Gregg Allman: The Road Less Traveled

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At that Nashville show, one Zac Brown Band member felt a strong connection with Allman. Native Georgian Clay Cook, who got his start writing with Mayer, today plays several instruments with Brown’s band. But in between his days with Mayer and Brown, Cook played alongside his uncle, vocalist Doug Gray, in the Marshall Tucker Band, Allman’s onetime labelmates during their Capricorn Records years. Given the Marshall Tucker Band’s close identification with the genre that Allman helped design the blueprint for, Cook has long admired Allman and his work.

“When I think of Gregg’s writing I look at three songs in particular: ‘Queen Of Hearts,’ ‘Melissa’ and ‘Midnight Rider,’” Cook says. “There are lines in all those songs that may seem a little vague, but they make sense to the core of the song. Tom Petty, for example, is famous for writing these lines that might not seem real specific, but they’re drawing a giant picture. Gregg has always been really, really good at that, and he pre-dates Tom by 10 years. And one of my favorite records of all time is (Allman’s first solo album) Laid Back, with Gregg’s great version of (Browne’s) ‘These Days,’ probably the best version by anybody.”

Romantic ballad “Queen Of Hearts” from Laid Back is one song that can’t be compared to anything else Allman has written. With a chord progression that leans prominently on mi7 and maj7 chords, “Queen of Hearts” blew away any stereotype of Allman as a one-trick-pony bluesman.

“That song took me about a year and a half to write,” Allman says. “We were rehearsing for the Brothers And Sisters album in 1973, and I had this pile of confetti around the piano where I’d tear it [the song] up in a rage and then go back to it. I finally played it for the band and one of them, I won’t say who, said, ‘Well, it just ain’t sayin’ nothin’.’ I was livid. So I got on the first thing smokin’ to Miami and recorded the Laid Back album.”

Country-rock giant Charlie Daniels has known Allman for the better part of four decades. Daniels expresses nothing but admiration for the artist he has seen weather the storms of life while changing the musical landscape of America.

“I believe Gregg Allman is the finest white blues singer I’ve ever heard,” Daniels says. “He’s just got a God-given talent for everything he does, and when he does a song like ‘Whipping Post’ or ‘Dreams,’ it sounds bluesy because of the way he sings it. Waylon’s (Jennings) cover of ‘Midnight Rider,’ for example, sounds one way, but Gregg’s just sounds like Gregg. When you hear him you know who he is.”

Perhaps no Allman composition made the impact on radio and the live concert business as “Whipping Post,” initially a studio track on The Allman Brothers Band, the group’s first album. Today the song is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” list. The song became a concert staple, especially because of the audience member who yells “Whipping POST!” on the live At Fillmore East album. This 23-minute live take is regarded as one of the greatest live rock performances of all time, and the song has been covered by bluegrass band Mountain Heart and the late Jeff Healey. It was even performed live by the late Frank Zappa to satisfy audience members who shouted for it for years at concerts all over the world, regardless of what act was on stage.

Another original song from that first Allman Brothers Band album that has become a classic for its swirling organ and the multiple melodic guitar parts played by Duane is “Dreams.” “’Dreams is one of the few songs I’ve written on the (Hammond) B-3,” Allman says. “I had that one with me when I came back from California to join the band.”

Guitarist Nels Cline is known in guitar circles as a major innovator in jazz and avant-garde music, but he is better known as the guitarist for alternative rockers Wilco. Cline was one of several musician friends who sat in with the Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theater in New York City in the spring of 2011, playing with them on three songs. “I don’t really know Gregg that well but I was fortunate to jam with him that night,” Cline says. “Playing ‘Dreams’ with them live at the Beacon was great. In Gregg’s autobiography he says that it was one of the early songs he wrote, and it’s always been one of my favorite songs as well.”

Cline is among many who believe that Allman hasn’t always received ample recognition for his work as a songwriter. “I think in many ways that Gregg’s work has been sort of taken for granted,” Cline says. “I’ve also felt that his organ playing has always been very underrated.”

When asked how he came to compose songs like “Whipping Post,” “Dreams” and “Queen Of Hearts,” with progressions that are definitely nothing resembling blues or typical rock and roll, Allman answers that he’s not entirely sure. “Man, I just stumbled onto ‘em,” he says. I really didn’t know exactly what I was doing, I just did it. My brother had to tell me that ‘Whipping Post’ was in 11/4 time; I had no idea.”

On 2011’s Low Country Blues, Allman’s first new solo album in more than a decade, Allman got back to his blues roots in partnership with producer T-Bone Burnett. “T-Bone sent me about 25 tunes and said to pick out my favorites, and I did,” he says. “I wanted it to be a straight-on blues record and we succeeded.” The album contained songs by Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Otis Rush, among others, as well as one by Allman and longtime Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes.

Allman says he hopes to record another album in 2013, but that the direction it will take is up in the air. “I don’t know for sure,” he says. “You always think you’ll go over everything you’ve got, you know, remember this, remember that … it’s hard to tell what shape it’ll take.”

In the end, Gregg Allman’s influence and place in rock and blues history are undeniable. But when it comes to songwriting he hasn’t always been acknowledged for his contributions, something he believes as much as anybody. There’s no bitterness, just a matter-of-factness when it comes to the subject of his perhaps not having been given his due for the music he’s written.

“I was looking at my itinerary today and was glad to see that I’d be talking to you at American Songwriter,” he says. “Because I don’t believe I’ve really ever been quite recognized as a songwriter. I haven’t.”

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