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ALBUM REVIEW October 13, 2019

Gregg Allman: Laid Back Deluxe Edition

Read "Laid Back Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Doug Collette

Gregg Allman's first solo album, Laid Back (Capricorn, 1973), is the ideal candidate for a Deluxe Edition reissue and remaster. Not only is the record an exquisite, one-of-a-kind piece of work in its original form, but the backstory is eminently worth telling as it sheds light not only on the creation of the album itself, but the fundamental relationship, at the time of the recording, between the Allman Brothers Band and its surviving namesake. Kudos to the curators, ...

LIVE REVIEW October 14, 2017

The 2017 Laid Back Festival: In The Spirit of Gregg Allman at The Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater

By Mike Perciaccante

The 2017 Laid Back Festival: In The Spirit of Gregg Allman The Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY September 24, 2017 Gregg Allman co-founded and curated the inaugural Laid Back Festival. That festival began as a single day celebration in August of 2015 and was held at the Jones Beach Amphitheater in Wantagh, NY. Allman, the Doobie Brothers, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, Jaimoe's Jasssz Band and City of the Sun played that ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 17, 2017

Gregg Allman: Southern Blood

By C. Michael Bailey

Music made at the end is always necessary listening. It may not be the best, prettiest, most, but it is obligatory if, for no other reason, as a final act of respect for the artist. Examples of compelling music made at the end of an artist's life are manifold. From classical composition, late Mozart, in particular his Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 (1791--composed three months before his death), not to mention his Requiem, K. 626 (1791--unfinished at the ...

PROFILE May 30, 2017

Gregg Allman: December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017

By C. Michael Bailey

“Well, I'll keep on moving. Things are bound to be improving these days. One of these days..." Gregg Allman recorded Jackson Browne's lament for his 1973 Capricorn release Laid Back. The song clung to him like smoke, the length of his career, surfacing here and there, until, finally he sang the song with its composer for the special, All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman (Rounder, 2014). That was a fine moment, one curiously ...

LIVE REVIEW July 30, 2016

The 2016 Laid Back Festival Featuring Gregg Allman, Jason Isbell, America, the Marshall Tucker Band, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, Orleans, Devon Allman and Levon

By Mike Perciaccante

Gregg Allman, Jason Isbell, America, the Marshall Tucker Band, Jaimoe's Jasssz Band, Orleans, Devon Allman and Levon The 2016 Laid Back Festival Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY July 23, 2016 Starting out as the creative collaboration between Gregg Allman and Live Nation, the Laid Back Festival began as a one day celebration in August of 2015, at the picturesque Nikon at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island. Allman named the event ...

TALKIN' BLUES June 10, 2012

Gregg Allman's Memoir

By Alan Bryson

A few years back, Gregg Allman said in an interview that one thing was for sure, the book he was writing wouldn't have a song title. So when the publication of his memoir, My Cross To Bear (William Morrow, 2012) was announced, my initial reaction was somewhere between skepticism and ambivalence. Not only was the book a play on his song, “Not My Cross to Bear," but at least eight of the chapters were directly taken from song titles.

BOOK REVIEW May 13, 2012

Gregg Allman: My Cross to Bear

By Doug Collette

My Cross to BearGregg Allman w/ Alan LightHardback; 380 pagesISBN 978-0062112033William Morrow2012 The most vibrant interludes in guitarist and singer Gregg Allman's autobiography are those where he talks about songwriting. His accounts of exchanging and refining ideas, by himself or collaboratively, carries a level of engagement hard to find elsewhere in the 380 plus pages. Little wonder Allman values the gift of songwriting, and does so with ...