GREGG ALLMAN
''THE GREGG ALLMAN TOUR''
1974
75:48
1/Don't Mess Up a Good Thing
Oliver Sain/5:06
2/Queen of Hearts
Gregg Allman/7:43
3/I Feel So Bad
Chuck Willis/4:47
4/Stand Back
Gregg Allman / Berry Oakley/3:32
5/Time Will Take Us Feat. Cowboy/5:51
6/Where Can You Go? Feat. Cowboy/8:10
7/Double Cross
Gregg Allman / Chuck Leavell/4:41
8/Dreams
Gregg Allman / Lennie Tristano/7:29
9/Are You Lonely for Me Baby
Bert Berns / Andy Cousin / Warne Livesey / Mark Price / Julianne Regan / Marty Willson-Piper/4:27
10/Turn on Your Love Light
Deadric Malone / Joseph Scott/10:45
11/Oncoming Traffic
Gregg Allman/5:56
12/Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Roy Acuff / M. Christian / Traditional/7:21
Gregg Allman /Arranger, Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Vocals
Scott Boyer /Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Vocal Harmony
Randall Bramblett /Horn, Horn Arrangements, Organ, Sax (Alto), Sax (C-Melody), Sax (Soprano), Saxophone, Soloist
David Brown /Bass, Saxophone
Max Cahn /String Director
Erin Dickins /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Peter Ecklund /Trumpet
Ed Freeman /Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements
Johnny Lee "Jaimoe" Johnson /Congas, Drum Arrangements, Percussion
Chuck Leavell /Piano, Piano (Electric)
Todd Logan /Trumpet
Lynn Rubin /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Johnny Sandlin /Arranger, Bass
Bill Stewart /Drums
Annie Sutton /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Tommy Talton /Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Kenny Tibbetts /Bass, Bass (Electric)
Harold Williams /Saxophone
REVIEW
by Bruce Eder
Gregg Allman's tour in support of his debut solo LP, Laid Back, led to the recording of this album (originally two LPs) at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. It's a match for Laid Back in musical value and then some, with a good, wide range of repertory and great performances throughout by all concerned, plunging head-first and deep into blues, R&B, honky tonk, and gospel. Strangely enough, the album contains only three of Laid Back's songs -- "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing" opens the show in a properly spirited, earthy manner, but it's the second song, "Queen of Hearts," in a soaring rendition, with gorgeous backing by Annie Sutton, Erin Dickins, and Lynn Rubin, and superb sax work by Randall Bramblett and David Brown, that shows Allman in his glory as a singer and bandleader. Allman gives a lively, raucous, honky tonk-style rendition of the Elvis Presley hit "I Feel So Bad," complete with a killer guitar solo by Tommy Talton, and "Turn on Your Lovelight" gets an extended treatment worthy of the Allman Brothers Band. One would expect that, with Chuck Leavell and Jaimoe present in the band, there were be more similarity to the Allmans' sound, and that they'd be prominently featured, but Tommy Talton and bassist Kenny Tibbetts get more of a spotlight. Several Allman Brothers songs are present here, in more laid-back and lyrical versions, and the Capricorn Records band Cowboy -- essentially serving as the core of Allman's touring band -- gets a featured spot with two songs, "Time Will Take Us" and "Where Can You Go," that leave one wanting to hear a lot more concert material from them, and from Talton as a singer. The Gregg Allman Tour was reissued on CD in late 2001 by Polydor in a clearer, sharper remastered edition that contains Martin Mull's complete introduction of the band.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
Gregg Allman's most visible contribution to rock music is as lead singer, organist, and songwriter with the Allman Brothers Band, founded by his brother Duane (d. 1971) in 1969. He has never threatened to eclipse the band that carries his family name, but he has found occasional success and popularity with his solo work, which is distinctly different, more soulful and less focused on high-wattage virtuosity.
Allman's instrument is the organ, and he is most effective, when he is in top form, as a singer. His first instrument, ironically enough, was the guitar, and he took it up before his older brother Duane did. But Duane learned it better and quickly eclipsed Gregg. Where Gregg did excel was on the organ and as a singer (a role Duane was never comfortable with), which proved important but not at the center of a group that became famous for its 40-minute instrumental jams and three-hour sets. Through their early efforts, in bands like the Allman Joys and the Hour Glass, they shared the spotlight, with Duane taking the lengthy solos and Gregg fronting the band and offering Booker T. Jones-type keyboard playing. Liberty Records signed the Hour Glass and tried making Gregg into the focus of their efforts during the late '60s, but it never quite worked.
