The Allman Brothers Band
In 1973, shortly after their career had been blighted by double tragedy--Berry Oakley
and Duane Allman dying in motorcycle accidents--the Allman Brothers Band became a
No. 1 U.S. home-grown live attraction. Brothers Duane and Gregg Allman were born in
Nashville, Tennessee--Duane on November 20, 1946, Gregg on December 8, 1947. They took
up guitar in the early '60's, listened to much radio blues music, and formed
The Allman Joys, playing gigs in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Towards the end of the
decade, the brothers went to try their luck in Los Angeles, and became part of the
Hourglass studio band, which cut two albums in 1968 for Liberty records (reissued in
1974 by United Artists in response to Allmans' success) though neither Gregg nor Duane
were satisfied with the tapes. After the demise of Hourglass, Duane and Gregg returned
South, and joined up with the Butch Trucks' band, the "31st of February", on an occasional
basis. The album "Duane And Gregg" is actually a collection of demos made by the
"31st of February".
It was Duane's personal reputation as a session man that ultimately led to formation of
the Allman Brothers Band. He was invited by Rick Hall, of Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals,
to take part in sessions there. His first assignment--on Wilson Pickett's "Hey Jude"--
was so successful he quickly became a fixture there, backing artists such as Aretha Franklin and
Clarence Carter (much of this work is available on posthumously-released double-set,
"Duane Allman: An Anthology").
It was while unsuccessfully trying to make Duane's own solo album that the "31st of February"
jammed with a band called "The Second Coming" (which contained Dickie Betts and Oakley) in
Jacksonville, and they all created the sound Duane felt he was trying to achieve. Gregg was
recalled from the West Coast, and the band--Duane, Gregg, Betts, Oakley, Trucks and Jaimoe--
was put together. A contract was provided by Phil Walden, Otis Redding's former manager who'd
been impressed with Allman's session work in Muscle Shoals, who actually formed Capricorn
Records for the band. After long practice through spring 1969, the band moved to New York to
record debut album, "The Allman Brothers Band". Twin guitars of Allman and Betts provided the
early focal point of the band, which as a unit, possessed strong affinity for black music in
general and blues in particular. "The Allman Brothers Band" won acclaim for its biting
and inventive approach.
While the group embarked on its first of a series of coast-to-coast tours, Duane was still
pursuing his other career as a session man, which proved as important in formation of the
Allman's legend as the band's own recordings. By his death Duane had become universally
recognized as the world's leading exponent of bottleneck slide guitar--having been invited
because of this ability to guest on Eric Clapton's Derek & The Dominoes' album
"Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs", on which he turned in his most impressive work
in this idiom.
Meanwhile, the band were beginning to attract serious attention. "Idlewild South" (1970) won
good reviews, and their third album, the biggest yet, was a double, recorded live at the
Fillmore East in March, 1971, and containing superb blues workouts on "Statesboro'Blues" and
"Stormy Monday". By the album's July release, the band had played the venue five times,
including headlining the bill on the
closing weekend in June.
On October 29, 1971, not only the band, but the Macon music community, and the outside
world, were stunned by the death of 24-year-old Duane Allman in a motorcycle accident in
Macon; during his short career, he had recorded many of the definitive solos in rock history.
At that time, only three tracks for "Eat A Peach" had been recorded, but the others determined to
carry on, and regrouped behind Gregg and Betts. "Eat A Peach" became a massive U.S. seller.
Towards autumn of 1972 the band added Chuck Leavell on piano (he had been working with "Friends
and Neighbors", a band which backed both Alex Taylor and Dr. John); this new line-up was
rehearsing "Brothers And Sisters" (The Allman Brothers Band always considered themselves as much
a family as a band) when Oakley was killed in similar circumstances to Duane, in the same
area of Macon. Again the band recovered, adding a former colleague of Jaimoe's, Lamar Williams,
to replace Oakley. By now, Bett's role in the band was becoming more prominent, and both
"Eat A Peach" and "Brothers And Sisters" veered towards a soft-rock approach with strong
country overtones--as was demonstrated by "Jessica", Bett's classic instrumental from
"Brothers And Sisters".
It would be unfair to suggest the band reached national prominence because of tragic history;
it is true to say that their brilliant instrumentation took them to the top, and the air of
tragedy cemented legend. Nevertheless, after "Brothers And Sisters", the band's concerted
activities desultory as Betts and Gregg Allman pursued solo projects, and the creative impulse
was lost--though "Win, Lose, Or Draw" was still as commercially successful as any previous album.
