Allman Brothers Band – The Fox Box, 2004

Since 2003, two years after Warren Haynes rejoined the Allman Brothers Band, the band has participated in the Instant Music program. Here’s the deal – shortly after each Allman Brothers show is over, you have the opportunity to purchase a copy of the concert you just heard. So if you ever want to be on your own Allman Brothers live album, just go to a show. If they run out of copies of that day’s show, don’t worry. The Allman Brothers will sell you a copy on the Hittin’ the Note website. The prices vary depending on how many CDs are needed to capture the show in its entirety. I like to get them because I don’t go to shows anymore, but I still want to hear the Allman Brothers in their environment – the stage. The last time the Allman Brothers recorded a studio album was in 2002 [Hittin’ the Note], so if you are interested in hearing songs you’ve never heard the Allman Brothers play, getting their shows from their website is a pretty good deal. They’ve taken to play music made famous by other musicians [the Grateful Dead, the Band, Howlin’ Wolf, Son House, just to name a few], plus they’ve rearranged some of their old music.

In September 2004, the Brothers played a three-night stand at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. The setlists:

September 24, 2004Disc 1
Mountain Jam/Trouble No More/Midnight Rider/Wasted Words/Worried Down With the Blues/You Don’t Love Me/Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
Disc 2
Rockin’ Horse/Hot ‘Lanta/Melissa/Come and Go Blues/Can’t Lose What You Never Had/Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad? ->Franklin’s Tower
Disc 3
Black Hearted Woman/Dreams (w/Jack Pearson)/Mountain Jam (w/Jack Pearson)/ Southbound (w/Jack Pearson)
September 25, 2004Disc 1
Les Brers in A Minor>Don't Want You No More/It's Not My Cross To Bear/Statesboro Blues/Stand Back/Who's Been Talking/Soulshine/Good Clean Fun/Old Before My Time/Woman Across the River
Disc 2
Instrumental Illness/The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down/Leave My Blues At Home/Key To The Highway/Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Susan Tedeschi, vocals and guitar)/ One Way Out (Vaylor Trucks, guitar)
Disc 3
Blue Sky/Dreams/Les Brers in A Minor/Layla
September 26, 2004Disc 1
Revival/Every Hungry Woman/Done Somebody Wrong/Hoochie Coochie Man/Desdemona/High Cost of Low Living/Forty-Four Blues/End of the Line
Disc 2
Dreams/I Walk On Gilded Splinters/Stormy Monday/The Same Thing (Rob Barraco, piano)/ In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Rob Barraco, piano) >drums>
Disc 3
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed>bass>In Memory of Elizabeth Reed/Don't Keep Me Wonderin'/No One To Run With/Whipping Post

During this run at the Fox, the Brothers played 51 different songs [give or take a couple], and only one of those songs appeared each night – Dreams. They mix up the setlist every night. That’s one thing I love about this band. They don’t play the same songs night after night. They rotate different songs in and out of the setlist to keep them from getting stale. On the second night they played two songs from Derek & the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs because that was an album Duane Allman played a large part in making. On the third night they played I Walk on Gilded Splinters, another song Duane Allman had a hand in recording [with Johnny Jenkins on his Ton-Ton Macoute album]. As a treat, Gregg Allman sang Dickey Betts’ Blue Sky. The rule of thumb where Dickey’s songs are concerned is this – they’ll play Dickey’s instrumentals, but if Dickey sang a song on the original album, the band won’t play it live. That’s why you’ll never hear them playing Ramblin’ Man. But they got a lot of requests, it was Atlanta, so the Brothers let them have Blue Sky. On two of the three nights Warren Haynes sang songs from Howlin’ Wolf [Who’s Been Talking, Forty-Four]. On the same night they played the Layla songs, bassist Oteil Burbridge treated the crowd with his own rendition of the Grateful Dead classic Franklin’s Tower. These days you never know what to expect at an Allman Brothers show.

Depending on which town they’re playing in on a given night, they might have someone sit in with them. For instance, on the first night, Jack Pearson [who replaced Warren Haynes in the band 1997-99 but never recorded with them] sits in on three songs. Susan Tedeschi [Mrs Derek Trucks] guests with the band on the second night to sing Bob Dylan’s Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.

These guys have been playing together for ten years now. It’s the longest-lived incarnation of the band in its 41-year history. They’re all sober [even Gregg, since 1996], they ‘re all healthy [even after Gregg’s liver transplant in 2009], and they are playing great. Gregg is in fine voice every night. That couldn’t be said “back in the day.” Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks each have their solo gigs [Gov’t Mule and the Derek Trucks Band, respectively], so the Allman Brothers really is a part-time gig for them. That’s what keeps these guys fresh, and what makes these shows special. There are 175 recorded since 2003. So if you’re like me, you love the Allman Brothers Band but can’t afford to go to shows anymore, wander over to Hittin’ the Note to see what they have to offer.