SOUTHERN MASTER: DUANE ALLMAN
Duane’s achievement was to create a new mixture of American musical styles within a propulsive rock format, melding blues, jazz, country influences and rock together in a signature sound that has yet to be equalled.
The legend of Duane Allman looks altogether more impressive when one considers what followed in his wake, both for the Allman Brothers Band and so-called Southern rock in general. Duane’s achievement was to create a new mixture of American musical styles within a propulsive rock format, melding blues, jazz, country influences and rock together in a signature sound that has yet to be equalled. Duane’s paramount performances with the A.B.B. on Live At The Fillmore East and Eat A Peach outshine anything that followed. Although the Brothers still recaptured some moments of glory, the loss of their lynch-pin guitarist left a void in the band’s sound and sensibility that can never be filled. Other bands of the Southern genre may have played with pieces of the Allman sound—Sea Level and the Dixie Dregs exploring the interlock of boogie and jazz, Lynyrd Skynyrd staking out the blues-rock vein, Molly Hatchet all but obliterating the fragile beauty of Allman’s fusion in a thundering roar of asskicking redneck rock—but none came even close to the majestic mastery that was the Allman Brothers Band at their peak.
Of course Duane Allman’s work and influence ranged far beyond the Allman Brothers Band, but as his group (he founded them, and sure proof of his leadership or the fact that they never fully recovered from his loss), the Allmans hit a groove that had been bubbling in Allman’s consciousness for some time. While snatches of that brilliance can' be found on his work with Derek and the Dominoes (Layla) and a tossed salad of artists like Boz Scaggs, Wilson Pickett, Herbie Mann, Delaney & Bonnie and Aretha Franklin, with the Allmans, Duane put together a band and a style that proved him not just a great guitarist, but a great musical visionary and stylist.
