CD’S, VINYL & DOWNLOADS
Gregg Allman Southern Blood [Deluxe Edition] (New Rounder)
Much like David
Bowie did with Black- star, Gregg Allman turned his final album
into one of his finest works ever, writing from the heart, knowing that his time on earth was nearing an end. He wanted to write many more original songs, but his energy level was falling with every passing day, and yet he managed to choose a group of cover songs that would express exactly what he was feel- ing. Those, coupled with a single original, "My Only True Friend," co-written by gui- tarist and bandleader Scott Sharrard, make for the perfect Gregg Allman album. Probably his best work since Laid Back, way back in the early 1970’s. The eighth and final studio album by
Allman, this release follows his Low Country Blues (2011), an album that spurred Allman to continue touring, and even to release a memoir, My Cross to Bear, in 2012. That same year, he was diagnosed with liver can- cer. His schedule in the following years grad- ually slowed, and Southern Blood, recorded in March 2016, became his final album. He and his backing band recorded the album with producer Don Was at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama over a period of nine days. It was the very same studio where his late brother Duane got his start as a much sought after session guitarist just prior to the formation of The Allman Brothers Band. Besides the lone original song, Allman
chose to cover tunes by such diverse artists as
the Grateful Dead (“Black Muddy River”-, Tim Buckley (“Once I Was”) and Bob Dylan (“Going, Going, Gone”), and turned in a heartfelt cover of “Song for Adam,” penned by his former roommate and life-long friend Jackson Browne, who guest stars on the album.
Gregg sings a nice cover of Lowell
George’s classic “Willin,” and the deluxe edi- tion includes a pair of excellent live tracks, recorded in 2016, Willie Dixon’s “I Love the Life I Live” and “Love Like Kerosene,” written by guitarist Scott Sherrard. Southern Blood is the perfect epitaph
for brother Gregg. An album that will forever serve as his love letter to friends, family and fans. Maybe the best album of the year.
-Michael Buffalo Smith
Marcus King Band Due North (EP) (Fantasy) This four-song, digital only
EP rocks. It’s 30-minutes of sheer rock and roll excel- lence, containing three
tracks from the band’s sophomore album ses- sions with producer Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers) at the helm, and a smokin’ live track recorded last winter in the Windy City. All of us here in Upstate SC are proud
of Marcus. I myself recall seeing him play with his Dad Marvin and other talented King family members back years ago when Marcus was just a little prince. (See what I did there?) The Kings are legendary in the Greenville area, so it was no big surprise to hear a few
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