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Copyright © 2002-2004
by James P. Hauser except where otherwise noted.  All rights reserved.

THE BLUES CONNECTIONS OF

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND

Just as the Allman Brothers Band was on its way to the top of the rock world in the early 1970s, its brilliant guitarist, Duane Allman, died from injuries he received in a motorcycle accident. The band has carried on without him, but it will probably never again make music that matches the greatness of the earlier recordings and concert performances with Duane. The Allman Brothers mixed rock, blues, and jazz to create a unique and powerful style of southern-fried rock, a style that influenced many other bands from south of the Mason-Dixon including Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Charlie Daniels Band, and the Marshall Tucker Band.

Blues and R&B were most definitely a major influence on the Allman Brothers. While they were still very young, brothers Duane and Gregg became hooked on black music after they attended a show that included Jackie Wilson, B.B. King, Otis Redding, and Patti LaBelle. This was the music that moved them--blues, R&B, and soul--music that could be wild enough to rock a dead gator, or pretty enough to melt all the evil ya got inside, or sad enough to break your heart so bad ya gotta sell it to the junkman. And they wanted to be a part of it. But there was one problem--it was the early 1960s, not exactly a time in America when it was popular for white musicians to be playing the blues. That wasn't stopping the Allman boys, though. Duane found a friend who taught him how to play the riffs of great blues guitarists like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. Meanwhile, Gregg studied the singing of two very soulful blues vocalists, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Little Milton.

They did their homework and they did it well. Come 1964, The Beatles and other British Invasion bands started hitting America with wild rock'n'roll translations of the blues, releasing albums packed with remakes of classic records originally cut by the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. Surely Duane and Gregg must have been inspired by the fact that the type of music that they played and loved was the same kind of music being played by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who.

So while the Invasion bands were being hugely successful with their British brand of white blues, the Allmans kept right on learning, playing, and creating their own brand of white blues--white blues with a Dixie rock and roll drawl. And, because they had the advantage of living in America, they were developing a better feel for black music than their British counterparts. They had black friends and played together in bands with them. Plus, they had better access to blues and R&B records, and they could listen to the South's black radio stations. It was all bound to rub off...and it did. And in a mighty glorious fashion! Gregg developed a great, authentic blues voice. And Duane's superb guitar playing earned him a spot as a session player at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama, giving him the opportunity to record with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Otis Rush, King Curtis, Clarence Carter and other stars of R&B, blues and soul.

Based on his excellent session work, Duane got a recording contract and rounded up a band which produced some of the greatest rock music of the seventies. To hear the Allman Brothers Band at their best and bluesiest, look for their first four albums, The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South, At Fillmore East, and Eat a Peach. Duane's fantastic blues-influenced guitar is also featured (along with Eric Clapton's fiery axe) on Derek and the Dominoes' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. And a lot of his great session work can be found on Duane Allman: An Anthology (volumes 1 and 2).

For more blues connections, including the influences of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and Sonny Boy Williamson on the Allmans, you best just keep readin' on, brothers and sisters. Blues, rock'n'roll, and two ears--ain't life grand?!!!

More Allman Brothers Blues Connektions:

Willie Dixon: Prior to the formation of the Allman Brothers Band, Duane and Gregg Allman were leaders of a band called The Allman Joys which recorded Willie Dixon's "Spoonful". Dixon's composition has also been recorded by Cream, but THE classic version of "Spoonful" was recorded by Howlin' Wolf.

Big Bill Broonzy: The compilation album Duane Allman: An Anthology includes a great rendition of "Mean Old World". Duane recorded it with Eric Clapton during the recording sessions for the Layla album, but somehow it didn't make it onto the double LP. Luckily, it was finally released on the Anthology compilation. "Mean Old World" was written by Big Bill Broonzy and it's a real classic. Although the Allman-Clapton version of the song is excellent, probably the best version was recorded by Little Walter whose remake included some absolutely inkkkkredible harp playing!

