I was kind of knocked-out by how good the last 3 Allman studio records are. Seven Turns, Shades of Two Worlds, and Hittin' the Note are all great, each one slightly better than the former. "Kind of Bird" from Shades of Two Worlds is just a wonderful jazzy track with some great playing by all concerned.
I kind of gave up on them after Brothers and Sisters. A big mistake!
Last edited by Guitarplyrjvb; 09-16-2016 at 01:59 AM.
You forgot to mention "Where It All Begins" , it was their second to last studio album and it is great also.
This is correct. The title track is as good as anything they've ever done.Originally Posted by bobert
Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that
I haven't heard that one yet! I'll have to remedy that!
Wow! Where it all Begins is great, too! Allen Woody is really playing his ass off as are Haynes and Betts. I don't know how I missed these, particularly since I love Gov't Mule.
Shades is a favorite of mine. All of it. I hope Dickey will tour again. Last saw him in 2012. I play in an Allman Bros. tribute band called Idlewild West. We're on FB.
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I'm missing Shades Of Two Worlds from that group of albums with Warren Haynes. Hittin' The Note was a hell of a swan song. Where It All Begins is damn fine too. Favorite track from that one is Sailing 'Cross The Devil's Sea. Great band. The best of the "southern rock" bands.
So, did we ever learn how Allen Woody died?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I have "Where It All Begins" and a live album ("An Evening With...") with that track on it which is pretty awesome. Don't have any of the other latter-day albums though.
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I thought it was a drug overdose. Very sad he was a great bass player and seemed like a wonderful guy.
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I think the first autopsy was inconclusive but since then I've heard a lot of rumblings about him ODing on heroin. It's a shame because he was just such a great player with a fantastic tone.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I agree with the OP. The Allman Brothers are one of my favourite bands of all time. I agree that Hittin' the Note is the best of their later day works. I like the ballad, Old Before My Time but the whole album is of high quality. I saw the band for 3 nights in Boston about five years ago and they were incredible live performers.
Last edited by mozo-pg; 09-16-2016 at 10:51 AM.
Awesome track! I think it's the finest composition I've ever heard from Dickey Betts. I went to see them during the Shades tour in '91 and it was a great show. Dickey was on fire and his playing was truly inspired. I just remember the overall sound coming off the stage was gigantic and very powerful!
Well, that was the assumption. And the embargo in information fueled the speculation. But, I never did see a conclusive ruling. Not that it's any of my business.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I picked this up from an ABB forum:
It's a shame that ABB didn't record anything else after Hittin' the Note. I believe this was a bit of frustration for Warren and Derek. Still, at least the last recording from the band is one that has them absolutely delivering a great performance.guess you haven't read the Relix article by Jaan Uhelszki (The New School of Gov't Mule, Relix, Februay/March 2005)? The writer states narratively: "The bereft duo (Matt and Warren) used the Deep End projects to burn out some of their grief and anger - anger because according to the Mule drummer, Woody was due to enter a rehab facility two weeks before he died, making his untimely death even more tragic."
Matt goes on to say: "My vision of Woody after all that we went through, is that I visualize him very happy. Warren and I have talked about this recently because Allen Woody had a great sense of humor. He was a really funny guy. But the last six months of his life were torture. I don't know if you've ever experienced going through anything with an individual - he had some drug problems. And it's really painful and heartbreaking, but in the last couple months of his life we were going to force him into rehab. And he was literally a couple weeks from going into rehab when he died. And it was such a miserable time in our life but you have to go through all the stages of grieving. It's text book you know? But now Woody pops in my mind and he's laughing, and his sense of humor is intact, and that's what I think of, in the present, and that's a good thing. We miss him dearly. And it's been three years. It's hard to believe."
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I tend to always go back to the live albums, so much so that I can't even remember which of the latter day albums I own. Seven Turns for sure, at least.
Last I got of them was when seeing them at the Roskilde festival in '91. Betts was still there, and they were absolutely wonderfully great.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
re: Where It All Begins
I actually saw them play that song, and several others that ended up on Where It All Begins, about two or so years before the album came out. They played like half the album on the 93 summer tour, which was the first time I saw them live. I actually prefer the arrangement they played that night, which had a long improv/jam in the middle, over the arrangement on the studio version and subsequent live recordings I've heard.
But yeah, all the Epic Records era albums are all great. Warren Haynes and Allen Woody really lit a fire under the band's collective ass, as it were. In particular, I like Seven Turns, Shades Of Two Worlds, and An Evening With The Allman Brothers Band.
Also, the Live At Great Woods video is pretty awesome too. A couple years ago, they finally issued a DVD that conformed to the original VHS release (apparently, the first DVD release was severely edited, with songs missing, and I think others edited, etc). There's lots of good tunes, some old favorites like Blue Sky, Jessica, and Whipping Post, a couple tunes off Shades Of Two Worlds, and a nice little acoustic set in the middle too. And it's one of the few places where you can see Warren Haynes play a Strat (which he uses on a couple songs).
I also remember VH-1 showing a good Allmans concert, I believe from Crested Butte, Montana. It was kind of post Seven Turns (Johnny Neal, the piano player who played on Seven Turns wasn't in the band anymore), but I guess before Shades Of Two Worlds. Bruce Hornsby and I think Dave Koz sit in on a couple songs, and there's a good, but obviously edited version of True Gravity.
And I also remember them appearing on The Tonight Show. The band comes out and plays Good Clean Fun, then Johnny announces that Doc Severnisen & The Tonight Show Brass were going to join them, and they went to an excellent rendition of True Gravity. They sort of cut the jamming section, obviously, because it's still pretty cool. During the middle part of True Gravity, you've got Doc on trumpet and Warren on slide guitar sort of trading licks back and forth.
Something I didn't know for well over a decade (not until the advent of Youtube) was that the following year, they came back and did the same thing, this time Doc and the Tonight Show Brass joined them for a version of Kind Of Bird. I couldn't figure out how the frell I must have missed it, until I realized that it must have aired when I was in boot camp, so yeah, I wouldn't have seen that.
That tour was great and I saw them also on the tour for where it all began and they brought out a very young Derek trucks to play with them on stage.
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I remember seeing both of those appearances on the Tonight Show. Incredible stuff.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Man , that was fantastic , thanks for posting!
A few years ago I found a bargain bin copy of an ABB album called Enlightened Rogues. It's from 1979. Not bad at all. This was the Dangerous Dan Toller era.
Agreed they are all very strong albums. Personally I think "Hittin The Note" ranks right up their with their all time classics.
Favorite songs from HTN for me are High Cost Of Low Living, Rockin' Horse. This album got me into Gov't Mule. One of the greatest bands of the 2000s I got into.
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