Gregg Allman is planning to record an album in November – and he’s aiming to achieve a lifelong ambition when he does.
He’s always wanted to release an entire record containing songs he wrote himself.
Allman tells American Blues Scene: “It’s probably a goal of every songwriter in the world: do one record that you totally create.
"You have hundreds – if you need it – different players with you, but you write it all."
Sessions with long-time collaborator T-Bone Burnett were originally set to take place in May, then moved to the end of the year, partly because of the amount of time it takes for Allman to complete songs.
"I do believe in my heart that the song’s going to come out," he says. “Something has to spark your interest. Sometimes I just hear a rhyme in my head. Some of them just come like gangbusters."
His last studio outing was 2011’s Grammy-nominated Low Country Blues.
Former Sarasotan Gregg Allman on upcoming album, film and Dickey Betts By Wade Tatangelo , Herald-Tribune / Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Gregg Allman - a survivor of drug and alcohol abuse, a liver transplant and six marriages - has plenty to be happy about these days. For starters, his Gregg Allman Band homecoming show Jan. 8 at the Sailor Circus Arena sold out two weeks in advance. Then, a couple days after playing Sarasota, the 66-year-old singer who got sober nearly two decades ago, will be honored with the all-star tribute concert called “All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman.” Next up? A movie based on Allman’s bestselling memoir begins filming.
So, yeah, we had a bunch of stuff to discuss when the singer, songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist best known as the leader of the Allman Brothers Band and composer of such classics as “Midnight Rider,” “Melissa” and “Whipping Post” called from his home near Savannah, Ga. He even talked about the possibility of performing with current Sarasotan Dickey Betts. It’s a sticky subject. Gregg and the rest of the founding Allman Brothers Band members fired Betts in 2000.
The last time you performed here, at the 2006 Sarasota Blues Fest, it was a really special show. How do you feel about returning to your old hometown?
It will be good to be back in Sarasota and see all the great fans. I haven’t played there in a long time and I’m happy to return.
Do you have a favorite song you wrote while living here?
I wrote a lot of stuff around there, on Anna Maria Island, sitting on my dock. I wrote most of the stuff from “I’m No Angel” (1986) and “Just Before the Bullets Fly” (1988) when I lived on Bradenton Beach.
Who are you most excited about hearing perform your songs at the Jan. 10 tribute show in Atlanta?
Man, there are so many people on that show I haven’t seen in so long, especially Jackson (Browne). We used to be roommates, not really, but we hung together so much we might’ve been roommates. This was way before either of us were known. We were broke as we could be. But I’m excited about everybody. Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, all of them; Natalie Cole, she’s a good friend of mine.
I read you are returning to the studio with T-Bone Burnett (producer of Allman’s acclaimed 2011 solo album “Low Country Blues,” a collection of mostly old blues songs). What can you tell me about the material you will be recording?
It’s kind of a second half of the last one but we’ve postponed recording to May, just so much stuff going on. There will be classic blues material and stuff I wrote by myself. I got to road test them. You’ll hear them in Sarasota.
In recent years, your Gregg Allman Band shows have included killer performances of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman,” Wilson Pickett’s “I Found a Love” and your guitarist Scott Sharrard’s rocker “Love like Kerosene.” Any of those songs appearing on the upcoming album?
They just might.
But you’re not going to tell me because you want it to be a surprise.
That’s a fact. Wouldn’t be a surprise.
Do you plan on being on set when “Midnight Rider: The Gregg Allman Story” starts shooting later this month?
I’ll be in and out. I’m on tour in January until the 20th but then I should be there.
As an executive producer of the movie, what’s the most important thing you want to see the director and actors get right?
(Laughs) The facts.
Any in particular?
No. Just all of them. This is all very new to me. I can’t say much about the film. I’m still in a crash course learning about all this.
At the funeral for Dan Toler (guitarist in the Allman Brothers Band and Gregg Allman Band) there were all these beautiful photos being projected of you with him and his brother, Frankie Toler (drummer in the Allman Brothers Band and Gregg Allman Band). You made some great music with those guys while living down here. How would you like people to remember the Toler brothers?
