These are seven musicians who are complete masters of their craft. Every one of them not only contributed to the whole, but each stole the show at various times during the performance. Trucks and Haynes were simply mesmerizing, with Haynes providing detailed, flawless guitar and Derek taking slide guitar to a level not yet seen by mankind. Both did so in an unpretentious way that never distracted from the performance as a whole.
The rhythm section kept a backbeat that was a strong as iron, but peppered with the kind of complexities and dynamic surges that you simply can't achieve with a single drummer.
Gregg sat in his B3 throne like a gentle king providing sweet organ and piano backgrounds. For the encore, Gregg came out from behind the keys to perform the only acoustic guitar based number of the night with the perpetually popular "Melissa," penned 40 years ago.
If a new law was passed and music was forced to become like sport, with only the very best having the ability of going pro, the Allman brothers would have nothing to worry about.
They're still at the top of their game, and if you haven't seen the current line-up make a point to do so. Never mind the weather.
Article comments
1 - kat3260
I just saw ABB last Sunday & Tuesday. Your review captured it exactly!
2 - Dave in NC
Just the FACTS about the ABB
& Credit, where Credit is due:
1. Duane Allman, Dickie Betts & Berry Oakley (bass) were the "original" ABB guitar players.
2. Derek Trucks & Warren Haynes (both very fine guitar players) are not on stage with the ABB doing their own material. Both of them are ONLY copying the original licks and styles of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts.
3. Neither Derek Trucks or Warren Haynes have ever written an ABB tune.
4. Dickey Betts wrote most of the ABB hits and for certain the most profitable ones. (Ramblin' Man made it to #2 on the Billboard Charts, their highest rated song to date.)
5. After the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, were not for Dickey Betts, it is very likely the ABB would have disappeared into obscurity in the 70's.
6. You owe Dickey Betts a "real apology" for the "sorry Dickey" comment. (Bett's skills in musical composition & as a guitar player are so far beyond Trucks & Haynes, to even compare them to Betts is incomprehensible.)
*Suggestion: Before you write another critique, go in person and hear Dickey Betts & Great Southern. You will be amazed when you hear "the original".
o·rig·i·nal (-rj-nl)
adj.
1. Preceding all others in time; first.
2. a. Not derived from something else; fresh and unusual: an original play, not an adaptation.
b. Showing a marked departure from previous practice; new: a truly original approach. See Synonyms at new.
3. Productive of new things or new ideas; inventive: an original mind.
4. Being the source from which a copy, reproduction, or translation is made.
n.
1. A first form from which other forms are made or developed: Later models of the car retained many features of the original.
2. a. An authentic work of art: bought an original, not a print.
b. Work that has been composed firsthand: kept the original but sent a photocopy to his publisher.
3. A person who is appealingly odd or curious; a character.
4. Archaic The source from which something arises; an originator. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin orginlis, from org, orgin-, source; see origin.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
3 - Robert
Dickey Betts WAS good at one point in his career.
Now he's just a washed up, wife beating, asshole.
No apology from me.
4 - Allman Fan
If not for Warren Haynes' presence there would be no ABB today. And yes Warren Haynes has written some ABB tunes.