Sold Date:
March 13, 2019
Start Date:
January 17, 2019
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Southern Blood by Gregg Allman [Vinyl LP] [Gatefold Jacket]
Track Listing:
Side 1:
1. My Only True Friend 2. Once I Was 3. Going Going Gone 4. Black Muddy River 5. I Love the Life I Live
Side 2:
1. Willin' 2. Blind Bats And Swamp Rats 3. Out Of Left Field 4. Love Like Kerosene 5. Song For Adam (featuring Jackson Browne)
The final studio album from Gregg Allman. Recorded in Muscle Shoals.
Produced by Don Was. Deluxe gatefold packaging. Black vinyl version.
"My Only True Friend," from Southern Blood, Gregg Allman's final album,
is a cipher, much like the man himself -- private, reserved, and
complex. Though twin, ringing, blues-drenched guitars introduce it, the
song just as quickly morphs into a ballad: "You and I both know, this
river will surely flow to an end/Keep me in your heart...I hope you're
haunted by the music of my soul...But you and I both know, the road is
my only true friend...." The blues guitars cascade in again, adding
resonance. This is the only track here that Allman co-wrote, but it's
fine enough to join the shortlist of his classics -- "Midnight Rider,"
"Melissa," "Ain't Wastin' Time No More," etc. When Allman and producer
Don Was commenced work on Southern Blood, the clock was already ticking.
The singer had undergone liver transplant surgery, but the cancer had
returned. Tunes and charts were painstakingly chosen. Allman's road band
and some friends were invited to FAME Studios at Muscle Shoals, the
same place that Duane Allman had recorded his initial Stax sessions, and
where, according to Was, the Allman Brothers had their first
rehearsals. Following "My Only True Friend" is a stunning reading of Tim
Buckley's "Once I Was," which accentuates its surrender, followed by
the bitter acceptance in Bob Dylan's "Going Going Gone": "I'm closing
the book on pages and text/And I don't really care what happens
next...." But it's not so cut and dried. That acceptance is balanced by a
Celtic-tinged, even hopeful read of the Grateful Dead's hymn-like
"Black Muddy River." But Allman didn't let his blues and R&B roots
to be scattered by the winds. He delivers Willie Dixon's "I Love the
Life I Live" with passion, fire, and humor as he celebrates hedonism. In
Lowell George's "Willin'," Allman looks back without surrender; he
expresses the desire to keep rolling along even when discovering the
highway's dead end in his headlights. He offers Johnny Jenkins' hoodoo
blues "Blind Bats and Swamp Rats" from 1970's Capricorn-issued Ton Ton
Macoute with vengeance, as if to make up for lost time. (He was the only
Allman member who didn't play on the original). Muscle Shoals makes its
voice heard in Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn's 1967 deep soul single "Out
of Left Field." Allman imbues it with grit, heart, tenderness, and
power enhanced by backing vocals from the McCrary Sisters and a powerful
three-piece horn section. Jackson Browne's "Song for Adam," written for
a lost comrade, features the songwriter on backing vocals. In
delivering this song, Gregg is obviously singing about Duane, whose
premature death shaped his own life. Greg Leisz's whining pedal steel
becomes another singing voice, especially at the end when Allman gets
too choked up to deliver the final two lines -- and Was didn't even try
to make him. Southern Blood is almost perfect; there isn't a better
final album Allman could have made. It belongs on the shelf between
1973's Laid Back and the mysteriously withdrawn but amazing One More
Try: An Anthology. ~ Thom Jurek
.
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