In 1973, the Allman Brothers Band were one of the most popular in
America: they headlined the Watkins Glen Summer Jam, attended by an
estimated 600,000 people and their album Brothers and Sisters was a
number one for five weeks on the Billboard listings that summer. The
single 'Ramblin' Man' hit #2 in October. The group made the cover of
Newsweek. Rolling Stone named them 'band of the year'. Their story can
only be described as 'volatile'. Always a strong live draw since forming
in 1969, in the two years prior to Watkins Glen they had released one of
the greatest live albums of all time and lost two founding members in
near-identical motorcycle accidents, including guitar genius 24-year-old
Duane Allman. Increased drug use and a ruinous 1976 court case forced
the band apart. A three-album reunion between 1978 and 1982 rekindled
some of the old fire, but it was with their twentieth anniversary and
second reformation in 1989 that provided a degree of stability and
acclaim. The passing of founder members Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman in
2017 definitively ended the band's story. Their legacy of eleven studio
albums, six contemporaneous live albums and several box sets includes
classics such as their self-titled debut, the sophomore Idlewild South,
their artistic and commercial breakthrough, the definitive live document
At Fillmore East and astounding final album Hittin' The Note from
2003.The music of the Allman Brothers is the pure distillation of the
four main ingredients of American music: blues, rock, jazz and country.
At their best, they transcended genre: they just were.
