The venerable Allman Brothers band was at one of its creative peaks in 2003 when these concert recordings were made in theatres throughout the east, south and Midwest. This 4 disc album, dedicated to the dearly departed Greg Allman, has the leader in excellent voice and as he hums on the B3 here with his signature two drummer team of Jaimoe & Butch Trucks/dr, the sizzling percussion of Marc Quinones, bassist Oteil Burbridge a, guitarist Warren Haynes/g-voc, and the wonderful slide and lead guitar of Duane Allman’s best replacement, Derek Trucks.
The band still knew how to jam, clocking in over a half hour on “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” while Allman moans at his best on “Stormy Monday.” Trucks is simply amazing, and you can hear the roots of his forming the Tedeschi Trucks band on material such as his searing read of “Layla”, and when wife Susan joins in for vocals on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” the prototype for the future band has been set.
Branford Marsalis shows up in Raleigh to bring in his sax for a searing “Whipping Post” and glorious “Dreams” and Karl Denson adds some reed work on a grooving “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.” The intertwining guitars by Trucks and Haynes is almost Wagnerian in its dramatic effect, and with Haynes blues shouting on “Hoochie Coochie Man,” you get the marrow of American music, ready for any transplant to add some corpuscles to your own anemic body. WHEW!
With Greg Allman recently gone to his reward, this is an excellent time to re-evaluate his importance to music and our culture.