The Allman Brothers Band - Live from A&R Studio, New York 1971 
Allman Brothers Band Recording Company
http://allmanbrothersband.com/index.php

Rating: B+

The Allman Brothers Band is so famous for amazing live albums that when another archive release hits the market it is met with a ‘calm welcoming’ rather than a frenzied state by fans.  They expect old concerts to sound amazing and be performed with breathtaking brilliance.  Well, here is another one.  Yep, it’s awesome.  Great songs, amazing guitar playing, righteous rhythm section and soulful vocals.  What can one say that has not been said a billion times?  I’ll say it again: ‘damn these guys were good.’

This time around the amazing concert comes from a performance at A&R Studios in New York City back in 1971.  This is the original lineup of the band and marks the last time Duane Allman played live in the Big Apple.  Gosh, I guess this one is kinda neat-o after all!   Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Berry Oakley and Butch Trucks were young, dumb and full of… talent... and music!  They let it rip from the opening note to the final drum beat.  Just to note, Duane died just eight weeks after this show was recorded.

The band pays tribute to R&B saxophonist great King Curtis on “You Don’t Love me” and “Soul Serenade.” The tribute clocks in at just under twenty minutes and is just one of many highlights of the set.

Drummer and co-founder Butch Trucks shared his memories of that live broadcast with Rolling Stone. He said, “We were set up in that studio just like we did on stage. But it was better. Rather than having their backs to me, the front line – Duane, Dickey and Berry – was facing us in kind of a semi-circle, which made it even easier to communicate. When I play, I stare at the left hand of whoever is playing lead. And I get to know what people are playing well enough that when they start going somewhere, once they arrive, I’m already there.”

With a new distribution deal in place, look for more albums to be released. Up next are five previously released live concerts including American University in Washington D.C. in 1970, Stony Brook, New York in 1971 and Nassau Coliseum in 1973.

Kick back, tune out and crank this sucker up.  It just does not get any better than a live 1971 concert by these Southern Gents!

The Allman Brothers Band – Live From A&R Studios: New York, August 26, 1971 track list:
1. “Statesboro Blues”
2. “Trouble No More”
3. “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin'”
4. “Done Somebody Wrong”
5. “One Way Out”
6. “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”
7. “Stormy Monday”
8. “You Don’t Love Me/Soul Serenade”
9. “Hot ‘lanta”
 
By Jeb “Stormy Tuesday” Wright