Play All Night Playlist Project Chapter 7: The Birth of the Allman Brothers Band

“The band was so good we thought we’d never make it.” Dickey Betts

Welcome to Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture.

Remembering Allen Woody

August 26 is the 23rd anniversary of the death of the great Allen Woody, whose bass playing was as essential to the 1989 Allman Brothers Band reunion as Warren Haynes on guitar. Woody and Warren recorded three studio records during their tenure with the ABB (1989-97) before leaving to pursue Gov’t Mule full-time.

Here’s Rev. Brother Haynes on Woody from a few years back.

“His Fearlessness as a Bass Player Was Second to None”: Warren Haynes Reflects on The Life of Allen Woody

It’s well worth the read.

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The Play All Night Playlist Project

Here are the links to the Chapter 7 playlist, four-dozen songs representing a wide swath of music and influences of the original Allman Brothers Band.

• Youtube Chapter 7 playlist

• Spotify Chapter 7 playlist

Reminder that this list is not comprehensive, nor is it intended to be. I hope that it’ll inspire you to check out even more of the music that shaped the sound of the Allman Brothers Band.

Here’s the rest of the Play All Night Playlist Project

The Play All Night Playlist Project

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“The band was so good we thought we’d never make it.”Dickey Betts

When he left Muscle Shoals, Duane had a particular sound in his head for his next musical project. It was only a matter of weeks before he found it.

Duane arrived in Jacksonville sometime during the first week of March 1969. He brought with him a new bandmate, drummer Jaimoe, with whom he’d been living and jamming in Muscle Shoals.

Within three weeks, Duane identified and recruited the musicians to join his next, most important musical project: the Allman Brothers Band, whose members, individually and collectively, unlocked Duane’s originality.

Gainesville High School, Labor Day Weekend 1969 📷 Joel Berger

Rick Hall intended for Duane to front a power trio. But, as Dickey recalled, “Duane was too warm and personal for that. He needed a lot of other guys to get that full sound he wanted.” As Duane assembled the band in early 1969, he sought others who would push him creatively, bandmates he, in turn, could also push.

The band comprised six musicians. All hailed from the South: Berry Oakley of Jacksonville by way of Chicago, on bass¹; Jai Johanny Johanson of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on drums; Dickey Betts of West Palm Beach, Florida, on lead guitar; and Butch Trucks of Jacksonville, on drums. Duane would play lead guitar, and brother Gregg joined on organ and vocals.

The musicians’ influences reflected the breadth of American poplar music.

• Duane, Gregg, and Jaimoe were seasoned rhythm and blues players.

• Jaimoe was steeped in jazz.

• Oakley, Betts, and the Allmans were heavily influenced by the blues.

• Betts was intimately familiar with country music, especially string music, bluegrass, and western swing.

• Betts and Oakley used psychedelic rock as an improvisational guidepost.

• Butch loved classical music, and his previous bands had a decidedly folk and folk-rock bent.

• Gregg, too, had a folkie side, having drawn influence from writers such as Tim Buckley and Jackson Browne in California.

• All six had grown up playing rock ’n’ roll and were road-hardened veterans of the touring circuit.

While it would take a little more than two years to achieve success, Duane had finally found the collective through which he could best express his musical values, the Allman Brothers Band.

In Jacksonville in March 1969, Duane assembled players with skills and spirit to match his own, virtuosos who fused their individual influences into an original sound built on live improvisation and musical conversation. Betts described the band as developing like a Polaroid photograph, with various elements slowly coming into focus. Playing together brought something special out of each musician. “We knew what we now had,” Betts said of their sound. Jaimoe called it “less copying. We brought our own thing to it.” The environment fueled Duane’s fire.

Chapter 7 is the longest in the book. It’s where the story pivots from Duane’s struggles with the music industry, to his seizing control of his career and forming a band.

LINER NOTES

The playlist is wide-ranging. It includes 48 songs and runs for nearly 3 hours. The tracks are roughly organized into the following categories:

• Jazz

• Rhythm & blues

• Repertoire and influences

• Dickey Betts’s influences

• Blues influence

• Contemporary influences

• Pre-ABB work by Duane, Gregg, Butch, Berry, and Dickey

  • The Second Coming

  • Hour Glass

  • 31st of February

While the playlists are free for everyone, Liner Notes are reserved for paid subscribers.