CD’s & DOWNLOADS Reviews by Michael Buffalo Smith
The Fillmore Recordings, the new boxed set from The Allman Brothers Band, is some serious history in a box. Live at Fillmore East was not only one of the most im- portant records the Brothers ever recorded, it is widely ac- cepted as one of the best albums of all time, and certainly the de- finitive “live”
recording. In my past conversations with the late Tom Dowd (see Rebel Yell, Mercer Uni- versity Press) he went into great detail about the multiple nights at the Fillmore recording the band live. How they would leave the Fill- more after the show in the wee hours of the morning and go down to the studio and listen to the entire show, narrowing down the best performances of each song. One song he was quite outspoken about during our conversa- tion was “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” Duane had surprised Dowd by bringing in Tom Doucette on harp and a full horn sec- tion. Tom did some “Frankenstein” cutting and splicing of various performances to get the “Liz Reed” that made it to the vinyl. Now we get to hear it with the horn section, and we are able to hear what Tom was hearing. For historical purposes, it is fun to hear, but it’s not a version I will ever play over and over. The weak spot on an otherwise brilliant series of recordings. That said, this is one of the most exciting releases of the past ten years. Often bootlegged, at least in part, it is a sheer joy to see the project come to fruition, espe-
cially now, as the Allman Brothers retire from the road. There are so many highlights it would take this entire magazine to comment on each one. Suffice it to say, if you love the Brothers, (and who doesn’t?) this belongs in your music collection right alongside last year’s Skydog boxed set... To come full circle, The Allman Brothers Band, Beacon The- ater, 10-28-14 chronicles the farewell concert by the now legendary ensemble. Recorded live at The Beacon Theater, this one hits me personally on many levels. First of all, they are my all time favorite band, so there’s that emotional baggage in my head. Secondly, it just so happened this was the same day I un- derwent a very serious and dangerous sur- gery. While we are keeping tabs here in the Southern Rock world, it was also Charlie Daniels’ birthday (Happy Birthday buddy!) and the show bled into the early morning hours of October 29, which was the date back in 1971 when Brother Duane Allman was killed in the motorcycle wreck. Wellsir, I could hardly wait to hear the show, but it would have to wait a week until I was through the real pain of surgery and the awful side-effects of morphine. As I write this review, it has been exactly one week since I came rolling out of a successful surgery. One week since Charlie turned 78 years young. One week since the greatest band in history performed their final show together. Opening with a bit of “Little Martha,” the boys plunge head long into “Mountain Jam,”
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