The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman brothers were together for only three albums, but the Allman Brothers Band has endured, even thrived, with only one Allman on board, for almost 40 years. The first — and, along with Lynyrd Skynyrd, the best — Southern-rock band, they were good students of the blues, covering Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson. By adding psychedelic guitar and a wing-it looseness, they expanded the definition of a “roots” band. Their legacy isn’t only in offshoots like Gov’t Mule and the Derek Trucks Band, but in the extended flights of Dave Matthews, the roadhouse country of Keith Urban and the playing of anyone who appears at the annual Jammy awards.

If any band had the right to play the blues, it was the Allmans: Their story has been relentlessly tragic. The brothers were Duane and younger sibling Gregg, whose father was killed by a hitchhiker. In 1968, after kicking around in early groups, the brothers started the band they named for themselves. After two albums, they broke through with At Fillmore East, still counted as one of the greatest live records. Duane’s 1971 death by motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, was the first trauma; eerily, bassist Berry­ Oakley died the same way almost exactly a year later, and only three blocks away.

The band’s commercial success grew, but it was doomed by dissent, drugs and Gregg’s 1975 relocation to L.A. to be with Cher. Since then, the Allmans have broken up and re-formed twice; a 1989 comeback seems to have stuck. But misfortunes continue: Bassist Allen Woody died unexpectedly in 2000, the same year guitarist Dickey Betts was fired (by fax). Yet the Allmans carry on, succeeding the Grateful Dead on the eternal touring circuit while steeling themselves for the next calamity.


ESSENTIAL
AT FILLMORE EAST
EAT A PEACH
BROTHERS AND SISTERS

GREAT
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
IDLEWILD SOUTH
SHADES OF TWO WORLDS
GOLD

CHECK IT OUT
ENLIGHTENED ROGUES
DREAMS
SEVEN TURNS
ONE WAY OUT

BE CAREFUL
WIN, LOSE OR DRAW
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS
AN EVENING WITH THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: 2ND SET
HITTIN' THE NOTE

FOR FANS ONLY
REACH FOR THE SKY
BROTHERS OF THE ROAD
THE FILLMORE CONCERTS