When the Allman Brothers were organized, the flashy (and vital) instrumental moments belonged to his brother and Dickey Betts and, later still, Warren Haynes. Gregg's songs, however, including "Whipping Post" and "Midnight Rider," were among the group's notable originals during its classic period, 1969-1972. Beginning with Brothers and Sisters, Betts' songwriting and singing assumed increasing prominence.
It was during the period that Brothers and Sisters was burning up the charts that Gregg Allman emerged as a solo artist with his first album, the critically well-received hit Laid Back, which put the softer, more serious, soul- and gospel-tinged side of his work in sharper focus. A tour followed, which yielded a live album that was also a success. This first period of solo popularity was interrupted by a combination of professional and personal conflicts; the Allman Brothers Band toured extensively and struggled to come up with a follow-up to Brothers and Sisters, and Gregg Allman began a relationship with Cher, the ex-wife and singing partner of Sonny Bono, which resulted in a tumultuous series of marriages and divorces for the two. These activities were played out amid Allman's well-publicized drug problems, which culminated with his testifying against a band employee in a federal drug case, which, in turn, led to the temporary but extended dissolution of the Allman Brothers Band.
Ironically, it was during this period, in 1977, that he delivered Playin' Up a Storm, a pop-soul effort that proved to be his most accomplished and successful album. Alas, this was to be the peak of his career away from the band. His next two albums, I'm No Angel and Just Before the Bullets Fly, released at the end of the 1980s, were quickly eclipsed by the re-formed and reinvigorated Allman Brothers Band's success on-stage and on record. His 1997 release Searchin' for Simplicity and the double-CD anthology One More Try had none of the urgency or success of the band's activities. In 2009, Australia's Raven Records imprint issued a 19-track, single-disc retrospective, entitled The Solo Years 1973-1997: One More Silver Dollar, that covered the whole of Allman's solo career to that date from his years at Capricorn and Columbia. In 2011, some 14 years after his last solo album, Allman released the T-Bone Burnett-produced Low Country Blues on Rounder Records.
DoWnLoAd
''THE GREGG ALLMAN TOUR''
1974
75:48
1/Don't Mess Up a Good Thing
Oliver Sain/5:06
2/Queen of Hearts
Gregg Allman/7:43
3/I Feel So Bad
Chuck Willis/4:47
4/Stand Back
Gregg Allman / Berry Oakley/3:32
5/Time Will Take Us Feat. Cowboy/5:51
6/Where Can You Go? Feat. Cowboy/8:10
7/Double Cross
Gregg Allman / Chuck Leavell/4:41
8/Dreams
Gregg Allman / Lennie Tristano/7:29
9/Are You Lonely for Me Baby
Bert Berns / Andy Cousin / Warne Livesey / Mark Price / Julianne Regan / Marty Willson-Piper/4:27
10/Turn on Your Love Light
Deadric Malone / Joseph Scott/10:45
11/Oncoming Traffic
Gregg Allman/5:56
12/Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Roy Acuff / M. Christian / Traditional/7:21
Gregg Allman /Arranger, Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Vocals
Scott Boyer /Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Vocal Harmony
Randall Bramblett /Horn, Horn Arrangements, Organ, Sax (Alto), Sax (C-Melody), Sax (Soprano), Saxophone, Soloist
David Brown /Bass, Saxophone
Max Cahn /String Director
Erin Dickins /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Peter Ecklund /Trumpet
Ed Freeman /Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements
Johnny Lee "Jaimoe" Johnson /Congas, Drum Arrangements, Percussion
Chuck Leavell /Piano, Piano (Electric)
Todd Logan /Trumpet
Lynn Rubin /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Johnny Sandlin /Arranger, Bass
Bill Stewart /Drums
Annie Sutton /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Tommy Talton /Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Kenny Tibbetts /Bass, Bass (Electric)
Harold Williams /Saxophone
REVIEW
by Bruce Eder
Gregg Allman's tour in support of his debut solo LP, Laid Back, led to the recording of this album (originally two LPs) at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. It's a match for Laid Back in musical value and then some, with a good, wide range of repertory and great performances throughout by all concerned, plunging head-first and deep into blues, R&B, honky tonk, and gospel. Strangely enough, the album contains only three of Laid Back's songs -- "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing" opens the show in a properly spirited, earthy manner, but it's the second song, "Queen of Hearts," in a soaring rendition, with gorgeous backing by Annie Sutton, Erin Dickins, and Lynn Rubin, and superb sax work by Randall Bramblett and