This is the first album after Duane’s death which does not involve him at all. Obviously, he was missed, but the Allman Brothers still made a pretty good showing, even without him. I have always preferred Allman Bros above other, more traditional blues bands, since I always like it when blues is mixed and matched with country and pop influences. In fact, I prefer such stuff over the traditional blues, frankly speaking, not being much of a Hoochie Coochie Man. Allman Brothers first caught my ear with instrumental stuff like Jessica, which has piano solos and melodies galore. Rather than replacing Duane on the guitar, they brought this keyboard player to fight with his piano against Dickey Betts lead guitar lines, which, by the way are pretty good. For the traditional blues fans we have songs like Jelly (Jelly Jelly Jelly, Jelly stays on my mind!!), while in other places we have country sing-alongs ala Rambling Man, a typical, upbeat song about rambling in the countryside.
You can imagine the farms nearby, what?
I would place this as inferior to albums like Eat a Peach, Idlewild South and the self titled first album.
In any case, pretty good stuff from the Allman Brothers, though I would place this as inferior to albums like Eat a Peach, Idlewild South and the self titled first album. Not as quintessential or revolutionary as the first 4 albums (including the live At Fillmore East), but still a pretty good addition to your record collection.
-Baba T
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