Play All Night Playlist Project Chapter 8: A Home in Macon

We’re doing what we want to do more than anything else, and if we can make a living at it too, that’s just beautiful. Berry Oakley

Welcome to Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture. For new subscribers, I typically post six to eight times a month, depending on when the muse strikes.

I recently updated the subscription benefits to include a free copy of Play All Night for my annual paid subscribers.

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The Play All Night Playlist Project

For me, one of the joys of reading music history is that it opens up my ears (and therefore my soul) to new jams. It can be challenging, though, to wend through the discographies of the subjects in any book.

Duane and the Allman Brothers Band’s music and its influence is no exception to this rule.

Their catalog is vast and their influences (and the music they influenced) are myriad.

In response, I’ve created the Play All Night Playlist Project. Here’s an index of what I’ve created thus far:

The Play All Night Playlist Project

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Berry Oakley at Fillmore East in February 1970. 📷 Ira Zadikow

We’re doing what we want to do more than anything else, and if we can make a living at it too, that’s just beautiful. Berry Oakley

Excerpt from Play All Night! Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East

In Macon, the Allman Brothers Band forged their brotherhood as players and as people. The atmosphere offered the band a laid-back environment in which to grow its sound. In the relative calm of Macon, the ABB grew ever more determined to present themselves not as rock stars but as a band of everyday people.

In February 2021, I trekked to Macon to write the final draft of what became Play All Night! Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East. I holed up in a small apartment in downtown in the same neighborhood where the members of the Allman Brothers Band lived in 1969, including the infamous “Hippie Crash Pad” right next door to the Beall mansion where the first album cover photo was taken.¹

I walked daily to Rose Hill Cemetery with my dog Fender and contemplated the story I was trying to tell.

I thought about this band of hippies moving to a small southern town in Middle Georgia and the magical music they created together.

Place helped me connect to the story.² In this case it was Macon. I finished the second draft in New York City and the third in Muscle Shoals.³

The Chapter 8 playlist is just shy of two hours of music representing the first calendar year of the Allman Brothers Band. It includes their earliest demos, their first album, among other tracks.

• Youtube Chapter 8 playlist

• Spotify Chapter 8 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 of the ABB and the tunes that shaped their sound.

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LINER NOTES

Though the playlists are free for all, liner notes are reserved for paid subscribers.

ABB plays for Phil Walden in Macon, April 1969. 📷Baron Wolman

“Trouble No More” (Demo)
“Dreams” (Demo)
The Allman Brothers Band album