David Brown, that shows Allman in his glory as a singer and bandleader. Allman gives a lively, raucous, honky tonk-style rendition of the Elvis Presley hit "I Feel So Bad," complete with a killer guitar solo by Tommy Talton, and "Turn on Your Lovelight" gets an extended treatment worthy of the Allman Brothers Band. One would expect that, with Chuck Leavell and Jaimoe present in the band, there were be more similarity to the Allmans' sound, and that they'd be prominently featured, but Tommy Talton and bassist Kenny Tibbetts get more of a spotlight. Several Allman Brothers songs are present here, in more laid-back and lyrical versions, and the Capricorn Records band Cowboy -- essentially serving as the core of Allman's touring band -- gets a featured spot with two songs, "Time Will Take Us" and "Where Can You Go," that leave one wanting to hear a lot more concert material from them, and from Talton as a singer. The Gregg Allman Tour was reissued on CD in late 2001 by Polydor in a clearer, sharper remastered edition that contains Martin Mull's complete introduction of the band.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
Gregg Allman's most visible contribution to rock music is as lead singer, organist, and songwriter with the Allman Brothers Band, founded by his brother Duane (d. 1971) in 1969. He has never threatened to eclipse the band that carries his family name, but he has found occasional success and popularity with his solo work, which is distinctly different, more soulful and less focused on high-wattage virtuosity.
Allman's instrument is the organ, and he is most effective, when he is in top form, as a singer. His first instrument, ironically enough, was the guitar, and he took it up before his older brother Duane did. But Duane learned it better and quickly eclipsed Gregg. Where Gregg did excel was on the organ and as a singer (a role Duane was never comfortable with), which proved important but not at the center of a group that became famous for its 40-minute instrumental jams and three-hour sets. Through their early efforts, in bands like the Allman Joys and the Hour Glass, they shared the spotlight, with Duane taking the lengthy solos and Gregg fronting the band and offering Booker T. Jones-type keyboard playing. Liberty Records signed the Hour Glass and tried making Gregg into the focus of their efforts during the late '60s, but it never quite worked.
When the Allman Brothers were organized, the flashy (and vital) instrumental moments belonged to his brother and Dickey Betts and, later still, Warren Haynes. Gregg's songs, however, including "Whipping Post" and "Midnight Rider," were among the group's notable originals during its classic period, 1969-1972. Beginning with Brothers and Sisters, Betts' songwriting and singing assumed increasing prominence.
It was during the period that Brothers and Sisters was burning up the charts that Gregg Allman emerged as a solo artist with his first album, the critically well-received hit Laid Back, which put the softer, more serious, soul- and gospel-tinged side of his work in sharper focus. A tour followed, which yielded a live album that was also a success. This first period of solo popularity was interrupted by a combination of professional and personal conflicts; the Allman Brothers Band toured extensively and struggled to come up with a follow-up to Brothers and Sisters, and Gregg Allman began a relationship with Cher, the ex-wife and singing partner of Sonny Bono, which resulted in a tumultuous series of marriages and divorces for the two. These activities were played out amid Allman's well-publicized drug problems, which culminated with his testifying against a band employee in a federal drug case, which, in turn, led to the temporary but extended dissolution of the Allman Brothers Band.
Ironically, it was during this period, in 1977, that he delivered Playin' Up a Storm, a pop-soul effort that proved to be his most accomplished and successful album. Alas, this was to be the peak of his career away from the band. His next two albums, I'm No Angel and Just Before the Bullets Fly, released at the end of the 1980s, were quickly eclipsed by the re-formed and reinvigorated Allman Brothers Band's success on-stage and on record. His 1997 release Searchin' for Simplicity and the double-CD anthology One More Try had none of the urgency or success of the band's activities. In 2009, Australia's Raven Records imprint issued a 19-track, single-disc retrospective, entitled The Solo Years 1973-1997: One More Silver Dollar, that covered the whole of Allman's solo career to that date from his years at Capricorn and Columbia. In 2011, some 14 years after his last solo album, Allman released the T-Bone Burnett-produced Low Country Blues on Rounder Records.
DoWnLoAd
