The Dixie Dregs

The Dixie Dregs approached Southern Rock with the studied seriousness of jazz musicians -- which is indeed how they were trained. Inspired by the intrepidly experimental jazz-rock fusions of acts like Traffic and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Steve Morse and company erected sophisticated monuments to cracker ingenuity out of the southern materials at their disposal. Well versed in the country, Creole, and blues elements that made Southern Rock "southern," these musical troubadours were one of Prog Rock's finest moments.