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I don't mind a cover or two from the Allman Brothers, or The Black Crowes. But almost seems to me they have turned into the Warren Haynes Band, or Gov't Mule with better drumming. With all the albums they have, you would think they could fill up a couple of sets with original tunes. Maybe it's as you say - you have to be there. Maybe Gregg is just not capable of much anymore, so they turn to Warren. And he picks all those cover songs to sing.

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RIP Dickie Betts

Yeah -- made 80. Good on 'em. That last decade has not been great for him - health wise.    Was such a great, great player with a beautiful tone. Songwriting skills were there, too.

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Gregg not capable of much?  Turning to Warren?  Are you looking at the set lists?  There are more Gregg lead vocal songs than Warren lead vocal songs at most of these shows and Gregg is singing great.  Look at Sat night.  1st set 4 Gregg songs, 2 Warren songs 2nd set 4 Gregg songs, 2 Warren songs counting the encore.  Mostly originals, no covers except old blues songs and the Other One jam.

 

Allman Brothers Band 3-9-13 Beacon Theater, NY, NY
Set 1
Done somebody wrong
Midnight rider
End of the line
Worried down with the blues
Ain't wastin' time no more
Dusk till dawn (Bill Evans)
Jessica

Set 2
Statesboro Blues
You Don't Love Me
Rocking Horse
Stand Back
Black Hearted Woman > TOO jam
Liz Reed w/ Bill Evans

E
Southbound w/ Bill Evans on sax Southbound with Valor Trucks on guitar,Oteil on Jaimoe's kit and a guest bass player (David Stoltz?)

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Shug put it perfectly in both his recent posts.  (well, maybe I wouldn't say they're *without peer*).  They are musical virtuosos with the ability to play a wide range of genres.  I love the covers.  Keep in mind, they are doing what 10 or 12 shows at the Beacon.  Mixing in the covers is a huge plus. Personally, my level of enjoyment with a band is often directly tied to the quality of the songs they pull out to cover.  And Warren maybe without peer in that regard, in all of his bands.  There's been almost 100 years of great blues, jazz, rock, etc.  I don't want that music to not be played, I think it's a great attribute that the band pulls out these songs. 

 

No band is for everybody (except maybe the Beatles).  ALthought I'm bummed I'm not making it to the Beacon, after how terrible Gregg was in Boston in November '10 (or was it '11?), I'm so glad to read these great reports of how strong he and the band have come back.  I'll be at MSG for Crossroads and I'm looking forward to catching the Allmans there.



A great month to be in NYC, with the Allmans at the Beacon and Bowlive going on.  So last Friday after the Allmans finished their show at the Beacon, Derek and Warren make their way to Brooklyn to join their friends Soulive for a late night third set. Gotta love these guys.

 

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That setlist you posted seems better to me. I mean - it's interesting that they did a Hendrix song, but I am not all that into them doing such a thing.  About the only Hendrix covers I can go for are the ones SRV did.

 

I suppose I don't think of those antique blues songs as covers - even though they are covers.

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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.

 

I believe I was the one who said they are turning into a 60's cover band, and stand by that. If you look at the setlists from this run, as well as the past several years, not many new tunes, bunch of random covers that don't really seem to have much to do with the classic Allman's sound. I still like them, and agree with much of the rest of your post. But they're a band that hasn't added anything to their legacy over the past 15 years. Artists like Neil, Dylan, and Levon continue(d) to make meaningful music at late stages of their career. Supposedly Greg has a bunch of new tunes and they're going to record an album, but we'll see. Hopefully it won't be too Warren heavy, as he has a tendency to turn original tunes into clunky Bad Company-esque classic rockers. Love him and the Allmans live though. 

