Gregg Allman Band & Cowboy – The Gregg Allman Tour (1974)

Gregg Allman, the singer, musician and songwriter who played an essential role in the invention of Southern rock, has died at the age of 69 of complications from liver cancer. Allman’s rep confirmed to Rolling Stone that the artist died Saturday afternoon.

Allman “passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia,” a statement on the singer’s website read Saturday. “Gregg struggled with many health issues over the past several years. During that time, Gregg considered being on the road playing music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans, essential medicine for his soul. Playing music lifted him up and kept him going during the toughest of times.”

“It’s too soon to properly process this,” Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts said in a statement. “I’m so glad I was able to have a couple good talks with him before he passed. In fact I was about to call him to check and see how he was when I got the call. It’s a very sad day.”

Allman’s longtime manager and close friend Michael Lehman added, “I have lost a dear friend and the world has lost a brilliant pioneer in music. He was a kind and gentle soul with the best laugh I ever heard. His love for his family and bandmates was passionate as was the love he had for his extraordinary fans. Gregg was an incredible partner and an even better friend. We will all miss him.”

Although Allman claimed the term was redundant, the singer-keyboardist helped create the first great “Southern-rock” group as co-founder of the legendary Allman Brothers Band alongside his older brother, famed guitarist Duane Allman. The Allmans fused country blues with San Francisco-style extended improvisation, with their sound creating a template for countless subsequent jam bands. Gregg Allman was blessed with one of blues-rock’s great growling voices and, along with his Hammond B-3 organ playing (beholden to Booker T. Jones), had a deep emotional power.

Writing in Rolling Stone, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons said that Allman’s singing and keyboard playing displayed “a dark richness, a soulfulness that added one more color to the Allmans’ rainbow.”

“I’ve tried … Words are impossible. Gui Gui forever. Chooch,” Cher wrote on Twitter. “Rest in peace Greg [sic] Allman peace and love to all the family,” Ringo Starr wrote. The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir added, “Bon Voyage, Brother Gregg, enjoy your next stop…” (by Rolling Stone)

The Gregg Allman Tour is the second album and first live album by Gregg Allman, released in 1974. It was recorded at Carnegie Hall and Capitol Theatre. It peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts in 1974. It was originally released as a double LP.

For this concert, Allman was backed by the band Cowboy, who played two of their own songs. Cowboy was a Capricorn Records label-mate and was Duane Allman’s favorite band. Several of its members had already backed Gregg Allman on his debut album the previous year.

At the beginning of the album, Gregg Allman is introduced by Martin Mull. (by wikipedia)

Gregg Allman’s tour in support of his debut solo LP, Laid Back, led to the recording of this album (originally two LPs) at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. It’s a match for Laid Back in musical value and then some, with a good, wide range of repertory and great performances throughout by all concerned, plunging head-first and deep into blues, R&B, honky tonk, and gospel. Strangely enough, the album contains only three of Laid Back’s songs — “Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing” opens the show in a properly spirited, earthy manner, but it’s the second song, “Queen of Hearts,” in a soaring rendition, with gorgeous backing by Annie Sutton, Erin Dickins, and Lynn Rubin, and superb sax work by Randall Bramblett and David Brown, that shows Allman in his glory as a singer and bandleader.

Allman gives a lively, raucous, honky tonk-style rendition of the Elvis Presley hit “I Feel So Bad,” complete with a killer guitar solo by Tommy Talton, and “Turn on Your Lovelight” gets an extended treatment worthy of the Allman Brothers Band. One would expect that, with Chuck Leavell and Jaimoe present in the band, there were be more similarity to the Allmans’ sound, and that they’d be prominently featured, but Tommy Talton and bassist Kenny Tibbetts get more of a spotlight. Several Allman Brothers songs are present here, in more laid-back and lyrical versions, and the Capricorn Records band Cowboy — essentially serving as the core of Allman’s touring band — gets a featured spot with two songs, “Time Will Take Us” and “Where Can You Go,” that leave one wanting to hear a lot more concert material from them, and from Talton as a singer. (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:

 

