Released a year after Eat a Peach, Brothers and Sisters shows off a leaner brand of musicianship, which, coupled with a pair of serious crowd-pleasers, "Ramblin' Man" and "Jessica," helped drive it to the top of the charts for a month and a half and to platinum record sales. This was the first album to feature the group's new lineup, with Chuck Leavell on keyboards and Lamar Williams on bass, as well as Dickey Betts' emergence as a singer alongside Gregg Allman. The tracks appear on the album in the order in which they were recorded, and the first three, up through "Ramblin' Man," feature Berry Oakley – their sound is rock-hard and crisp.
The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guitar, vocals, songwriting), Berry Oakley (bass guitar), Butch Trucks (drums), and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson (drums). Subsequently based in Macon, Georgia, they incorporated elements of blues, jazz, and country music, and their live shows featured jam band-style improvisation and instrumentals.
The Best of the Allman Brothers offers a brief but effective introduction to the band, featuring such hits as "Ramblin' Man", "Crazy Love", "Melissa", "Jessica", and "Statesboro Blues".
This might be the best debut album ever delivered by an American blues band, a bold, powerful, hard-edged, soulful essay in electric blues with a native Southern ambience…
Do we really need another live double CD by the Allman Brothers Band? Oh yeah. In fact, when they play this well, we need them in droves. This collection marks the second time the Allman Brothers have issued music from their storied shows at the Beacon Theater in New York. The first, Peakin' at the Beacon, was issued in 2000 with Dickey Betts and Derek Trucks in the lineup. Betts had not yet been fired and Warren Haynes was yet to return to the fold. While Betts is a singular voice and is one of the pillars of the ABB's sound, this new version of the band with Trucks and Haynes manning the guitars has gelled into a formidable unit; in fact, they are something spectacular.