Wonderful people and very talented and I miss them so.
Dickey Betts recently sat in with Derek Trucks (current Allman Brothers Band guitarist) and Susan Tedeschi’s band. What would you say if Dickey called you up and asked to sit in with you at your show in Sarasota?
I would tell him it would be fine.
Rumor has it your old pal Neil Larsen (keyboardist who recently toured and recorded with Leonard Cohen) is going to be in Sarasota at the same time as your show. Is there any chance of him sitting in with you?
I’m sure there is if he’s there.
We’ve been waiting a decade now, when might we expect a new Allman Brothers Band studio album?
Not yet.
One of my favorite Duane Allman performances is the Allman Brothers Band’s show at The Warehouse in New Orleans from September of 1971. Any chance of that getting an official release?
I don’t know. You can only release so much of that old stuff even though it was a good performance. You can’t just flood the market with board tapes of my brother. We released about as much as we plan to.
How about a second live album from the Gregg Allman Band? It has been a while since the “Gregg Allman Tour” (1974) came out.
There probably will be one next year some time. I’m still building my band. It’s a seven-piece band and I’m shooting for 11 and some horns. When I get it totally complete, I’ll definitely be ready for a live record.
There are so amazing shows out there of the Gregg Allman Band ready for release. You’re quite the perfectionist.
I really am a perfectionist.
Another album with Burnett, finally a second live album, what else do you have planned for your solo career?
I hope to cut a record in Muscle Shoals and call it “All Compositions By” and then just my name. That’s on my dream list. It will be all new songs and the producer will be Don Was. We are old friends and wanted to do this for the longest time.
Post subject: [2017-09-08] Gregg Allman "Southern Blood" final album with guest Jackson Browne (Rounder)
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 12:28 am
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"You can’t just flood the market with board tapes of my brother."
I don't think we're talking about releasing everything that was ever committed to magnetic tape, but the performances of that era were not given as much exposure as performances today. There aren't 100 YouTube videos from every section in the arena. If that's what the fans want, they'll sell, and if you oversaturate the market, you'll find out quickly enough.
_________________ Alan
"This is a true story, except for the parts that didn't happen." - Steven Wright
Post subject: [2017-09-08] Gregg Allman "Southern Blood" final album with guest Jackson Browne (Rounder)
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 2:43 pm
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03/07/16 Posted in News by Admin
Gregg Allman Band Is Recording A New Album In Muscle Shoals Right Now
Early this year, guitarist and bandleader Scott Sharrard revealed plans for The Gregg Allman Band to enter the studio to record original material, rumored to be called All Compositions By Gregg Allman. The session is currently going down at the legendary Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, where Allman has plenty of history already.
According to a heartfelt message from Sharrard's Facebook page, this is "Gregg's first studio album with his own band since the 1980's (Searching for Simplicity and Low Country Blues were done with mostly studio sidemen instead of Gregg's touring band)."
Allman Brothers' percussionist Marc Quiñones is in the band, as well as bassist Ron Johnson, saxophonists Art Edmaiston and Jay Collins, trumpeter Marc Franklin, keyboardist Peter Levin, and drummer Steve Potts. They've got Don Was as their producer and are recording songs co-written by Allman and Sharrard, as well as some Scott Sharrard Band covers, like "Love Like Kerosene".
Post subject: [2017-09-08] Gregg Allman "Southern Blood" final album with guest Jackson Browne (Rounder)
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:03 pm
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The album's name is now Southern Blood and Gregg is putting the finishing touches on it
Gregg Allman Doing Final Work on New Album, "Southern Blood" 2:29 PM -News-, Gregg Allman by VVN Music
Gregg Allman has been pretty sick over the last few months, enough that he had to keep pushing back live shows.
Evidently, he has taken advantage of that time off to work on a brand new album, Southern Blood. According to his website "Gregg Allman is working on the finishing touches for his new album, Southern Blood, produced by Don Was and to be released by Rounder Records.
Southern Blood is Allman's first album since 2011's Low Country Blues and only the second in the last twenty years.
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