The Allman Brothers Band
As a group that became known for their live performances, The Allman Brothers Band did put out a handful of excellent studio albums. The first of these was their self-titled debut which fused blues, soul, and jazz into a potent rock and roll mixture. The album was produced by Adrian Barber with the original compositions written by lead vocalist and keyboardist Gregg Allman and features the inventive lead guitar work of Duanne Allman. Led by the brothers that gave the group its name along with a rich ensemble of six talented musicians, The Allman Brothers broke new ground in the very fertile music year of 1969.
Originating from the coast of Florida, the brothers Allman formed many groups through the 1960s. Starting with The Escorts in 1963, when the brothers were in their mid-teens, they went on to form the Allman Joys in 1965 and Hour Glass in 1967. Finally, The Allman Brothers Band was formed as the fourth incarnation of an Allman led group. Dickey Betts was enlisted as a second lead guitarist along with bassist Berry Oakley and the twin drummer/percussionists of Butch Trucks and Johanny “Jaimoe” Johnson.
After forming in early 1969, the group worked out their sound by playing throughout the South and building a dedicated audience. They also migrated their base from Jacksonville, Florida to Macon, Georgia during this time, as illustrated by the album cover photo at Mercer college. Once they worked out a record deal, the Allman Brothers recorded their debut album in New York City in September 1969.
 The Allman Brothers Band by The Allman Brothers Band |
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| Released: November 4, 1969 (Atco) Produced by: Adrian Barber Recorded: Atlantic Recording Studios, New York, September 1969 |
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| Side One | Side Two |
| Don’t Want You No More It’s Not My Cross to Bear Black Hearted Woman Trouble No More |
Every Hungry Woman Dreams Whipping Post |
| Group Musicians | |
| Gregg Allman – Lead Vocals, Keyboards Duane Allman – Guitars, Vocals Dickey Betts – Lead Guitars Berry Oakley – Bass, Vocals Butch Trucks – Drums Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson – Drums, Percussion |
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Perhaps an odd selection for the opening track of a debut album, the Spencer Davis Group instrumental cover “Don’t Want You No More” takes the lead. The track thunders in through a rudimentary first section with excellent drum beats by the duo drummers of Trucks and Johanson, and acts as a perfect overture and intro to the weeping blues of “It’s Not My Cross to Bear”. The most striking thing about this tune isthe soulful vocal by Gregg Allman in the type of intense blues rock which would soon be echoed by Led Zeppelin, especially on 1970’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You”.
With a joyous intro riff with odd timing in rhythm, “Black Hearted Woman” may be the quintessential Allman Brothers composition from this album. While the verses are funk/rock in nature, the song is the most rock-oriented song with catchy riffs, a cool percussion section, and vocal wailing to match the guitars. After a false ending, the song gets even more frantic for the final 30 seconds. “Trouble No More” ends the first side with the second and final cover song, originally recorded by Muddy Waters in 1955. It starts with straight-up drum beat and contains acoustic and electric guitar interplay between Duanne Allman and Dickey Betts throughout, which works to bring the blues standard into the stratosphere.
Side two starts with “Every Hungry Woman”, a cool sixties electric rock track. After an intro slide guitar, a rock riff, meanders its way into the verses, accented by Gregg Allman’s overloaded organ sound and single guitar notes squeezed out with the urgency of a car horn. The rhythm is also excellent with the bouncy bass by Oakley and twin drummers hitting every jazz and blues button. The best overall song on the album, “Dreams” rolls in with methodical sound scape of sustained organ and savored guitar notes. It soon morphs into a high-class blues rock tune with a masterful musical interlude during the refrains with a rapid guitar rotation and matching rhythm. The long middle guitar lead starts prior to the two minute mark and takes up the bulk of the middle of the song before the group returns with another two verses divided by sections which feature a much stronger organ presence and a descending guitar riff.“Dreams” is a nice slow blues song that, at seven minutes, gives Duane some room to improvise
The album closes with “Whipping Post” and the doomy, picked bass intro which has become one of the more famous riffs in rock music. The song illustrates Gregg Allman’s travails in the music business, although he was only 21 at the time of composition. By far, this is Berry Oakley’s best performance on the album and definitely its most popular song. The tune does tend to get melodramatic towards the end, but not to the point of tackiness. While only five minutes long on this studio version, “Whipping Post” would swell to over twenty minutes when performed live, as illustrated on the side-long epic on the 1971 live album, At Fillmore East.
The Allman Brothers Band was in no way successful commercially, as it received little beyond the Southern region of the United States and would only peak at number 188 on the album charts. However, it set the table for the vastly more popular material of future years and established the Allman Brothers Band as a musical force.
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Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1969 albums.
