When Rob Jackson picks up the 12-string guitar, some of the most eloquent guitar voices in rock and roll come to mind....echoes of Roger McGuinn and George Harrison linger. Yet it is clear that Jackson, a 25-year veteran of classic rock and roll bands in the mid-South, has developed a very distinctive musical voice of his own as he burns through 14 original songs on "Nowhere Road," the debut album for his new roots rock band, Rob Jackson and the Diehards. Alabama native Jackson was an original founder of the enduringly popular White Animals and has played in bands that packed clubs and crowded dance floors in Nashville and around the mid-South since the mid-70s. In addition to Jackson, the Diehards include bassist Don Wirth, lead vocalist Greg Floyd, guitarist William Dyer, keyboardist Ryan Thomas, and drummer Danny Summerville. Co-written by Jackson and Wirth, "Nowhere Road" is melodic, guitar-driven rock with heavy doses of blues and Southern soul, reflecting threads of influence from the Byrds, Allman Brothers, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. From the dark, driving beat of "Bitter Rain," lamenting the environmental damage of development, to the bittersweet nostalgia for the tall, cool blonde in "'65 Mustang," the fast-rocking taunts at popular music in "Legally Hip," and the haunting Civil War echoes of "Shiloh", "Nowhere Road" rolls over the rock landscape to deliver classic sound freshened by the edgy, soulful vocals of Floyd and the uplifting backbeat of Jackson's band. It's the kind of sound a classic rock fan longs for on a crowded dance floor on a hot summer night, or rolling down the road with the windows down, the stereo cranked up, and the landscape blurring to misty gray beneath the stars.