Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and The Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s

Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and The Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s
Alan Paul
352 pages
ISBN: # 978-1250282699
St. Martin's Press
Year 2023

Alan Paul's Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and The Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s has just enough information and insight to posit the book as an ideal place to begin close scrutiny into the history of the seminal Southern rock band. For that very same reason, the author (almost) renders moot his digressions into the non-music oriented topics suggested in the hyperbolic subtitle.

As Paul states in his preface, he deliberately begins his narrative prior to the death of founder/guitarist Duane Allman in 1971, then proceeds to delineate the sequence of events involving the recording of and subsequent massive success of the Allman's fourth studio LP from which comes this tome's main title.

Taking this approach, Paul maintains some chronology of the ABB's background, one he explicates in greater detail in his previous book devoted to the Brothers, One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band (St. Martin's Press, 2014). The main thrust of journalist/blogger/musician Paul's fourth book, however, rightly centers around the Brothers' breakthrough to an ever wider mainstream audience than the one that embraced their now mythical live album At Fillmore East (Capricorn, 1971).

But beginning just prior to the untimely passing of the man nicknamed 'Skydog" (by Wilson Pickett), and immediately subsequent to the tragedy, the writer is also able shed light on the painful period following the death of another Brother: co-founder and original bassist Berry Oakley expired roughly a year later, in a motorcycle accident eerily similar to his comrade's, early in the recording their fourth studio LP.

Parsing the nuanced emotional conflicts the band encountered within and without its immediate 'family' of five, Alan Paul clearly illuminates that period. It's an era that deserves more attention in all manner of ways, including additional examination of the live shows during this interval as documented on the brilliant Macon City Auditorium: Macon, GA 2/11/72 (ABB Recording Co., 2004).

So, the author might better have concentrated on retrieving more detail about the early 1972 tours as well as the recording sessions for the pivotal album itself. The absence of such content is confounding in light of what Paul speaks of in his 'Author's Note:' a voluminous cache of taped interviews by ABB archivist Kirk West. To hear of that veritable treasure trove of content piques the curiosity about exactly how much substantial conversation resides in that store of conversations with band members and what percentage of it is pertinent to the topics at hand.

There's been more than a little writing done on the Allman Brothers' history, even over and above Alan Paul's aforementioned publication (in both its hardcover and abridged softcover versions). But those tomes, like this one, seem superficial compared to the exceptionally-detailed likes of Scott Freeman's Midnight Riders: The Story of the Allman Brothers Band (Little Brown & Co., 1995) as well as Bob Beatty's Play All Night!: Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East (University Press of Florida, 2022).

On their own terms and in comparison to Brothers And Sisters, both those publications contain as much or more emotional engagement and stirring enlightenment. Still, this dissertation of Alan Paul's is worth reading in and of itself for his account of the gestation of Brothers And Sisters (Capricorn, 1973), particularly as it coincides with the late Gregg Allman's initial solo album Laid Back (Capricorn, 1973). The writer is quite deft in describing the incremental integration of keyboardist Chuck Leavell into the remaining five-man Allman Brothers lineup partly as a result of his contributions to the companion piece release.

The writer is no less artful in his description of the recruitment of Lamar Williams as Oakley's replacement. A careful scan of the background of the new bassist, as a friend of drummer Jaimoe and as a serious professional musician, is invaluable for both the superficially curious demographic as well as long-term Allmans' fans. Revelations of this sort into the actual machinations of the Brothers' work during this period securely ground the book and belie its otherwise somewhat overinflated foundational concepts.

Along those latter lines, Paul sounds oddly detached in his discussion of the band's support for Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. Not especially passionate otherwise, the dry tone of this prose gives the impression the writer isn't so interested in the members of the group as human beings outside their roles as 'the Brothers:' he sounds merely dutiful in such coverage as well as that devoted to Gregg Allman's relationship with Cher.

As a result, it's hard not to find tedious the latter portions of The Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s, Of course, that's notwithstanding the sometimes salacious explication of the group's tawdry lifestyle choices or, more significantly, the internecine (and often subliminal) struggle for leadership of the group that arose in the wake of their fallen leader's demise between the surviving Allman and co-founder/guitarist/songwriter Dickey Betts, composer of the hit single as well as the memorable instrumentals for the group, including "Jessica," from this very long-player.

By almost all accounts, from the very outset of their existence, the Allman Brothers could be a self-indulgent contingent of personalities. Yet they were unrelentingly rigorous when it came to their musical efforts, so the objects of this journalist's fascination deserve the application of that same attitude. Thankfully, there is just enough of that perspective in The Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s, most notably in various asides such as quotes from modern day Allman Brother bassist /vocalist Oteil Burbridge.

And while Paul's accounts of the Southerners' bond with their West Coast Brethren the Grateful Dead come off as a bit fatuous, he is astute in his inclusion of compliments afforded the younger Allman sibling's subtle use of his Hammond organ, ie., the facility with which he uses the draw bars (per Leavell) and the spinning of the Leslie speaker (via latter-day band-mate Peter Levin).

To compensate for the aforementioned arid intervals, including the passages recounting Dickey Betts' devotion to Native American issues as well as the guitarist/composer predilection for violence, Alan Paul might well have discussed the ABB Recording Company's archival releases as they pertain to the period. For instance, Nassau Coliseum: Uniondale, NY: 5/1/73 (ABB Recording Co., 2005) is a highlight of that unfortunately limited series, one deserving of more than a little mention in the context of this book especially because, its somewhat erratic audio quality aside, the performance is spectacular, far superior to the Winterland show of the same year about which the writer gushes.

From that vantage point alone then, it's not wholly surprising to read Paul's false equivalency on the prolific nature of the early Allmans compared to The Beatles in their later days. And he blemishes his otherwise astute account of musician/producer Al Kooper's abiding interest in the Southern music scene by incorrectly referencing Super Session (Columbia, 1968): it's singular not plural.

In the overall context of musical scholarship, those are comparatively minor missteps of opinion and fact. Accordingly, for longstanding fans of ABB as well as the dilettante, close perusal of the Brothers And Sisters book, along with its aforementioned predecessors, will serve to at least outline, if not fully encompass, the source(s) of the Allman Brothers Band's influence on contemporary blues-rock and how it continues to increase so steadily with the passage of time.

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