Allman Fillmore East

Six weeks before the Allman Brothers Band played the shows immortalized on At Fillmore East, they played three gigs at Bill Graham's left coast venue, the Fillmore West, in San Francisco in January of 1971. They were slotted between openers the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band and Hot Tuna. These three shows are presented in their entirety in a four-disc set. Sourced from original two-track, reel-to-reel soundboard masters, they were held in ABB crew members Twiggs Lyndon's, Joe Dan Petty's, and Mike Callahan's closets for nearly five decades. They were then acquired by archivist Kirk West, who set the painstaking restoration process in motion. The quality here, while very good throughout, is muddy in some spots (mostly on disc two). In addition to the complete shows, West added a 45-minute "Mountain Jam" from March of 1970 at the Warehouse in New Orleans to disc four to fill it out.

Blending rock, blues, country, and jazz, the godfathers of Southern rock in all its wild, woolly glory. Collection includes: 'The Allman Brothers Band' (1969); 'Idlewild South' (1970); 'At Fillmore East' (1971); 'Eat A Peach' (1972); 'Brothers And Sisters' (1973).

If truth be told, the Allman Brothers Band have always been the quintessential American rock band, shaping a rootsy mix of blues, jazz, country, and rock into an elegant, nuanced sound that single-handedly created what became known as Southern rock. Full of beautiful dual guitar leads and driven by double drummers, and possessing a lead singer who, when he was on his game, had as much soul as anyone around, the Allman Brothers Band were also an improvisational band who found all kinds of new corners in their classic catalog when they played live, no matter what the configuration of the band was at the time.

Essentially the Allman Brothers Band's Gold collection is an expanded version of both the Universal Masters and 20th Century Masters collections. It contains two discs that total 30 cuts and cover the band's catalog from 1969's Allman Brothers Band to 1975's Enlightened Rogues. There are five cuts from the first album, including the original studio version of "Whipping Post," and four from Idlewild South, including the studio read of "Midnight Ride." The cuts from At Fillmore East number four with the inclusion of the 13-minute "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," and five from Eat a Peach, including "Melissa," "Blue Sky," and "Ain't Wasting Time No More."

Every ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND live performance is special and unique. Renowned for their spontaneous improvisation, no two shows are ever the same; each captures a pivotal period in the band’s history and holds a story just waiting to be told.