Hot Gumbo on a Cold Day
Musings from snowy Middle Tennessee
Greetings from Nashville and welcome back to Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture.
Today’s post brought to you by King Curtis’s “Memphis Soul Stew” and my love of soup.1
Topics:
New ABB release
Happy birthday Lamar Williams (+music)
Martin Luther King Day
My reading list
Langiappes
Swag update
A hearty hello to new subscribers.
Continued thanks to my paid subscribers.
Y’all rule.
The 5-Man Band
The Allman Brothers Band just released a new show: 4/7/72 Manley Fieldhouse, Syracuse.
Though individual live tracks have seen release—“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” 4/2/72 from the Mar y Sol Festival on the Dreams box—I believe it’s only the second full 5-man band show they’ve officially released. (The first is 2/11/72, the Eat a Peach release show from Macon Coliseum.)
The 5-man band is a legendary period in Allman Brothers Band history. Duane died on October 29, 1971, while the ABB was in the middle of recording Eat a Peach. The surviving band members channeled their grief the only way they knew how: music.
In tribute to their fallen leader and his musical vision, they finished the album and embarked on a nationwide tour as a quintet. Berry Oakley’s death on November 11, 1972, closed the book on original era of the Allman Brothers Band.
Prior to Berry’s death, the group hired Chuck Leavell to play piano. They had already begun recording Brothers and Sisters when Berry died.
It became their only #1 album and spawned their only top 10 hit, “Ramblin’ Man” hit #22—the last track Berry Oakley played on. The band’s success also helped launch Southern rock.3
I’m pretty fascinated by the the 5-man band and have thought/written about the era a lot. Other than Play All Night,4 “Two Strong Legs and Even Wings to Fly: What is Long Live the ABB?” best captures my feelings on the 5-man band period in ABB history.5
Happy Birthday Lamar
Lamar Williams, Jaimoe’s lifelong friend and ABB and Sea Level bassist, would have turned 75 on January 14. Instead, he died of cancer at 34. It was a result of exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
Lamar’s time in the Allman Brothers Band was brief—December 1972 through May 1976. The band’s most commercially successful era, the ABB was the biggest band in the country in 1973-74, only to break up acrimoniously two years later..
One band emerged: Sea Level, a project that began as We 3—with Jaimoe, Lamar, and Chuck.
Here are three tracks.
We 3 “Left Turn”
Sea Level “Hot ‘Lanta”
Allman Brothers Band “High Falls”
Listen closely how in sync Jaimoe’s bass drum is with Lamar’s bass.
Jaimoe told me himself that Lamar is how he learned to play bass drum.
We 3
Sea Level live
And finally, my second-favorite Dickey Betts instrumental, “High Falls.” This song is ABBsolutely gorgeous.
Martin Luther King Day
This week, America commemorates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are two reads, one from yours truly.
From
: “Gregg Allman's Powerful Ode To Martin Luther King - and why he rejected the Confederate flag”“The Bravest Man I Ever Met” - I wrote this a few years back and just posted it again here.
Reading list
Some thoughts on books I’ve come across.
My favorite 3 reads of 2023 for shepherd.com. I was limited to three and could have easily picked a dozen others.
BONUS: My 5 favorite books at the crossroads of music, history, and culture for the same site
Allman Joy: Keeping the Beat with Duane and Gregg. This one’s by former Allman Joys drummer Bill Connell and longtime ABB historian/writer John Lynskey. I ABBsolutely loved this book as it gave me a ton of insight about Duane and Gregg’s early efforts at stardom.
BONUS: In Chapter 21, Connell gives great detail for an incident I referenced in passing on p48 of Play All Night: Shriners beating the crap out of Gregg:
A Life in the Wings: My Sixty Year Love Affair with Rock and Roll. David Spero has been Dickey Betts’s manager for a number of years. I loved it for the insight Spero gave on Dickey in his post-ABB career.
BONUS: Spero’s father founded the Upbeat television show in Cleveland, which hosted Hour Glass in 1968. (The famous images of Duane with the doily around his neck.)
Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History
Bill Janovitz. I savored this rich, detailed account of a rock & roll icon. Duane and Gregg get repeated mentions.BONUS: The penultimate chapter, “Putting the Hat Back On,” covers the 2015 Lockn’ Mad Dogs & Englishmen reunion set hosted by Tedeschi Trucks Band and the Learning to Live Together documentary.6
Langiappes
The Dead Tongues Dust was my soundtrack on a frigid Monday. This album GRABBED me in 2022 and has remained part of my listening repertoire. “Pawnshop Dollar Bills” is the lead track. You might also dig “Transmigration Blues” his previous album.
The Rollings Stones “Winter” This is the highlight of Goat’s Head Soup for me. And a perfect track for days when the temperature is in the single digits.
Eddie Hinton Very Extremely Dangerous I picked this up at Citizen Vinyl on a whim. A pal of Duane’s, Hinton was one of the top session guitarists in Muscle Shoals. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound with the Swampers, his sole record for Capricorn and it’s a gem all the way around.
While I’m talking Leon Russell…
Sea Level “Country Fool” coulda been a Leon Russell track. Give it a listen and tell me I’m not wrong.
Mad Dogs and Englishmen inspired Derek and Susan to form my favorite band of the last decade+: the Tedeschi Trucks Band. The movie doesn’t stream, but there are snippets online, including “The Letter” from Fillmore East.
And a recent version of TTB covering “The Letter”
Cocker Power Spectacular is a virtual commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour by photographer Linda Wolf to celebrate her book Cocker Power. It came out early in the pandemic and is pretty fantastic.
Swag Update
Put some packages in the mailbox for y’all. Let me know when you get ‘em.
Thanks for sticking with me, y’all. See you further on up the road.
I’m fortunately that the Mrs. is a Soup Nazi-level soup-maker.
Held out of the top spot by Cher’s “Half Breed.” (You can’t make this shit up.)
Here’s one of several times I’ve addressed this subject. I reserve the right to change my mind on this.
I’ll do a deeper dive on this release at some point in the future.
Doesn’t stream, unfortunately, nor is it for sale. Here’s hoping the set will eventually see release.