After two sub-par albums with Arista, the Allman Brothers broke up for the second time, this time it felt like it was for good. Punk and disco had come and gone, New Wave became the big thing. Acts like the Allman Brothers couldn’t get arrested. Nobody wanted to hear their kind of blues-based rock music. Then something extraordinary happened. A guitar whiz from Dallas by way of Austin named Stevie Ray Vaughan caught fire. Suddenly blues-based music was hip again. Stevie Ray’s big brother Jimmie’s band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds got a record deal with Epic. They had a massive hit with Tuff Enuff. Before we knew it, both Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts had record deals with Epic. In 1987 Gregg put out I’m No Angel. It reeked of 1980s production techniques [as did the follow-up Before the Bullets Fly], but the spirit was there, and at that time that was good enough for me. He did a new recording of Don't Want You No More/It's Not My Cross to Bear, and I never tire of his horn-laden Anything Goes. Another stand-out track is Faces Without Names. Carol and I ended up seeing him open for SRV in Pueblo, Colorado the day after we got married in 1987.Dickey Betts put out an album in 1988 called Pattern Disruptive. It served as a blueprint for Allman Brothers albums to come. The pretty, countrified sound from his albums with Great Southern was long gone. He got himself some Marshall amps and turned up the volume. I can attribute this to the addition of guitarist Warren Haynes. Finally Dickey had an on-stage foil who could push him every night. Warren is absolutely fearless when going toe-to-toe with other guitar players. Dickey hadn’t had that since the days of Duane. In addition to Warren Haynes, keyboardist Johnny Neel was also in Dickey’s band. There are many good songs on Pattern Disruptive, but there is one great one – the instrumental Duane’s Tune.
Duane's Tune - Dickey Betts
In 1988, Polydor decided to put out what was unusual at the time – the box set. Up until then there was only one – Bob Dylan’s Biograph. The object of their first box was Eric Clapton. His set was called Crossroads, and was a very thorough compilation of music EC had done between the Yardbirds, through the Cream, Blind Faith and Derek & the Dominoes years, and his solo work up until 1988. Crossroads sold by the truckload and began the box set trend that continues today. Polydor decided the success of Crossroads would give them another opportunity to put out another box set from someone equal to Eric Clapton’s stature. Polydor’s choice for the next box set was the Allman Brothers Band. Producer Bill Levenson, who compiled Crossroads, brought together lots of Allman Brothers music for their box set, simply titled Dreams. This four-disc set had music from the Allman Joys, the Hour Glass, the Second Coming [featuring Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley], the Allman Brothers Band, Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, and Dickey Betts [with and without Great Southern]. Included on Dreams were the aforementioned I’m No Angel and Duane’s Tune. To my surprise, the band agreed to re-group and tour to support the release of Dreams. We finally got to see one of my favorite bands in Sacramento. The band included the four original surviving members [Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, and Jaimoe], Warren Haynes and Johnny Neel from Dickey Betts’ band, and newcomer Allen Woody on bass. We finally got to see my favorite band [outside the Beatles, of course]. Here’s what the setlist looked like:
August 11, 1989 – Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA
Don’t Want You No More -> It’s Not My Cross To Bear / Statesboro Blues / Blue Sky / I’m No Angel / Duane’s Tune / Trouble No More / Blues Ain’t Nothin’ / In Memory of Elizabeth Reed / One Way Out / Melissa / Just Before the Bullets Fly / Dreams / Southbound* / Jessica / Les Brers in A Minor / Whipping Post
*Berry Duane Oakley, bass
I figured the Dreams tour was just a one-off thing, but in July 1990, Seven Turns appeared. Produced by Tom Dowd and recorded at the same studio as Eat a Peach and Layla [Criteria Studios in Miami], Seven Turns was by far their best work since Brothers and Sisters [1973]. Seven Turns has that same hard sound as Dickey's Pattern Disruptive, but there are elements in Seven Turns that make it quintessential Allman Brothers. There are elements of country, blues, jazz, and rock mixed all together on this record that set this band apart from its contemporaries. Bassist Allen Woody [RIP] was like Berry Oakley [RIP] in that he played bass like a third lead guitarist. Warren had the unenviable task of playing Duane Allman’s parts live. But the band had such faith in him they didn’t tell him what or what not to play. Warren knew the fans expected to hear some of Duane’s stuff note-for-note [such as the intro to Statesboro Blues], but he had the leeway to play his own interpretations of Duane’s work if the mood struck him. On Seven Turns he was free to play his own music, and there was plenty to play. Jaimoe and Butch Trucks played together so well you wouldn’t know they had been apart for nine years. Of the nine tunes on the album, Warren Haynes had a hand in writing four of them [he even got to sing one of them – Loaded Dice]. Gregg Allman had only one songwriting credit [Good Clean Fun], but he was in fine voice as he sang and played the Hammond organ. Johnny Neel, also from Dickey Betts’ band, provides piano and harmonica.
The guiding light and musical director for this album was Dickey Betts. Of the nine songs, seven of them are his. Highlights include the country-ish title track. Warren Haynes provides a fantastic slide solo that introduced him to Allman Brothers fans in the same way Chuck Leavell did with his piano solo on Jessica. The icing on the cake is the call-and-response vocals of Dickey and Gregg. They had never done a vocal arrangement that way, and here they did it perfectly. No Allman Brothers album would be complete without an instrumental from Dickey Betts. In this case it’s True Gravity. Dickey wrote most of it on one of Berry Oakley’s basses, which is why you’ve got the eight-string Alembic lead bass from Allen Woody [he played the four-string live]. Warren threw in the middle section where he does a solo. And to show how good these guys are, they changed up the time signature in that middle section, with Butch playing half-time while Jaimoe plays double time. The band got to play a truncated version of True Gravity [along with Good Clean Fun] on The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was still the host. As a bonus, Doc Severinson and the orchestra joined the band on True Gravity, and the results were fantastic. Carson loved it! He didn’t usually let guests play more than one song, but with the Allman Brothers he made an exception. A true fan he was – I still miss Carson.
True Gravity [The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson]
Warren and Johnny Neel contribute a good slow blues tune called Gambler's Roll. The Allman Brothers still play it in their sets on occasion to this day. Johnny Neel also contributed It Ain't Over Yet. Dickey said the band had trouble nailing this one down because half the band thought it should go like Hotel California, the other half though it should go like The Thrill Is Gone.
On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. I knew that sometime shortly after that I would have to deploy to Saudi Arabia to support Operation Desert Shield. Luckily, I got to see the Allman Brothers at Cal Expo again before I deployed. When I did deploy I took a copy of Seven Turns with me. It was my little piece of Americana while I was deployed to that faraway place. Here’s the setlist from the 1990 show at Cal Expo:
August 5, 1990– Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA
Don’t Want You No More -> It’s Not My Cross To Bear / Statesboro Blues / Blue Sky / Low Down Dirty Mean / Seven Turns / Good Clean Fun / Gambler’s Roll / In Memory of Elizabeth Reed / One Way Out / True Gravity / Ramblin’ Man / Southbound / Jessica / Whipping Post
Here ends my first chapter on the revival of the Allman Brothers Band. Coming next: Shades of Two Worlds, Where It All Begins, more live albums and the birth of Gov’t Mule.
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