The Gregg Allman Band:
Gregg Allman (organ, vocals)
Scott Boyer (guitar)
Randall Bramblett (saxophone)
David Brown (saxophone)
Peter Eklund (trumpet)
Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson (drums, percussion)
Chuck Leavell (piano)
Todd Logan (trumpet)
Bill Stewart (drums)
Ken Tibbets (bass)
Tommy Talton (guitar, slide guitar)
Harold “Bullets” Williams (saxophone)
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background vocals:
Annie Sutton – Erin Dickins – Lynn RubinCowboy:
Scott Boyer (guitar, Background vocals)
Randall Bramblett (organ, saxophone)
David Brown (bass)
Peter Eklund (trumpet)
Johnny Lee Johnson (drums, percussion)
Chuck Leavell (piano)
Todd Logan (trumpet)
Bill Stewart (drums)
Tommy Talton (vocals, guitar, slide guitar)
Harold “Bullet” Williams (saxophone)
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Gregg Allman (organ on 06.)

Tracklist:

The Gregg Allman Band:
01. Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing (Sain) 4.33
02. Queen of Hearts (G.Allman) 7.40
03. I Feel So Bad (Willis) 4.44
04. Stand Back (G.Allman/Oakley) 3.30

Cowboy:
05. Time Will Take Us (Talton) 5.30
06. Where Can You Go? (Talton) 8.11

The Gregg Allman Band:
07. Double Cross (G.Allman/Leavell) 4.39
08. Dreams (Gregg Allman) 7.19
09. Are You Lonely For Me Baby (Cousin/Livesey/Price/Regan) 4.21
10. Turn On Your Love Light (Malone/Scott) 10.32
11. Oncoming Traffic (G.Allman, J.B.Allman) 5.44
12. Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Traditional) 6.13

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Goodbye Gregg and thanks a lot !
(December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017)
Rest In Peace !

Cowboy – Same (1977)

One of Southern rock’s best-kept secrets during its golden age in the 1970s, Cowboy was formed by songwriters Tommy Talton and Scott Boyer in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969. Playing a kind of acoustic country-rock similar to contemporaries Pure Prairie League, Cowboy had its own twist on the formula, thanks to Talton and Boyer’s sharp, focused songwriting and a distinguishable Muscle Shoals flair. After hearing the band, Duane Allman passed the word along to Phil Walden at Macon, Georgia’s Capricorn Records, who offered the group a recording contract. The band’s membership was pretty fluid during this time, other than Talton and Boyer, both of whom became de facto members of the Capricorn house band, playing with the Allman Brothers, Gregg Allman, Alex Taylor, and Bonnie Bramlett, among others. In all, four albums were released under the Cowboy name on Capricorn Records, 1970’s Reach for the Sky and 1971’s 5’ll Getcha Ten (combined into the two-disc compilation Why Quit When You’re Losing in 1973), 1974’s Boyer & Talton, and 1977’s Cowboy. Also, the 1976 album Happy to Be Alive, attributed to the trio of Tommy Talton, Bill Stewart, and Johnny Sandlin, was a Cowboy album in all but name. That was it, though, until 30 years later when Talton and Boyer put Cowboy back together in 2007, recording tracks at Sandlin’s Duck Tape Studio in Decatur, Alabama, but none of those tracks has yet been released. (by Steve Leggett)

James Chrispell wrote:
Boyer & Talton got together again in 1977, added three new members to Cowboy, and recorded this self-titled album full of straight pop tunes. “Everyone Knows Your Name” and “Pat’s Song” shine, but each track has something to offer. A bit lightweight, Cowboy still holds its own in the band’s history.

The famous Capricorn record sleeve from the 70´s

And this is their fine, but their best album, the last in the 70´s. ( Included a very intersting interview with Tommy Talton from 2013

Personnel:
Scott Boyer (guitar, vocals)
Chip Condon (keyboards, vocals)
Chip Miller (drums, percussion)
Arch Pearson (bass, vocals)
Tommy Talton (guitar, vocals)
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Randall Bramblett (saxophone)
Jaimoe (congas)
Topper Price (harmonica)
Harold Williams (saxophone)

Tracklist:
01. Takin It All The Way (Boyer) 3.06
02. Now That I Know (Talton) 3.54
03. Pat’s Song (Boyer) 3.32
04. Straight Into Love (Talton) 4.10
05. Everybody Knows Your Name (Talton/Boyer) 4.44
06. What Can I Call It (Condon) 2.40
07. Nobody Else’s Man (Talton) 4.28
08. Except For Real (Condon) 3.53
09. Satisfy (Boyer) 3.02
10. River To The Sea (Talton) 5.19

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