Most of us are very familiar with At Fillmore East, the legendary live album from The Allman Brothers Band, recorded at New York City's Fillmore East auditorium back in March of 1971. Well, what set the stage for that incendiary live album was a performance opening up for the Grateful Dead a year earlier in February of 1970, just as the band were really starting to peak. Here we have for the first time an official release of that performance, released by Bear's Sonic Journals in conjunction with the Allman Brothers Band trust, and while it doesn't quite hit the groundbreaking highs of At Fillmore East, it shows a band not far from that high benchmark and on the cusp of taking the world by storm.
Many of the same songs from that legendary recording are here with slightly different arrangements, including "Statesboro Blues", "Trouble No More", and a much shorter, less frantic "Whipping Post". Dickie Betts' iconic "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" kicks off the show, and it's a bit more laid back than the version on At Fillmore East but no less impressive. Berry Oakley takes the vocal slot on "Hoochie Coochie Man", the Willie Dixon classic, and there's even an appearance here of "Outskirts of Town", an old blues tune which the band was playing live earlier in their career. The grand finale of "Mountain Jam" in all its 30+ minute glory, is the highlight of the album, the band firing on all cylinders with blazing drum solos, dueling guitar passages between Duane & Dickey, and Gregg's sultry Hammond organ. Gregg's vocals, for the most part, are not as clean as on the At Fillmore East, and a tad rough in spots during this performance, but sonically this is still a pretty decent sounding recording that any true Allman Brothers Band fan will want to have in their collection.
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
Track Listing
1) In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (9:22)
2) Hoochie Coochie Man (6:05)
3) Statesboro Blues (4:17)
4) Trouble No More (4:11)
5) Outskirts of Town (8:30)
6) Whipping Post (8:11)
7) Mountain Jam (30:46)
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