After a couple of albums with his band Honeytribe, guitarist and songwriter Devon Allman scored with the Royal Southern Brotherhood. A blues-rock supergroup comprised of Allman and guitarist Mike Zito, drummer Yonrico Scott, and bassist Charlie Wooton from Zydefunk, the band's lone album hit the Top Ten on Billboard's blues chart. But Allman has proven himself restless from the start, and Turquoise is the latest chapter in his musical evolution. For those who've heard his past recordings as exercises in jam band expression, this set will come as a surprise. Produced by Jim Gaines (the Radiators, Huey Lewis, Santana, Ana Popovic, etc.), the album is a deeper, richer, collection of tunes that focuses on the Allman the singer and songwriter rather than the guitarist.
Recorded in the same year as the Brothers and Sisters album, this solo debut release is a beautiful amalgam of R&B, folk, and gospel sounds, with the best singing on any of Gregg Allman's solo releases. He covers his own "Midnight Rider" in a more mournful, dirge-like manner, and Jackson Browne's "These Days" gets its most touching and tragic-sounding rendition as well. Although Chuck Leavell and Jaimoe are here, there's very little that sounds like the Allman Brothers Band – prominent guitars, apart from a few licks by Tommy Talton (Cowboy, ex-We the People), are overlooked in favor of gospel-tinged organ and choruses behind Allman's soulful singing.
Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) reissue from Gregg Allman featuring the high quality SHM-CD format, the latest remastering, and Cardboard sleeve replica of the original English LP artwork. Duane Allman's greatness was apparent on his recordings with the Allman Brothers, yet there was another side to the superb guitarist. For many years, he was a highly respected session musician, playing on cuts by Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie, and Clarence Carter, among others. By including those session cuts, as well as a sampling of his brief sojourn in Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominoes and a few rare solo tracks, along with a number of representative Allman Brothers songs, the double-album Anthology winds up drawing a complete portrait of Allman. He may have recorded plenty of other material worth hearing, but this has the bare essentials for an excellent introduction and retrospective.