I had actually found out about this album being released a couple weeks back when a friend gave me a couple of recent issues of Rolling Stone magazine. One was the year-end issue with the complete last interview with John Lennon and the other was the November 25th issue with a cover story on Eminem and a story with Springsteen looking back at his album Darkness at the Edge of Town. I flipped through the issue to find on page 28 the In the Studio column story of Gregg Allman and T-Bone Burnett making an album together. I didn’t even read the article. I’ve been a fan of the Allman Brothers for years now and I’ve been a fan of T-Bone Burnett’s production style since he did the soundtracks for O Brother Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line and his earthy production for the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss collaboration Raising Sand.
I don’t know what I was expecting. I know Gregg has got to be one of the greatest white blues singers….and I had forgotten that too. As is the routine when an artist releases a new album, they usually do some kind of mainstream media blitz. This past Sunday morning, he was a feature story on CBS’ Sunday Morning newsmagazine. He really came across very congenial and easy-going. I don’t think I had ever read many interviews with Gregg Allman. There is a copy of his Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe in the DVD extras for Almost Famous. From what Cameron talks about with that interview and the experiences that are portrayed in the movie, I don’t think the interview was an easy one. Gregg also did a guest spot on Late Show with David Letterman.
I went to work on Tuesday trying to find some music on my MP3 player to just knock myself up a notch and motivate me for the week. I had just written my blog on Cheap Trick at Budokan. I was still on a big CT kick and felt like I was on the verge of a power-pop overload. So, I posted the question on Facebook to ask my friends what they were listening to. Then, I talked to a co-worker about recent music he’d been listening to. I had a burned a couple of CD’s for him recently and was interested in his current listening habits. It’s something that I still do after all those years working in a record store. He said he’d liked all the stuff I had given him. But, he was really digging a copy of Muddy Water's Hard Again I had burned for him. I thought for a second and realized that the blues are always something that I love to listen to (and go to) when the weather turns cold. I remembered that Gregg Allman’s new album was to be released soon. So, I checked my Napster app on my Android phone and noticed that Low Country Blues had been released that very day. I saved it for a future listen. That listen would be for my 25-30 minute commute home. I left work a little after 6pm, fueled up my car and pressed play on my phone’s touchscreen. In this age of technology and music at the touch of a finger, I was thrilled to hear new music that was so incredibly earthy and organic.
What I heard next just transported me from the front seat of my car and the cold and snow of central Nebraska to what I imagined to be a run down studio in the Delta region of the Southern United States. Gregg’s voice reminded me of an old Delta Bluesman. At 63 years of age, Gregg still seems like the “younger” brother of his late “older” brother Duane. Of course, as a child of the 70’s, I remember when Gregg married Cher. It just seemed weird at the time. That will always be part of his history as is his storied life of drug and alcohol addiction. So, he’s lived the life of a troubled bluesman. So, when you hear him sing, you can feel him wrenching out those stories on the road and the days of addiction too.
What gets me about this album is the production that T-Bone Burnett brings to this project. T-Bone takes these albums that are made in this century and makes them sound like they were made in the 1930’s or 40’s. I listen to these blues covers and I think that finally someone has done this right. Many blues artists and mainstream artists schooled in the blues try hard to make a blues album. But, somehow they fall short. I listen to the sparseness of Floating Bridge and Devil Got My Woman and I thought this was a Robert Johnson type of recording. I’m a big fan of Eric Clapton and I think his blues albums are fantastic. But, I really wanted his Me & Mr Johnson album to be much more earthy like this album. T-Bone Burnett recently produced another collaboration with Elton John and Leon Russell called The Union. So, I propose to Mr. Clapton to seek out Gregg Allman and T-Bone Burnett and make a truly great blues album. This just seems like the perfect pairing since Eric and Gregg’s big brother Duane recorded Clapton’s Derek and the Dominos Layla.
I am really excited that a new release in 2011 has me pumped up for new music. This is not a sterile studio album. It is an album that breathes the blues. To add to how great it is, Gregg (and T-Bone) has Dr John, Doyle Bramhall II, Warren Haynes and the rhythm section of bassist Dennis Crouch and drummer Jay Bellerose(from the Plant/Krauss’ Raising Sand) playing on this album.
It’s not often that I feel the need to sit down, talk and write about an album I’m enthusiastic about. But, this is one of them. If you love a GREAT blues album with great musicians, I highly recommend this one. If you love Gregg Allman’s vocals….If you love the production work of T-Bone Burnett….and if love great music, Trust me on this one! You’ll love it!
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