Acoustic Set for Susanne 1/16/2023

SET LIST: Pancho and Lefty, Country Road, Three Little Birds, Uncle Johns Band, Sunshine on My Shoulder, Streets of Arklow, For A While, Oh La La, New Speedway Boogie, Coffee Blues, You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Glory of True Love, Tumbling Tumbleweeds, River of Joy, You and Me, Wharf Rat, The Garden Song

Acoustic Session 11-23-2022

Two Hour Set from last nights live broadcast - get your gear out and jam along - covers and originals
Radar Love, Honky Tonk Women, Caravan, Hold Me Now, Come and Go Blues, Stairs to the Mayan Sky, River of Joy, The Valley, Show Me Time, Diamond Girl, Crazy Girl, Black Water, Bertha, Deal, Don't, Coffee Blues, Just My Imagination, Don't Stop Believin, Thank You, Just Like Heaven, Friend of the Devil, Heroes - if you don't recognize the title - it's one of mine.  

The Allman Brothers Band and the Simultaneous Groove

My oh my this is a great shot of the original sextet working the simultaneous groove. It looks like its Berry's turn to break out notice where Butch's eyes are watching on Berry's hands.

I can't over emphasis the beauty, power and velocity of talented musicians owning their musicianship fighting the urge of ego, working together and delivering the goods like no other.

A friend of mine asked me to differentiate between the grateful dead and the allman brothers after I laughed out loud (its a blotter vs mushrooms, roses vs peaches thing) I thought for a moment. Please know I'm a veteran of decades of both bands and I would simply state the ABB locked in more often, stronger and together. It's degrees of variation but while the grateful dead was more of a cosmic soup sloshing around the bowl of existence lapping up side to side with solar flares of transcendence over heart aching ballads and thundering reverberation following Jerry religiously no matter what blind alley he lead them down, through or up the Allman Brothers Band in contrast jumped on that first note like a skim boarder ridding a wave as far as it would take them then turning and charging after the next wave of music and consciousness shredding the lip catching air, turning and pivoting with the waves. Tighter by necessity the ABB driven by a freight train of rhythm, organ and bass achieved thundering elevation immediately while the Dead meandered wobbly floating seemingly directionless then focusing sharply in an Escher like pattern getting there sooner or later but getting there they did.

I watched Pelicans dive for game yesterday afternoon striking their targets, diving in directly from over head in a straight line quickly and with acceleration hitting their targets repeatably over and over again - the visualization of screaming marshals and stalking thundering rhythm in a cascade of movement and righteous glorious splash reversing gravity throwing water in the air as they submerged and reemerged floating then taking flight again seemingly effortlessly sweeping through the air wings fully extended only to recoil and strike again. It was something to marvel at and behold and it looked like music to me and felt like something heavenly

Playing Live The Allman Brothers Band

I want you to take a good look at these musicians and how they are all concentrating and looking at each other. This is how its done. It's Dickey's turn a guitar god in his own right to lead but the ensemble playing behind him including Duane is playing "with" him and working, concentrating, and listening in order to weave in and out of the magic.

Each musician is propelling the other and informing the other as the music takes direction. It is an amazing amount of good fortune that this sextet with these specific musicians was captured live by such a renowned and skilled producer Tom Dowd.

Fillmore East as I have just been re-listening to it only recently is a freaking stunning collection of musicianship,and fire. It is an outrageously groove driven pallet of sound, an avalanche of intricacy and composition with halting pinnacles of contemplation and I haven't even gotten to the second disc yet.

I'm listening to "The Fillmore Concerts" a 1992 remaster of the original release just as the ABB were emerging again off the heals of the Dream Box set and Seven Turns. I'm ecstatic to have it in my collection and truth be told haven't listened to it in decades as I was all in on the later day sextet with Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and Oteil Burbridge.

Berry Oakley's bass work while never receiving as much press as Duane's guitar skill, drive and vision possess the same amount of finesse, brilliance, heart, drive and fire. It is something to behold listening to the original six working together and it is a miracle that this moment in time was captured. Imagine if this recording suffered the fate of the Layla sessions ohhh my what a tragedy that would have been. Instead we have this prodigious amalgamation of the pinnacle of music that is certainly the Mount Everest of music here on Earth and quite possibly a sliver of what it must sound like in heaven - effortlessly dancing and commingling each note, chord and beat thundering through its woven path, barreling through passages of time momentarily settling like a light rain upon your soul and then exploding like a volcano. You better believe it was all about the music and if you bring any other attitude to the stage you suck.