Champion Jack Dupree: Although Duane Allman was not known as a great singer, you can hear him give a great vocal performance of the classic blues "Goin' Down Slow" on the album Duane Allman: An Anthology. Allman's recording of this song was probably inspired by Champion Jack Dupree's version which is on the excellent album Blues From the Gutter. Another great version of the song was recorded by Howlin' Wolf.

Blind Willie McTell: The first cut on the Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East album is a great version of "Statesboro Blues", a song written by the ragtime-blues guitarist Blind Willie McTell. McTell's own recording of his song is what inspired Duane to learn to play bottleneck guitar.

Howlin' Wolf: See the entries for Willie Dixon and Champion Jack Dupree above.

Little Walter Jacobs: See the entry for Big Bill Broonzy above.

Elmore James: The Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East album includes an excellent version of Elmore James's "Done Somebody Wrong" with Duane displaying his amazing slide guitar technique. His playing is on the high end of the fretboard, a no man's land to which slide players rarely venture due to its extreme difficulty. (It was Duane's playing stuff like this that renewed Clapton's interest in playing slide.) The Allmans have a second connection to Elmore James--at Duane Allman's funeral, the mourning members of his band played a set of songs to honor him, and the first song they played was James's "The Sky is Crying".

Robert Johnson: The Allmans have recorded Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen" several times. Duane Allman: An Anthology Volume II includes a live version of the song by Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett with Duane playing fantastic acoustic bottleneck guitar. Another version appears on the Shades of Two Worlds album. Also, the Allman Brothers closed their MTV Unplugged show in 1990 with this song.

Muddy Waters: The Allman's Win, Lose or Draw album includes Muddy's "Can't Lose What You Never Had" which was drastically rewritten by Greg Allman. It is one of the better songs on what is generally considered to be a relatively weak album. Another album, the terrific compilation Duane Allman: An Anthology includes a cover of Muddy's "Rollin' Stone" with superb playing from Duane.

Sonny Boy Williamson II (a/k/a Rice Miller): The Allman Brothers' Eat a Peach album contains their great reworking of the blues standard "One Way Out". The song was composed by Elmore James and Marshall Sehorn, but it is more closely associated with Sonny Boy Williamson due to his classic version. The Allmans' version is a live recording of a performance at the Fillmore East concerts. It did not appear on 1971's legendary At Fillmore East album, but it was just too good to leave sitting in the can, so it appeared later (along with some other unreleased Fillmore performances) on 1972's Eat a Peach. Twenty years later, in 1992, the Allmans' recording of "One Way Out" was released again, this time on an album entitled The Fillmore Concerts which was basically an expanded version of At Fillmore East.

St. Louis Jimmy Oden: On the album Duane Allman: An Anthology, Duane Allman gives a very moving vocal performace of the song "Goin' Down Slow", a blues standard composed by St. Louis Jimmy. In the song, a young man tells the story of how he has lived the life of a high roller, but knows that he is now dying. Duane's haunting performance seems to predict that he will share the same fate (as Scott Freeman points out in Midnight Riders, his excellent biography of the Allman Brothers). It was as if Duane could see into his future, a future not far off, in which he would die tragically--at the height of his fame and at the age of just 24--from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

Notes:

Additional blues songs recorded by the Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman, or Duane Allman are listed below. They are arranged alphabetically by the name of the blues artist who composed, originally recorded, and/or popularized the song.

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Farther Up the Road

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Turn on Your Lovelight

Little Walter (also Big Bill Broonzy): Key to the Highway

Willie Cobbs: You Don't Love Me

John Lee Hooker: Dimples

Little Willie John: Need Your Love So Bad

Robert Johnson: Crossroads Blues (recorded by an early group of Duane's and Gregg's known as the Allman Joys)

Muddy Waters (performer), Willie Dixon (composer): I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man

T-Bone Walker: Stormy Monday

Ray Charles ( also Casey Bill Weldon): We Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (a/k/a I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town)

The Sky is Crying

At Duane Allman's funeral, his bandmates played several songs in his honor including the following classic blues: Elmore James' "The Sky is Crying", T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday", Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway", and Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues" Other songs played were the Allmans' own "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Melissa", and the traditional "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?".

The AKA Blues Connection

A Blues Man is born a Ramblin' Man!