In 1974 Gregg Allman undertook a U.S. tour under his own name, with his own band. Rumours that
this presaged the end of the Allman Brothers were premature, but a retrospective compilation,
"The Road Goes On Forever", despite the title, had all the appearances of a last chapter.
The success of the No. 2 Pop single "Ramblin' Man" was the start of a mid-Seventies run that ended only when internal conflicts sundered the group in 1975. A third incarnation of the ABB was formed in 1978, for the album Enlightened Rogues; after two additional albums, the group disbanded once again. But the pull of their roots was too great for the Brothers to remain apart. In the summer of 1989, the ABB launched a 20th anniversary tour with Allman, Betts, Trucks and Jaimoe com-plemented by guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody. Signed to Epic Records, they re-turned to the recording studio with producer Tom Dowd for three studio albums and two live sets. (Percussionist Marc Qui�ones joined in 1991; Tom Dowd is the the legen-dary pro-ducer and engineer who had been at the board for Idlewild South, Eat A Peach, and Enlightened Rogues.) Of the ABB's Epic label debut Seven Turns, The New Yorker wrote: "The Brothers play with the energy of teenagers and the ornery wildness of veteran bluesmen." In an increasingly predictable world of prefabricated pop, the ABB's peerless musician-ship and extravagant flights of improvisation earned the group a new audience-one which transcended generational and regional boundaries. Their lengthy annual tours grew to include multi-night stands: six shows at New York's Radio City Music Hall, five nights at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. In October 1989, the Allman Brothers Band head-lined the Beacon Theater in New York City for four nights, inaugu-rating a live per-formance tradition. To date, the ABB has played 80 sold-out Beacon Theater shows, in-cluding eighteen nights in March, 1999. Nineteen-ninety-four was a banner year, though not an untypical one, in the recent his-tory of the Allman Brothers Band. The group made five live network television appear-ances; did 90 live shows including the H.O.R.D.E. tour, which the Brothers headlined; played one of the best, most ex-citing sets heard at Woodstock '94; and was voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of eligibility. "In terms of sheer creativity, they're experiencing the strongest second wind of any act," noted The New York Daily News. "For sheer soloing ability, not only do the Allman Brothers run circles around any-one of the present generation, they outperform anyone of their own�Their road de-serves to go on forever." In the 38th Annual Grammy Awards held in February 1996, the Allman Brothers Band won the first Grammy in its 27-year history: Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Jessica," a track from the acclaimed live album 2nd Set. This 16-minute improvisation may be the longest single non-classical performance ever to win a Grammy. (Another track from 2nd Set, "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed," was also nominated in the Pop Instrumental category.) In the spring of 1997, Warren Haynes and Allen Woody left the Allman Brothers Band. Their successors were Jack Pearson on guitar and Oteil Burbridge on bass. Pearson had subbed briefly for an ailing Dickey Betts on shows in 1993; he later co-wrote "Sailin' 'Cross The Devil's Sea" with Gregg Allman, and had recorded and/or toured with the Gregg Allman Band, Bobby Bland, and Delbert McClinton. Oteil Burbridge, a founding member of the popu-lar Southern jam band Aquarium Rescue Unit, had also worked with members of Phish and with T. Lavitz, among many others. On June 9, 1998, 550 Music released Mycology: An Anthology. This collection features eight tracks culled from the Brothers' Epic catalog: "Good Clean Fun" and "Seven Turns" from their Epic debut Seven Turns; "End of The Line" and "Get On With Your Life" from Shades Of Two Worlds (1991); "Nobody Knows" from An Evening With The Allman Brothers Band (1992); "Sailin' Cross The Devil's Sea" from 2nd Set (1995); and "No One To Run With" and "Back Where It All Begins," from Where It All Begins (released 1994, certified gold in November 1997). In addition, Mycology includes two bonus tracks: a live acoustic version of "Midnight Rider"; and a previously unreleased version of "Every Hungry Woman," recorded live at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival by the original Allman Brothers Band including Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. Upon inducting the Allman Brothers Band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Willie Nelson said: "The Allman Brothers Band took what moved them and merged it into something unique that audiences love: a sound that redefined the direction of rock and roll, and opened the doors to a spirit of experimentation that continues in today's music. "The Allman Brothers Band were and still are one of the most exciting live bands ever to hit the stage. They became road warriors with a vengeance and left devoted fans wherever they went�[The ABB is] a band that reflects so many of my sentiments about music: originality, a determination not be confined musically or stylistically but instead to forge your own way and make music that moves you, a devotion to the road, and understanding that beyond pleasing yourself as an artist, the only other consideration should be the people, the fans who come to hear you.
"And so with pleasure, I give you rock and roll's greatest jammin' blues band, the Allman Brothers Band!"
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