rience to add new insights to the story of a band he clearly loves. The Road Goes on Forever goes beyond
the usual origin story of Gregg and Duane, providing valuable insights on every artist who was a member of the band, as well as comprehensive reporting on the band’s recordings and key live performances, such as Atlanta Pop and the Fillmore East. We learn how classic blues and R&B artists such as B.B. King, Little Milton, and Ray Charles influ- enced the band, as well as more contempo- rary and equally important musical connections with Eric Clapton and Delaney & Bonnie. Adding color and perspective to the
musical history, Smith brings us inside the Allman Brothers circle with exclusive and his- toric interviews with band members Dickey Betts, Dan Toler, Warren Haynes, Butch Trucks, and Southern Rock icon Tommy Tal- ton. He takes us backstage and inside the Capricorn studios for a real behind the scenes look at Southern Rock history being made. The book also covers Duane’s extensive and influential session work, and important side projects by Gregg and Dickey, even telling the story of Gregg’s less than successful collabo- ration with Cher. It takes the reader through the musical highs and lows, including the lows of the Arista years and the highs of the 40th anniversary 2009 Beacon Run. The show by show and song by song narrative of the Beacon run will bring back great musical memories if you were there, or make you feel you were really there if you weren’t so lucky. While the primary focus of The Road Goes on Forever is on the music, we are also treated to colorful stories about the roadies from the golden era (who were always a very real part of the band, and featured on the back cover of Live at Fillmore East), the “Big House” where the band lived and rehearsed, and more. I have read every book written on the Allman Brothers Band, on Duane Allman, Gregg All- man, and other members and associates of
the band, and interviewed most of the mem- bers of the band, and in his new book Michael still managed to surprise me with stories about the band that were new even to me. This book is a must read for every peach head, Southern Rock aficionado, or anyone who just loves a good story about American music and the artists who made it. The road does indeed go on forever!
-Brennan Carley
Brennan is a freelance journalist who is working on his own book on the musical ori- gins of the Allman Brothers Band with the working title The Unbroken Circle. His web site is
unbrokencircle.net
My Exaggerated Life Pat Conroy As Told to Katherine Clark (University of South Carolina Press)
Writer Katherine
Clark recorded hundreds of hours of interviews ith the late great Pat Conroy
for this book. Much more than a mere mem- oir, My Exagerted life finds Conroy digging deep to separate the “faction” of his novels from the unfiltered truth. It’s truly a “page turner.” While I had three books ahead of it ready to read, I read the first few pages and was hooked like a sea bass off of Fripp Island. Conroy comes clean about his family
dynamic growing up and his abusive military father and often overbearing mother. He shares the details on each of his marriages, including his second, one he called “the biggest mistake of my life.” Reading about all Pat went through, it’s
very hard to imagine how he managed to pen so many amazing novels while hunkered
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