The Allman Brothers Band: a guide to their best albums

At Fillmore East (Capricorn, 1971) 

Duane Allman had a word for what the group did on stage: religion. The tenets of it involved a baptism in blues, rock and jazz, coupled with a faith in your bandmates and the ability to testify with your instrument. 

This live album, recorded in New York in 1971, not only captured the best of that deepfried divinity (with some clever editing from Tom Dowd), but also pioneered southern rock and defined the art of the jam. 

The shows have been reissued in their entirety as The Fillmore Concerts, but the original album stands as the must-have bible for all things Allman. Statesboro Blues, Stormy Monday, Whipping Post… Amen, Brothers.

Eat A Peach (Capricorn, 1972) 

‘Bearing sorrow, having fun.’ That phrase from Melissa captures the essence of this masterpiece album. After Duane died in a motorbike crash, the band rallied and made a studio-meets-live double album (including choice leftovers from At Fillmore East) that was part benediction, part bridge to the future. 

Every song here is a classic, from the southern soul stirrer Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More to the epic Mountain Jam to Dickey Betts’s uplifting Blue Sky to the delicate acoustic jewel Little Martha. Drummer Butch Trucks called it “the apex of who we were,” and Gregg Allman said it “has the roots of our whole thing as a band”.

The Allman Brothers Band (Atco, 1969)

After losing faith in the West Coast scene, Duane Allman migrated back to his native southland, quickly becoming Muscle Shoals’s resident hotshot guitarist on sessions for Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. 

These soulful associations inspired in short order a stylistic revelation, a reunion with brother Gregg and this sizzling self-titled debut album. It’s remarkable how self-assured the group sounds right out of the gate. From the deep, sweaty blues of It’s Not My Cross To Bear to the swirling seven-minute reverie of Dreams, this is the birth cry of southern rock.

Idlewild South (Atco, 1970) 

The band’s second album threads their emerging sonic trademarks – tightly twined guitars, polyrhythmic double drums, southern bluesman vocals, free-flight improvisations – through a handful of memorable songs, while introducing ace producer Tom Dowd into the mix. 

Highlights include the scorching instrumental In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, a rousing Hoochie Coochie Man, the tent-revival strummer Revival and the haunting moonshine soul tune Midnight Rider (as he predicted, the road would ‘go on forever’). 

The album was their first to crack the US Top 40. Sadly it was also Duane’s last full album with the band.

Brothers And Sisters (Capricorn, 1973) 

Just two tracks into recording the follow-up to Eat A Peach, tragedy struck again when bassist Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle accident. This time it was Dickey Betts who stepped up to lead the charge, pushing his warm, country-tinged sound forward with Jessica, Pony Boy and US hit Ramblin’ Man. 

Gregg, preoccupied with his first solo project, added gritty balance with Wasted Words and Come And Go Blues. The result was the band’s first US No.1 album. But there was a downside. “We became rock stars,” said Butch Trucks, “and we lost all sense of why we were doing it.”

Seven Turns (Sony, 1990) 

The title refers to a Navajo saying that there are seven times in life when a momentous decision must be made, and a wrong one creates a dead end. After the trials the band had been through, the decision to reunite for the second time turned out to be the right one. 

With Tom Dowd producing, Gregg in fine voice and new guitarist Warren Haynes tandem-riffing with Dickey Betts, they sound primed for the future. But it’s not just about reinvention as much as reclaiming past glories, and on the snarling single Good Clean Fun, the countrified Let Me Ride, and the jazzy jam True Gravity they do just that.

Enlightened Rogues (Capricorn, 1979) 

After the last gasp of 1975’s Win Lose Or Draw, the band split and Gregg Allman spiraled into a tabloid hell that rebranded him as Cher’s druggy ex-rock star hubby. This was addressed movingly not only in his song It Just Ain’t Easy, but also in the determination evident in his voice throughout the band’s first comeback record. 

Gregg sounds like a convict just sprung from jail, humbled by a second chance in society. Meanwhile, Dickey Betts brought in two members from his band Great Southern, and contributed standout tracks Crazy Love and Pegasus. A record whose charms have increased with time.

Where It All Begins (Sony, 1994)

Dickey Betts’s final album with the band is often overlooked (maybe because of an eyesore sleeve, which looks like a dashed-off high-school art assignment). But inside it’s solid Brotherly music throughout. 

Recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubs, All Night Train, Sailin’ Cross The Devil’s Sea and What’s Done Is Done are no-fuss blues rockers, with autobiographical lyrics from Gregg, while Warren Haynes’s Soulshine echoes Muscle Shoals-style balladry, and Betts’s nine-minute title track rolls Blue Sky into In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed for maximum jamming goodness.

Hittin’ The Note (Sanctuary, 2003)

The ABB’s first album of the 21st century introduced 23-year-old guitarist Derek Trucks (Butch’s nephew) as replacement for the dismissed Dickey Betts. And the youngblood’s back-porch Dobroguitar duel with Warren Haynes opens the album with one of its most affecting tracks, Old Friend. 

Haynes and Gregg Allman shoulder the songwriting, and while Firing Line, Rockin’ Horse and 12-minute workout Instrumental Illness don’t exactly reinvent the wheel, they are what Gregg called “kickin’ stuff”, providing solid platforms for traditional virtues like lock-step guitars and Gregg’s gruff voice to shine through. Butch Trucks called this “the best music we’ve done since Duane died”.