Allman Brothers Band's 'The Final Note' is Duane Allman's powerful farewell
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The latest Allman Brothers Band archival release “The Final Note” is a peculiar and compelling album. Unusual because it’s an audience recording made on a handheld cassette machine warranting the note on the back asking folks to “listen accordingly.” Riveting because “The Final Note” is legendary guitarist Duane Allman’s last show, which took place on Oct. 17, 1971, less than two weeks before he was killed in a motorcycle crash in Macon, Georgia.
(Also, it should be noted that the recording is given a professional makeover with help from Sarasota-based bass guitarist Richard Price, whose illustrious career includes jamming with Duane Allman on various occasions in 1969 in Jacksonville just as the Allman Brothers Band took shape.)
After two well-received studio albums that didn’t exactly jump off the shelves but with a devoted fan base thanks to incendiary live shows and two years of incessant touring, the Allman Brothers tasted stardom with the release of the concert album opus “At Fillmore East” in July of ’71, which brilliantly fused rock, blues and jazz. “Final Note” presents not just Duane Allman’s last show but a band at the height of its power with an audience elated to witness the pioneering Southern rockers.
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Duane and Dickey Betts (also a longtime Sarasota area resident) are fierce and fluid throughout, connected in an otherworldly manner never really heard before or since by a pair of rock guitarists. Organist Gregg Allman sings sad and soulful and at times downright aggrieved. The whole production is propelled by the expert rhythm section of bassist Berry Oakley and drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks.
The eight song set consists of “Statesboro Blues,” “Trouble No More,” “Don’t Keep Me Wondering,” “One Way Out,” Betts’ instrumental masterpiece “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” which is sadly cut short at six minutes due to a recording problem, “Hot ’Lanta” and a relatively concise (at 12 minutes) but enthralling rendition of Gregg Allman’s ageless anthem “Whipping Post.” The last three tracks include welcome playing by saxophonist Juicy Carter, who also can be heard augmenting the Allman Brothers on the outstanding box set “The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings.”
And the sound quality, it should be stressed, will be fine for anyone with bootleg ears, and is likely to grow on the uninitiated. The sensation of being part of that energetic audience at Painters Mill Music Fair outside Baltimore perhaps worth the tradeoff of not having the show captured on a pro soundboard recording.
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Both “The Final Note” and “Warner Theatre, Erie, PA 7-19-05” come out Friday with the former featuring the Allman Brothers original roster and the latter showcasing the band’s last and longest running lineup. The Warner Theatre show finds the Allman Brothers largely focusing on classics from the Duane era like an inspired, two-part “Mountain Jam,” “Statesboro Blues,” “Midnight Rider,” “Don’t Keep Me Wondering,” a lovely “Dreams” and a nicely extended “Leave My Blues at Home.”
Other highlights include Gregg Allman giving a tender rendition of his classic “Melissa” and Warren Haynes’ lead vocal turn on a cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic.” Special guest Susan Tedeschi leads the band through a smart, emotive cover of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and then the band ends the second set with a tip of the hat to Betts, who departed from the Allman Brothers in 2000, delivering a gorgeous, irrepressible 16-minute version of his instrumental “Jessica,” featuring the dual guitar powerhouse of Haynes and Derek Trucks.
For an encore at the Warner Theatre, the Allman Brothers play “One Way Out,” the version from 2005 recalling the intoxicating vitality heard three decades earlier on "Eat a Peach" and now “The Final Note"
Wade Tatangelo is the Herald-Tribune’s entertainment editor overseeing the weekly Ticket publication. Email him at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Review: Allman Brothers' ‘The Final Note’ is Duane's powerful farewell
