Allman Brothers

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. Some lingering elements of the psychedelic era then drawing to a close can be found in "Dreams," along with the template for the group's on-stage workouts with "Whipping Post," and a solid cover of Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More."

Tributes to fallen icons don’t come any more poignant or illustrative than Eat a Peach. Released in early 1972, slightly more than three months after guitarist Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident, the double album honors the musician via sides he recorded in the studio as well as several live performances that didn’t fit on the mammoth At Fillmore East. The Allman Brothers Band, determined to press on, also contributes a trio of songs completed after their soulmate’s passing. Its execution is near perfect, its concept timeless.
In all probability, the Allman Brothers Band would’ve leapt to the fore of music’s commercial and critical elite had it not been for Duane’s fateful motorcycle accident that altered history and the trajectory of the group’s course…

Live at Ludlow Garage 1970 features 91 minutes of the Allman Brothers Band in concert at a Cincinnati venue that they loved, nearly a year before their legendary Fillmore shows. The acoustics are good, though a little shaky – the tape was made at seven-and-a-half IPS, the bare minimum professional standard, which leaves more hiss than one might like and a bit less clarity than a fully professional live album might show. On the other hand, the group's sound imparts its own punch and clarity, and it was done in stereo, and if not for the existence of the Fillmore tapes, and the fact that the albums they yielded sold a kajillion copies, this show might well have been released in the 1970s. It isn't as intense as the Fillmore shows, but it does capture the group as a little-known working band with but a single album out and building a reputation – and with Dickey Betts yet to emerge as either a singer or composer and their sound still being worked out ("Statesboro Blues" gets a startlingly subdued performance, anticipating the acoustic version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" from the '90s recording An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set).

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. Some lingering elements of the psychedelic era then drawing to a close can be found in "Dreams," along with the template for the group's on-stage workouts with "Whipping Post," and a solid cover of Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More."

Tributes to fallen icons don’t come any more poignant or illustrative than Eat a Peach. Released in early 1972, slightly more than three months after guitarist Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident, the double album honors the musician via sides he recorded in the studio as well as several live performances that didn’t fit on the mammoth At Fillmore East. The Allman Brothers Band, determined to press on, also contributes a trio of songs completed after their soulmate’s passing. Its execution is near perfect, its concept timeless.
In all probability, the Allman Brothers Band would’ve leapt to the fore of music’s commercial and critical elite had it not been for Duane’s fateful motorcycle accident that altered history and the trajectory of the group’s course…

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. Some lingering elements of the psychedelic era then drawing to a close can be found in "Dreams," along with the template for the group's on-stage workouts with "Whipping Post," and a solid cover of Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More." There isn't a bad song here, and only the fact that the group did even better the next time out keeps this from getting the highest possible rating.

“Duane Allman was bursting with energy…he was a force to be reckoned with. His drive and focus, as well as his intense belief in himself and our band, was incredible. He knew we were going to make it. We all knew we were a good band, but no one had that supreme confidence like he did, and it was a great thing, because his confidence and enthusiasm were infectious…it says a lot that his hero was Muhammad Ali. That kind of supreme confidence that Ali had – that’s where Duane was coming from.” Dickie Betts