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When I said they are without peers, I meant primarily that there is no other band that executes long-form guitar solo-based psychedelic rock like the Allmans have for decades. Its hard to argue against them being the greatest Southern rock band of all time or one of the two best psychedelic rock bands of all time (and with the Grateful Dead gone, they are all alone at the top of that heap) and they are the only band with their particular combination of jazz/blues influences played at such a high level of intensity. There are other virtuoso players out there, plenty of them in jazz, but no jazz band I know of uses guitars and Hammond organ like the Allmans do and has such a powerful multi-member percussion section.

 

And jw, I don't disagree with you that their original songwriting has slowed down alot, but I have no problem with that. I don't think their primary strength has ever been songwriting in the Dylan/Neil Young/Band sense but rather their strength has always been live performance. Sure, Gregg knocked a few songs out of the park in the writing department with stuff like Melissa, Midnight Rider, Ain't Wastin' Tme No More, etc but many of his best loved compositions like Dreams and Whippin' Post are great mostly because of the jams within them, not the brilliance of the songwriting, IMO.

 

In the 70s, they did old blues covers, now in the 2000-2010's they are adding in old rock covers. To me, that is in line with what they have always done and a good thing because the 60s and 70s produced so many great great songs that I love that will never be played as they should unless a band like the Allmans cover them. Its exciting to me to hear those songs played by virtuosos who understand not only that those songs were great but also understand all the music history from decades earlier that lead up to the greatness of 60s and 70s rock music. Who better to do that than the Allmans, in my book.

 

I know some people want bands to continually be writing new music, but personally, it doesn't bother me when the don't if they can still play at such a high level. If they get inspired to write a bunch of great tunes again, great. If not, they can still do four nights of shows with only a three or four repeats. I also think those songwriters you mentioned have also really slowed down in their songwriting as well. For me as a serious Dylan fan, his last brilliant bunch of songs was Time Out Of Mind in 1997, although I know plenty would disagree with me.

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My husband went on Friday to the Beacon and he and his buddies felt something was lacking, C+. I went with them last night, and the consensus was the Saturday was vastly improved over Friday. A+. Happily, Nels Cline came out and played as a guest on one song. I had seen that he was in Brooklyn on Friday, so I was hoping it would happen, since he was a guest last year as well. Unfortunately, I was running on four hours of sleep and a day full of following these guys around from bar to bar,so I probably wasn't enjoying it to my best potential.

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Here is a video of Nels sitting in with the Brothers & Col. Bruce Hampton last night during Smokestack Lightning.  A buddy of mine who was up there also mentioned that Nels sat in for a few songs during Col. Bruce's show after the brothers.  He apparently tore apart Fixing to Die.  Sounds like Nels was playing Duane's gold top LP for at least one song with the Col.  

 

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This clip of That's What Love Will Make You Do with Susan Tedeschi is a truer representation of an Allmans show.  I know there's a lot of controversy about Susan's appearances on the Allmans forums, but an example like this should put all that to rest in my mind. 

 

 

 

http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/col-bruce-nels-cline-and-susan-tedeschi-among-allman-brothers-band-guests-night-10-of-2013-beacon-theatre-run/

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  • 2 months later...

Brothers and Sisters - 4 different versions:

 

(out June 25th)

 

This special edition of Brothers and Sisters is available in four different packages.  First, the original album has been re-mastered from the original analog tapes and has been pressed onto 200 gram vinyl. Second, you can purchase the re-issued album on CD. The third and fourth packages are where it gets more interesting. The third package is the “Deluxe Edition,” which includes one CD for the original songs and a second CD that contains studio jams, rehearsals and outtakes cut during the album sessions that offer considerable insight into the band’s organic creative process. The fourth package is the “Super Deluxe Edition,” and it includes everything from the 3rd package and adds two more CDs that capture the bands live performance at Winterland in San Francisco on September 26, 1973.

