The Allman Brothers Band - In A Time (1969)

Duane Allman and his younger brother Gregg grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, and while Gregg was first to pick up the guitar, his brother soon surpassed him, dropping out of high school to practice constantly. The brothers formed their first band, the Escorts, which evolved into the Allman Joys in the mid-1960's. While playing in the Briar Patch in Nashville, songwriter John D. Loudermilk spotted them and was impressed enough to offer them the chance of recording some of their material. 'Spoonful' was released as a single, and sold well locally, but Loudermilk decided that he wanted to concentrate on songwriting and left the band to their own devices. By 1967, the group were resident in St. Louis, where a Los Angeles-based recording executive discovered them. They consequently moved out West and were renamed the Hour Glass, cutting two unsuccessful albums for Liberty Records. The band were never really happy with either album, and after an argument between Duane and the record company, the band split up and Duane moved to Miami, leaving Gregg behind to try to record a solo album to appease the label (see previous post). The two were apart for the first time for a year, but managed to reconvene in Miami, producing an album-length demo with the 31st of February, a group that included drummer Butch Trucks. 
Meanwhile Duane had become the primary session guitarist at Muscle Shoals studios, recording with artists such as Aretha Franklin and King Curtis. FAME Records signed him to a five-year recording contract, and he put together a group, including Johnny Sandlin, Paul Hornsby, and Jai Johanny Johanson, along with bassist Berry Oakley, who he'd met in a Macon, Georgia club some time earlier. However, FAME owner Rick Hall eventually became frustrated with the group's recording methods, and offered both the tracks recorded plus their contract to Phil Walden and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, who purchased them for $10,000, with the intention of the band being the centerpiece of his new Capricorn label. In the meantime, Duane and Jaimoe had moved to Jacksonville, and in early March 1969 were inviting anyone who wanted to jam along to come to sessions that eventually birthed the Allman Brothers Band. Dickey Betts, leader of Oakley's previous band, the Second Coming, became the group's second lead guitarist, while Butch Trucks (from 31st Of February) became the new group's second drummer. The Second Coming's Reese Wynans played keyboards, and Duane, Oakley, and Betts all shared vocal duties. Duane felt strongly that his brother should be the vocalist of the new group, and so Gregg left Los Angeles and joined rehearsals in March 1969, and after some debate over the name of the band, including the rejected Beelzebub, the six-piece eventually decided on The Allman Brothers Band, and the rest is, as they say, history. This collection includes contributions from all the bands mentioned above, and rather that just picking random tracks from their released albums, these are all unreleased demos or rare singles and b-sides, with a demo of 'Dreams' by The Allman Brothers Band themselves rounding off the album.

Track listing

01 Shapes Of Things - The Allman Joys (unreleased demo 1966)
02 Spoonful - The Allman Joys (unreleased demo 1966)
03 Crossroads - The Allman Joys (unreleased demo 1966) 
04 You Deserve Each Other - The Allman Joys (b-side of 'Crossroads' single 1967)
05 In A Time - The Hour Glass (previously unreleased 1967)
06 I've Been Trying - The Hour Glass (alternate version 1967)
07 Ain't No Good To Cry - The Hour Glass (previously unreleased 1968)
08 B.B. King Medley - The Hour Glass (previously unreleased 1968)
09 Morning Dew - The 31st Of February (unreleased demo 1969) 
10 God Rest His Soul - The 31st Of February (unreleased demo 1969)
11 I Feel Free - The Second Coming (single 1969)
12 She Has Funny Cars - The Second Coming (b-side of 'I Feel Free')
14 Dreams - The Allman Brothers Band (unreleased demo 1969)

The Allman Brothers Band - Second Cousins (1973)

As a companion-piece to the Duane Allman post of last week, here's an Allman Brothers album that could have slotted in between 'Brothers and Sisters' and 'Win, Lose Or Draw', to fill the two year gap between those two albums. Following the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley in quick succession, the band decided to carry on and recruited Lamar Williams to replace Oakley on bass, but chose to use sessions guitarists such as Les Dudek, rather than permanently replace Allman for the 'Brothers And Sisters' recording sessions. They recorded more songs than were needed for the single album, and so these tracks are leftovers from those sessions. A couple of them are as good as songs that made it to the record, while the extended jams were perhaps never intended for release, but they do show the band in a relaxed mood, and have some excellent guitar and organ interplay. I've kept the family theme for the album title, and used the back cover of the released album as a basis for this one.

Track listing 

01 I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
02 Done Somebody Wrong
03 Double Cross
04 A Minor Jam
05 Early Morning Blues