It would be too easy to write off
\nBrothers And Sisters<\/i>, the 1973 outing from The Allman
\nBrothers Band, as a must-own album. After all, it does contain two
\nof the best-known tracks from the band, “Ramblin’ Man” and
\n“Jessica”. It would be easy to invoke the pity clause, since the
\nband was still recovering from the 1971 motorcycle accident which
\ntook the life of Duane Allman. If that wasn’t enough heartbreak,
\nthe Greek tragedy continued in 1972 when bassist Berry Oakley was
\nkilled in another motorcycle accident, blocks from Duane Allman’s
\nfatal crash\u2026 just over a year to the day of the first
\ncrash.<\/p>\n
Yet if one who’s familiar with the Allmans to this point in
\ntheir career really sits down and listens to
\nBrothers And Sisters<\/i>, two words should come to their mouths:
\n“Uh oh.” While this is still very much a listenable album, it does
\nreflect the strain the band had been under dealing with tragedy
\nafter tragedy, and the stress begins to take its toll.<\/p>\n
In all fairness, the fact that any band could go on after the
\ndeaths of two key members in just over a year is an amazing display
\nof heart, and I honestly cannot imagine how Gregg Allman and
\ncompany were able to keep things going after Oakley’s death. And it
\nmight seem that I’m making light of Dickey Betts’s skills as a
\nguitarist and songwriter. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
\nListen to the instrumental “Jessica,” and hear how all the
\ninfluences the Allmans had been playing since the late ’60s finally
\nmerge in this jazz-rock number. It is a tad overplayed on radio,
\nadmittedly, but it’s still a tour de force that is rightfully seen
\nas one of the best songs in the Allmans’ repertoire.<\/p>\n
Yet this, the band’s fifth disc (not including
\nBeginnings<\/i>, a re-packaging of the Allmans’s first two
\nalbums) shows how important both Duane Allman and Oakley were to
\nthis group. There is a noticeable change in the band’s overall
\nsound, though to lay all the blame on the loss of the two players
\nis not quite accurate.<\/p>\n
To be sure, the focus moves a little away from the blues
\nstylings that Gregg Allman had down pat, and if any of the Allman
\nBrothers Band albums can be called “southern rock,” this one is
\nmost definitely the closest to being pigeonholed as such. But a
\nthird key element for the Allmans is missing – namely, producer Tom
\nDowd, who knew how to capture the band’s sound in all its gritty
\nglory. Brothers And Sisters finds the production duties shared
\nbetween the band and Johnny Sandlin – and the resulting sound, a
\ntad more polished than previous albums, doesn’t quite sound right
\nfor the kind of music the Allmans had been playing. A key element
\nof their sound had been a “dirty” sound – meaning simply that the
\nband was captured almost as if they were in a live setting, without
\nthe sterility of the studio.<\/p>\n
I don’t recall where I read it, so forgive me if I don’t give
\ncredit where credit is due, but one review of this disc I read
\nnoted that Oakley’s bass is higher in the mix, while replacement
\nbassist Lamar Williams is almost buried among the other
\ninstruments. Whoever noted this is absolutely right – something
\nwhich is unfair to Williams, since he seems like he was able to
\nhold his own with the rest of the band.<\/p>\n
As for the bulk of the music – well, “Ramblin’ Man” and
\n“Jessica” are almost universally recognized, and I do happen to
\nlike both tracks, so forgive me if I turn my focus on the other
\nfive. Musically, it just sounds like the band’s heart wasn’t
\ntotally in these tracks – “Wasted Words,” one of the final tracks
\nwith Oakley, features Gregg Allman sounding damned uncomfortable,
\nwhile “Southbound,” “Come And Go Blues” and “Jelly Jelly,”
\nlistenable tracks admittedly, don’t quite stand up as well as other
\nselections from the Allmans’ discography.<\/p>\n
“Pony Boy,” written by Betts, almost seals the deal on how the
\ngroup’s sound is going to go. It’s almost as if Betts had the heart
\nof a country player, but played rock laced with country influences
\nto pay the bills. Like most of the album, it’s listenable, but it’s
\nnot the group’s best work.<\/p>\n
One thing which gets unnoticed in general is that the two best
\nsongs feature guest musician Les Dudek. His presence on “Jessica”
\nis limited to acoustic guitar – no major sin there – but he’s
\ncredited with lead guitar on “Ramblin’ Man”. I don’t know why, but
\nit concerns me that the best track the Allmans have has to rely on
\nan outside musician to help push it over the edge.<\/p>\n
For that matter, one can’t really blame Gregg Allman if his
\nheart isn’t in this record. The addition of pianist Chuck Leavell
\nplaces a lot of the keyboard responsibilities on his shoulders –
\nleaving little for Allman himself to do. Item to note: Allman is
\nnot involved at all on “Pony Boy”. ‘Nuff said.<\/p>\n
It should be viewed as a miracle that
\nBrothers And Sisters<\/i> ever came together at all, and it does
\nshow on two tracks that the Allmans could overcome anything thrown
\ntheir way. But this album also showed, with apologies to Superman,
\nthat the men of steel were starting to get tired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5655],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37376","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-allman-brothers-band","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37376"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}