The Allman Brothers Band

[suites]

I am sure they sound great but why play the Dickey songs (at least the signature songs)  IMFER is in that mix as well.  Just feel like it is not right but I don't think they give a sheet.

[Analogman]

I think that a good way to put it - signature songs.

[Shug]

I've read that Dickey has been invited to play with them and refuses, so what are they gonna do, not play those ABB classics because he chooses not to be there?  Personally, I don't have any problem with the current band playing those songs. Jaimoe, Butch and Greg played on the originals, presumably helping to make them what they are and Warren played them live for years, too.  I guess it depends on how much value you put on who is listed as the songwriter compared to all the members of the band who played the songs.  Sometimes I think too much value gets placed on the songwriter compared to the band.  Just take a look at the tragic story of The Band to see what can happen just from the royalties being given to the songwriter and not to the musicians who may have done quite a bit of arranging or made significant contributions (at least to my understanding).  I think of Blue Sky, Jessica and Ramblin Man as also belonging to the band, and not exclusively to the composer.  I can see how others think differently, though.  

[Analogman]

I suppose where I find it odd is due to the person singing it. It's just because Dickey is the voice of those songs. Not Gregg or Warren. Plus they did have a rather hard parting.

[MKHstudios]

I have a friend (part of the extended ABB family) who tells me the chances that we'll see Greg and Dickey on the same stage are "slim to none".  But you can never say never.... the Eagles patched it up after a most nasty hate filled breakup.  In a previous career I used to promote rock festivals in the northeast.  One show we did featured both the ABB and DBB - both bands simply refused to play on the same day.  

[Analogman]

I think they invited him to play with the band at the Grammys, or whatever it was not too long ago. I think he changed his mind at the last minute. Or something like that.

[Shug]

I read they also invited him to play during the 2009 Beacon run. There is clearly bad feelings between them, who knows all that went down and who is still pissed. It wouldn't be any good to have Dickey back if he doesn't want to be there, obviously. I personally miss his awesome playing, but the last tour I saw with him in the band was not good. He played Fenders instead of Gibsons and that didn't sound good to me at all. I'd rather hear Dickey sing all those songs, but if he can't or won't be there, I still want to hear them. Gregg and Warren do a find job on vocals as far as I'm concerned.

[Analogman]

Set list from last night - March 6:

 

Set 1:

Trouble No More

Midnight Rider

Done Somebody Wrong

Spots of Time

Leave Me Blues

Good Clean Fun

It Makes No Difference (with the Juke Horns)

Don't Keep Me Wonderin' (with the Juke Horns)

The Same Thing (with the Juke Horns and John Popper)

 

Set 2:

Amazing Grace (with The Blind Boys of Alabama)

Soulshine

There Will Be a Light (with The Blind Boys of Alabama and Joan Osborne)

The Weight (with the Juke Horns and Joan Osborne)

No One Left to Run With

Ain't Wastin' Time No More

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

 

Encore:

And It Stoned Me (with the Juke Horns)

You Don't Love Me (with John Popper)

[worldrecordplayer]

I read they also invited him to play during the 2009 Beacon run. There is clearly bad feelings between them, who knows all that went down and who is still pissed. It wouldn't be any good to have Dickey back if he doesn't want to be there, obviously. I personally miss his awesome playing, but the last tour I saw with him in the band was not good. He played Fenders instead of Gibsons and that didn't sound good to me at all. I'd rather hear Dickey sing all those songs, but if he can't or won't be there, I still want to hear them. Gregg and Warren do a find job on vocals as far as I'm concerned.

Butch went on record after the 2009 Beacon run, the entire run was a tribute to Duane and invovled just about everyone he ever played with showing up (every night of which was outstanding) saying that the band tried to put the bad stuff aside and invited Dickey to play in tribute to Duane, and Dickey refused. Butch said that was it with Dickey, they'll never play with him again after that.  Or that's how I remember the interview.

 

As someone who's been seeing the Allmans since 1973, I simply do not miss Dickey.  Nothing against him or his playing (even though unbenknownst to me he landed in jail in Albany and I went to Great Woods the next night to see Zak Wylde of all people playing with them, pissed me off for years), but I'm so very happy to go hear Warren and Derek play those twin harmonized guitar lines, and Gregg (now that he's healthier) and Warren handle the vocals fine.  I'm not pining away to hear Ramblin Man. 

[Analogman]

I've read about that Zak show.

[worldrecordplayer]

I've read about that Zak show.

