Allman Brothers Band - Manley Field House - Music Review

 

Happy to report this two disc set featuring the five man band does not disappoint. I damn near rowed my water rower out of the front room and into the street. Sonicallly Berry's bass sounds a little hot from the show - sort of a wonky amp or a pinned needles affect. But this get's sorted out after the first few songs and there he is in all his talent. The show sounds great through my bookshelf Polks kudos to Jason NeSmith. Gregg gets lost in the mix so often it's always nice to easily hear him and his keyboard work.

Six months after Duane catapults into the next realm the band is fierce. Ain't wasting time no more and playing with determination and fire. I wasn't sure what to expect with this release. How much is there of the legacy of the ABB in unreleased material? Was this going to be a sourly sourced release? But I've always loved Berry's playing and voice (more Hoochie Coochie like numbers is what I would have said) and championed him over the air so I jumped on the release. Happy new year indeed!

A real unsung member of the band Berry comes to the fore and sounds drivingly inventive. All five of the boys are thundering through this live broadcast. Gregg sounds great and extends his solos, the freight train and Jaimoe are enormous. And Dickey wasn't messing around. I mean honestly this whole review could have been about Dickey's tenacity, and melody.

Thanks to the team of Bert, Kirk, John and Bill for getting this out to the public.

Long live the Allman Brothers Band.

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The Allman Brothers Band - Berry Oakley

Fillmore East is still tearing up my stereo system and its time for a huge shout out to Berry Oakley who anchored the front line. Duane called him out as the third guitar player. I have spent countless words trying to get at the melded mind set of their musical trajectory coursing through the time and space that confronted them and us and the atmosphere they rearranged with their sonic homage to the creative spirit and their righteous attack that brought such purity to their music but in the end its a futile task just put the music on and listen, listen, listen and listen some more.

I try with varying degrees of success to focus on just one player to really appreciate what they are bringing to the show but in the end I'm over taken and overwhelmed by the complexity and intricacy of the entire dynamic and simply blown away by it all voice, words, tone, tempo and magnitude. So hell yeah I'm still listening to Fillmore East (The Fillmore Concerts version Tom Dowd mix) and hell yeah I can't stop....no surprise there though as well to all the brothers and sisters.