecks.

"Retire?" he asks with roughly the same conviction he used to challenge the Devil in that Georgia fiddle smackdown of yore. "Retirement is not a word that's in my vocabulary."

He pauses, then adds "… at least until I die."

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Charlie pitches in to help St. Jude's

By Dan Craft | dcraft@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON - The Devil may have gone down to Georgia to square off with Charlie Daniels some years back.

But he might as well forget about a return bout up in Bloomington.

He wouldn't stand a chance.

Not with St. Jude overseeing the show Tuesday night.

In short: Daniels' performance is part of the kind of praiseworthy cause that would send Satan skedaddling for cover.

The concert, "An Evening with Charlie Daniels & Friends" is subtitled "For the Kids of St. Jude," and will feature more than just big Chuck and his finger-lickin' fiddle.

After doors open at 5:30 p.m., the evening will proceed through a succession of activities, including a full dinner, live and silent auctions, raffle drawings and, for a climax, the concert.

Limited remaining tickets are $50 per person or $500 for a table seating 10. Call (800) 713-8223 for availability.

Proceeds will go to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital via the St. Jude Heartland Office in Peoria.

Founded by late comedian-entertainer Danny Thomas, the Memphis-based hospital is the world's premier center for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases.

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Fiddlin' around

Fifteen things inquiring minds ought to know about Charlie Daniels (if they don't already):

1. His name really IS Charlie Daniels.

2. He spent most the 1960s playing with his rock-R&B-jazz group, The Jaguars (1959-60).

3. He co-wrote the B side to Elvis Presley's 1964 hit single, "Kissin' Cousins," called "It Hurts Me."

4. He was one of the session musicians on Bob Dylan's 1967 album, "Nashville Skylines."

5. He turned record producer for the group The Youngbloods, helping to create their 1969 No. 1 hit, "Get Together."

6. He once was a session musician for Ringo Starr.

7. He could claim at least two card-carrying fans whose offices bore the presidential seal (Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter).

8. He's only hit the No. 1 slot on the country singles charts once, via 1979's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (it crossed over to No. 3 on pop charts).

9. He is a published author, with his 1985 short story collection, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," a respectable best-seller.

10. He has his own entry in the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture that says "few individuals have symbolized the South in popular culture as directly and indelibly as Charlie Daniels."

11. He is, he says, a born-again, Devil-swatting Christian.

12. He doesn't think his first big chart hit, 1973's "Uneasy Rider," represents his sound or style fairly ("I never liked my vocals on that one.").

13. He was nominated by Martina McBride for induction into the Grand Ole Opry, and joined the club at age 71, on Jan. 19.

14. He last performed in Bloomington 10 years ago this summer at the Bloomington Sale Barn.

15. He is pro-George Bush Jr. and pro-Iraq War, but, as of this week, not pro any presidential contender ("I'm in the dark right now").

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At a glance

What: An Evening with Charlie Daniels & Friends for the Kids of St. Jude

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: DoubleTree Hotel & Conference Center, 10 Brickyard Drive, Bloomington

Tickets: $50 (includes dinner)

Ticket number: (800) 713-8223