"I've spent my whole life on the blues. He is my great passion, which helps me to get out of my own blues. The blues contributes to stress reduction. He's like a Harley Davidson."
(Gregg Allman)
Have ever been found more beautiful words about the blues?! Only a few white musicians have managed to become US blues legends in a similar way to singer, organist, guitarist and bandleader Gregg Allman. But he was far more than just a blues musician. In his life's work Blues, Country, Folk, Latin, Cajun, Gospel, Hardrock and a whole bundle of other styles mix to a unique mixture. On May 27 of this year, Gregg Allman died at the age of 69.
I'm sure Allman wasn't a very simple person. Even for his immediate surroundings he was sometimes erratic and unpredictable. On stage, he could quickly let it come to minute-long discussions with his fellow musicians if something did not suit him. But Gregory LeNoir Allman, born on 8 December 1947, had grown into an age in which it was good manners to be brushed against the grain. This was not exhausted in slit jeans and provocative tattoos, but discharged in a posture that could sometimes end behind bars. When he swaggered about how he was locked away by every second village sheriff in the southern states in 1969 with the newly founded Allman Brothers Band, even at the end of his life a glorified smile of quiet triumph scurried over his crumpled features. "They always wanted to wipe us out by locking us in the black cell wing. But that's exactly where we wanted to go, because that's where the boys taught us the blues."
After rather half-hearted attempts with bands like The Allman Joys or The Hour Glass he joined the formation of his big brother Duane Allman in 1969, which caused a sensation shortly afterwards as The Allman Brothers Band. Since the group with the older Allman and Dickey Betts already had enough guitarists, the singer and guitarist had to learn organ especially for this job. The six-piece Allman Brothers Band quickly became more than just another rock band. The logo stood equally for a family business, but also for an alliance of equals who could be brothers here regardless of their origin. A lived hippie dream in the middle of the archaic order of the southern states. Two guitars, two drums, keyboards and bass allowed the Allman Brothers Band to play with unlimited possibilities. Their multitasking of country, blues, jazz and rock went down in history as Southern Rock.
