Allman Brothers Band
The Final Note – Painters Mill Music Fair, Owings Mills, MD 10-17-71
(Allman Brothers Band Recording Company)
Allman Brothers Band
Don’t Keep Me Wondering (Live from Warner Theatre, Erie, PA 7-19-05)
(Peach Records)
The Allman Brothers changed everything. At the close of the 1960s the band synthesized a vision of pan-musical excellence that ran from country blues to honky tonk to modal jazz, all powered by the most swinging rhythm section of the era; one of the greatest vocalists and songwriters of his generation, Gregg Allman; and his virtuoso guitarist brother Duane, one of the greatest and most original guitar players ever. Duane and his partner Dickey Betts created a two-guitar strategy borrowing from sources as varied as the Yardbirds and Miles Davis but arriving at a hitherto unimagined sound. This supernova of a band flared up, burned everything in its path, then crash landed with Duane’s untimely death, all in a few years. Even so, the band continued to thrive in different incarnations, always driven by that rhythm section and the indefatigable Gregg.
I was fortunate enough to write the liner notes for the Allmans’ box set Dreams. I spent much of 1989 listening to tapes unearthed by the great archivist/producer Bill Levenson, and we used pretty much everything that mattered from the original lineup. But one show I didn’t hear was Duane’s final performance in 1971 at Painter’s Hill Music Fair in Owings Mills, Maryland. The show has recently been made available on the Allman’s custom label, and while it’s not a particularly good sound source, hardcore Duane fans will definitely want to hear it.
But if the legacy of the original band has been thoroughly examined, its subsequent incarnations are a potential treasure trove of undiscovered gems. When guitarist Warren Haynes was brought into the Allman Brothers by Dickey Betts from his solo band in 1989 along with bassist Allen Woody, the Allman Brothers enjoyed a musical renaissance akin to the way the Count Basie Orchestra went from the first great 1930s lineup to the classic 1950s unit. Haynes was Duane’s peer as a guitarist and nearly Gregg’s as a vocalist, giving the band a completely different look. That lineup brought the Brothers into a new era. In 1994 Haynes and Woody began to pursue a side project with drummer Matt Abts, Gov’t Mule, that took on a life of its own. Gov’t Mule became so successful that Haynes and Woody left the Brothers in 1997 to work with the Mule full-time. The band had a trajectory similar to the original ABB, reaching great heights and then crash landing in 2000 when Woody suddenly died from misadventure. It was like the daredevil spirit of Duane and Berry Oakley reached out and claimed another brother.
Haynes was brought back into the ABB by shared tragedy as the bitter loss of his sidekick brought him into a deeper bond with Gregg Allman. Allman sensed how much this bond tied them together and looked to Haynes to be the band’s leader. Haynes contributed more songs and took his share of the vocals, introducing cover versions of songs the ABB never would have played in the original lineup. He also started writing the band’s set lists, a creative endeavor that allowed the group to show many more sides to its audiences. Most of all, he developed a two-guitar nomenclature with prodigy Derek Trucks, the nephew of one of the band’s two drummers, Butch Trucks. The two reached a plane even beyond what Duane and Dickey Betts had achieved, something more akin to the music of the spheres Duane and Eric Clapton touched on in the Derek and the Dominoes sessions.
We can hear one of these moments on another recent release from the ABB archives, a 2005 set from the Warner Theatre in Erie, Pennsylvania. This two-disc set is sublime. Right away it shows the thought Haynes put into the set lists as the first set opens and closes with an epic “Mountain Jam” featuring incredible interplay among all the band members, particularly the two guitarists and bassist Oteil Burbridge. Drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks, along with Marc Quinones on percussion, layer a fierce rhythmic bed for all this improvisational genius.
Set Two opens on a more reflective note with the classic Gregg ballad “Melissa” before Warren launches into the first of several great covers, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” The vintage ABB standard “Don’t Keep Me Wondering” comes next, followed by Haynes singing Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” ratcheting up the excitement before the set’s first high point, “Dreams.” That song is always emotionally draining, so the band reaches higher for the next plateau with a terse, scorching “Leave My Blues Alone,” which breaks down into 16:39 of “Jabuma” before returning to “Leave My Blues…” After this second climax to the set, Derek’s wife and soon-to-be bandmate Susan Tedeschi joins in for a lighthearted rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” The band brings this magical night to a close with another long jam, “Jessica,” followed by a shoot-out-the-lights rendition of “One Way Out.”