The band's low point as far as I'm concerned.  I was friggin pissed!  Not only at Dickey for being the white trash that he is and getting arrested, but at the entire organization for not cancelling the show.  To drag my ass down to Great Woods to all of a sudden be told that Zak Wylde and his bullseye guitar and heavy metal moves was playing in the *Allman Brothers Band."???  I stopped seeing them for a number of years after, I swore they weren't getting any of my money.  Of course I settled down and came back to the fold, but it took a long time.  

[calvino]

How was the show with Wylde?  I never had the opportunity to listen to it.

[jw harding]

One of the worst concerts I've seen was a Dickey Betts show maybe 5 years ago. He was clearly under the influence of something, incoherent between songs, freaking out about his guitar during songs and yelling at his tech guy, inviting the opener up on stage to his surprise to perform a song they'd never done before. I believe he ended the concert mid-song by dropping his guitar and walking off stage while the band played on. Can't blame the Allmans for kicking him out, but wish he could be relatively sober and still in the band. 

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I'm not a big Allmans fan, but even I want to hear more about this Zak Wylde show. 

[Analogman]

I think I read about that show in the book: Midnight Riders: The Story of the Allman Brothers Band. If not there, then I must have read about it in an issue of Hittin' The Note.

 

If you Google Zak Wylde and Allman Brothers Band - you'll find some stories about the show.

[jff]

I'm sure the show with Zack Wylde was pathetic, but if they ever make a time machine, I'd probably go see that one.

[Analogman]

There use to be some audio from the show up on Youtube. It's probably still there.

 

Jimmy Herring was also in the band around that time (I think).

 

Also - Jack Pearson during the couple of years that Warren was out of the band.

[worldrecordplayer]

I can tell you what I remember about the Zak Wylde show, I don't remember much.  I'll start by acknowledging that he's not my cup of tea at all, and seeing him play with the Allmans was nauseating to me.  My memory is that he got the call to fill in because he used to play in a cover band that did a lot of Allmans tunes, so he knew the material.  He spent the show preening and demonstrating like a heavy metal rock star would, which was so out of place I can't begin to tell you.  I don't remember much about the music and I never listened to the show.  As I wrote above, I was so disgusted that the band didn't just cancel.  That night was anything but an Allmans show to my mind. 

[Analogman]

That makes me think of Joe Satriani's time in Deep Purple. He's great at what he does, as is Zak, but I am not really into the music either of them makes.

[jff]

 

 

Also - Jack Pearson during the couple of years that Warren was out of the band.

 

During that era I saw Butch, Jaimoe and Marc Quinones do a drum clinic at a Mars Music store in Atlanta (Mars was a competitor and far superior store to Guitar Center).  They brought Jack Pearson along with them (and also Oteil and Kofi Burbridge) and they played a really beautiful version of Elizabeth Reed.    I regret not going to their show the next day.   Jack Pearson's playing at the demo was really good. 

[Analogman]

I think he left due to suffering from tinnitus. I seem to recall reading that somewhere. It was Derek who replaced him in the band.

[jff]

I think he left due to suffering from tinnitus. I seem to recall reading that somewhere. It was Derek who replaced him in the band.

 

Damn, that's too bad.   Derek used to sit in with the band just about every time I saw ABB in the Dickie/Warren era.  I saw him many times when he was a youngster, but for some reason I've never seen him as a full member of ABB.  I even have an audience cassette of his solo band from when he was 12 or 13 opening for Bruce Hampton.  I should pull that out and listen to it.  Derek and a bunch of older guys playing cheesy cover songs and the obligatory Third Stone From the Sun riff.  

[Analogman]

I've seen photos of him where the guitar was bigger than he was. And we was playing in some club somewhere.

[worldrecordplayer]

Do people really have a problem with them doing Dickey songs?  Not me.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqPXCpmIFI8

 

 

 

[Shug]

I agree.  And after what I heard over two nights this weekend in NYC, I don't get how people can say the ABB has turned into just a 60s cover band.  These are virtuoso musicians of the highest calibre who are part of a long musical tradition that combines Muddy Waters/Elmore James blues with Miles Davis/Coltrane jazz filtered through late 60s psychedelic rock long form guitar jamming.  They have roots and influences going back decades further than the 60s.  Haynes and Trucks tore the living shit out of Hendrix's 1983 a couple nights ago.  Maybe you have to be there in person, or maybe its just different tastes, but I know when I hear brilliance and for me, this band is still one of the greatest live rock bands of all time.  They simply are without peers.