It’s just about 50 years now since Gregg Allman got started in the music biz back in Daytona, Fla. Working with Floyd Miles, Gregg and his brother Duane started the Allman Brothers Band in 1970. The band has been a driving force in southern rock ever since.
Allman is nominated for a Grammy for his latest release, Low Country Blues, his first solo disc in 14 years. Though much of the Allman Brothers work has been steeped in a solid southern rock sound they have always had a deep connection to the blues, with Low Country Blues Gregg Allman goes straight back to those pure blues roots.
In conversation with Holger Petersen of CBC Radio’s Saturday Night Blues, Allman recalls those early days with his brother Duane and the blues heroes he has met along the way.
Longtime Allman Brothers producer Tom Dowd passed away in 2002. When Gregg Allman chose to return to the studio it was with an equally legendary producer, T-Bone Burnett. Working with Burnett proved to be a change of pace for Allman, but one with which he could certainly cope. And a return to the blues perhaps gave him the focus that his previous solo discs may have lacked.
LISTEN Holger asks Gregg Allman about that very experience.
There must have been something in that southern water last year because the Best Blues Album nominees for the 2012 Grammy’s also includes two other Allman Brothers band members, Warren Haynes for his Man in Motion disc and Derek Trucks for the Tedeschi Trucks Band release, Revelator.
Marcia Ball’s Roadside Attractions and The Reflection from Keb’ Mo’ round out the competition.