Still A PEACH Of A Band!

by Tom Lounges

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS have existed in the eye of the hurricane for three decades –– enduring and surviving the tragic death of founding members, battles with addiction, internal feuding and changing times.            

       To their credit, throughout the troubled times and turmoil, the group have remained steadfast and true to the soulful Southern-bred blues rock that brought them to prominence back in 1969. 

     That was when the namesakes of the band –– Duane and Gregg Allman –– first impacted the senses of American music fans with their self-titled debut album.   

    With that album, the ABB introduced their now trademark blend of blues-drenched soul and guitar-driven rock, delivered in a free-form style that borrowed heavily from the likes of jazz cats like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis.  

    That first landmark album laid the groundwork for the whole Southern Rock movement and elevated Duane Allman from a Muscle Shoals session player –– on recordings by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis and others –– to the plateau of “guitar god.”    

Though they have both been dead and gone for more than 30 years now, Duane Allman and original bassist Berry Oakley, have continued to impact the band throughout it’s various and numerous incarnations over the years. 

     That remains true with their latest and perhaps greatest post-‘70s release, “Hittin’ The Note,” their first new studio recording in over a decade.   

    “For the first time in years, this band has ‘the vibe’ back,” said keyboardist/vocalist and band leader, Gregg Allman.  “Playing with these guys and making this new album has just been incredible.  As Berry Oakley would say –– ‘We’ve been ‘hittin’ the note!’” 

      Allman explained that this new album is named in memory of their founding bassist, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on November 11, 1972, almost a year to the day from Duane’s eerily similar motorcycle fatality.    

      “Berry was the only person I have ever heard in life who would say that phrase,” reflected Allman.  “Others [musicians] might say –– ‘We’re on the same page...’ or ‘We’re on the same wave length...’ or ‘We’re playing in the pocket...’  –– but ol’ Berry would always say after an exceptionally good gig that we were ‘hittin’ the note’.   I know he would have said just that about the way this band is playing right now and about the this new album.  So that’s why we’ve called the record, ‘Hittin’ The Note,’ because for the first time in a lot of years, we are!”  

     The fans and critics heartily agree with Allman on that sentiment.  “Hittin’ The Note” is an 11-song set marks a sonic return to the group’s glorious “Eat A Peach” / “Brothers & Sisters”-era.   The playing is peerless and Allman’s smokey vocals have never sounded more soulful than on songs like “Desdemona” and “Old Before My Time.” 

     “It was wonderful,” said Allman of stepping into the recording studio for the first time with the newly juiced up line up.   

      “First Haynes came down to my place here in Savannah [Georgia].  Down here you don’t hear cars and noise and things. You just hear birds and little critters and what have you...   It’s real serene.  We sat here and wrote and in just two days we came up with ‘Desdemona,’ ‘High Cost of Low Living’ and the song that is our first single, ‘Firing Line.’” 

       Once they had a batch of new songs written, the duo rallied the troops.   “We took the new songs out and road tested them,” he continued.  “Getting up and playing them somehow really brings the song together and completes it.  My theory is that playing a new song live scares you into doing it the best you can.”   

     Armed with the songs that made the final cut after a few weeks of road-testing, ABB hit the studio and started rolling tape.   

       “We actually did this album very quickly, because all the bio-rhythms were right or whatever (laughing).  We just went in and tore it up.  I’m mighty proud of the music on this album!,” crowed Allman. 

     “The last seven or eight years have been pretty rough,” sighed Allman, referring to the various personnel changes that have happened and the ugly split in 2000 with founding guitarist Dickey Betts.  “But I’m happy to say that we’re back to business as usual.  Since we had the personnel change, playing is such a groove again.” 

      Stepping in for the ousted Betts was former ABB member Warren Haynes, who has put his Govt. Mule band on hiatus for the time being.    

       The last five years has seen a major shift in the ABB membership ranks.  Only Allman and dual drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks remain from the classic ‘70s line-up.   

     Rounding out the ABB these days are Oteil Burbridge on bass, percussionist Marc Quinones and guitarist Derek Trucks.   A firebrand string bender, the 24-year-old nephew of founding member Butch Trucks, has been hailed by guitar afficionados the second coming of Duane Allman. 

      “I try not to think about it,” he said of the revolving door  policy the band has shuffled so many players through the band’s ranks.  “That’s just what it took to keep this thing going. I’d rather that it went that way, than to have gone myself through so many bands trying to find something to replace this band in my life, ‘cause I don’t think that’d ever be possible.”

     The rejuvenated ABB will spend the summer criss-crossing America and promoting their stellar new disc, which is their first for the U.K.-based Sanctuary imprint.     

     “Our new label is headquartered in London and I just did a bunch of interviews over there, so something tells me that we might be going to Europe real soon,” laughed Allman.   “That’s alright by me, because we’ve only been there three times in the 33 years we’ve been together as a band.” 

      For Gregg Allman, who now proudly claims eight years of being drug-free and sober, life is very, very good.  I’ve got my senses back, my health back and my band back,” he concluded.  “It’s all good!   I’m ‘hittin’ the note’ in every way!”  

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