 

 

DISC ONE

1. WASTED WORDS 4:20
2. RAMBLIN' MAN 4:48
3. COME AND GO BLUES 4:55
4. JELLY JELLY 5:46
5. SOUTHBOUND 5:10
6. JESSICA 7:31
7. PONY BOY 5:5

DISC TWO: REHEARSALS, JAMS and OUTTAKES
 

1.  WASTED WORDS (Rehearsal)  5:06
2.  TROUBLE NO MORE (Rehearsal)  3:58
3.  SOUTHBOUND (Instrumental Outtake)  5:56
4.  ONE WAY OUT (Rehearsal)  5:38
5.  I’M GONNA MOVE TO THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN (Rehearsal)  11:14
6.  DONE SOMEBODY WRONG (Rehearsal)  3:50
7.  DOUBLE CROSS (Outtake)  4:36
8.  EARLY MORNING BLUES (outtake)  9:27
9.  A MINOR JAM  16:30

 

 

DISC ONE
1.  WASTED WORDS 4:20
2.  RAMBLIN' MAN 4:48
3.  COME AND GO BLUES 4:55
4.  JELLY JELLY 5:46
5.  SOUTHBOUND 5:10
6.  JESSICA 7:31
7.  PONY BOY 5:5

DISC TWO: REHEARSALS, JAMS and OUTTAKES
1.  WASTED WORDS (Rehearsal) 5:06
2.  TROUBLE NO MORE (Rehearsal) 3:58
3.  SOUTHBOUND (Instrumental Outtake) 5:56
4.  ONE WAY OUT (Rehearsal) 5:38
5.  I’M GONNA MOVE TO THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN (Rehearsal) 11:14
6.  DONE SOMEBODY WRONG (Rehearsal) 3:50
7.  DOUBLE CROSS (Outtake) 4:36
8.  EARLY MORNING BLUES (outtake) 9:27
9.  A MINOR JAM 16:30

DISC THREE: LIVE AT WINTERLAND, SEPTEMBER 26, 1973
 1.  INTRODUCTION BY BILL GRAHAM  1:24
 2.  WASTED WORDS  5:17
 3.  DONE SOMEBODY WRONG  4:01
 4.  ONE WAY OUT  8:44
 5.  STORMY MONDAY  8:12
 6.  MIDNIGHT RIDER  3:34
 7.  RAMBLIN' MAN  7:33
 8.  IN MEMORY OF ELIZABETH REED  17:20
 9.  STATESBORO BLUES  4:28
10. COME AND GO BLUES  5:15
 

DISC FOUR: LIVE AT WINTERLAND, SEPTEMBER 26, 1973
1.    SOUTHBOUND  6:01
2.    JESSICA  9:46
3.    YOU DON'T LOVE ME (includes AMAZING GRACE)  10:48
4.    LES BRERS IN A MINOR (with drum solo)  25:47
5.    BLUE SKY  4:49
6.    TROUBLE NO MORE  4:47
7.    WHIPPING POST  15:04

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I know someone who has a very early pressing of the album - it has different song titles listed.

 

I've always liked that album, but it sounds bad. Maybe the remastering will help with that problem. I'd like to have the four disc version - although I don't know that I am willing to spend 50 bucks on cds anymore.

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Since I managed, thus far at least,  to  skip the latest 77 Dead box set - I may end up getting this one. I do not have any live Allman Brothers from this era, either - so it will all be pretty new to me.

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Since I managed, thus far at least,  to  skip the latest 77 Dead box set - I may end up getting this one. I do not have any live Allman Brothers from this era, either - so it will all be pretty new to me.

NYE 12-31-73 from Winterland is outstanding.  I think it's 4 discs, including a 3rd set early morning blues jam session with Garcia and Boz Scaggs. I'd be happy to set you up with discs or a Dropbox link. 

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NYE 12-31-73 from Winterland is outstanding.  I think it's 4 discs, including a 3rd set early morning blues jam session with Garcia and Boz Scaggs. I'd be happy to set you up with discs or a Dropbox link. 

 

Definitely!  Don't know how to do the dropbox stuff, but would be happy to get the discs. I did participate in some vines last year though the HIttin' the Web site, so I do have some Allmans - when I get home, I will shoot you a PM with what I got and we can set up a trade or something (if I have something that you don't have.)

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