THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND - IT'S NOT MY CROSS TO BEAR - The Allman Brothers Band (1969) :: SOTW #27

Bergo '45 Song of the Week #27 - Calvin's Pick for 1/5/14:
"It's Not My Cross To Bear" by The Allman Bros. from The Allman Brothers Band (1969)
Atco/Capricorn Records

"The fucking Allman Brothers." - Calvin Lewis

This is a weekly dive into the musical mind of Bergo '45. Each week, a new song is chosen by a different member of the band. Check out the playlist to see all of the past selections. Grab a towel and give it a listen....

The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, organ, songwriting), plus Dickey Betts (lead guitar, vocals, songwriting), Berry Oakley (bass guitar), Butch Trucks (drums), and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson (drums). While the band has been called the principal architects of Southern rock, they also incorporate elements of blues, jazz, and country music, and their live shows have jam band-style improvisation and instrumentals.

The band achieved its artistic and commercial breakthrough in 1971 with the release of At Fillmore East, featuring extended renderings of their songs "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Whipping Post" and often considered one of the best live albums ever made. George Kimball of Rolling Stone magazine hailed them as "the best damn rock and roll band this country has produced in the past five years." A few months later, group leader Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. The group survived that and the death of bassist Oakley in another motorcycle accident a year later; with replacement members Chuck Leavell and Lamar Williams, the Allman Brothers Band achieved its peak commercial success in 1973 with the album Brothers and Sisters and the hit single "Ramblin' Man". Internal turmoil overtook the band soon after; the group dissolved in 1976, reformed briefly at the end of the decade with additional personnel changes, and dissolved again in 1982.

In 1989, the group reformed with some new members and has been recording and touring since. A series of personnel changes in the late 1990s was capped by the departure of Betts. The group found stability during the 2000s with bassist Oteil Burbridge and guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks (the nephew of their drummer), and became renowned for their month-long string of shows in New York City each spring. The band has been awarded eleven gold and five platinum albums between 1971 and 2005 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Rolling Stone ranked them 52nd on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004.

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© Atco/Capricorn Records

[bufordbox]

here we are in the first days of the Macon hippie pad ...great tight musicians, great bluesy singer, and then ...with Whipping Post, Dreams, Cross to Bear ...hell yeah...we got a songwriter too by God!

[ya-man]

Without a doubt the best version of this Allman Bros Classic!

[blucat]

The Allman Brothers are the big example for what you can make of blues. Just such a beautiful song. And this

[suzabella]

The first, best Southern rock band (with Duane).

[michaelervin]

the best thing to come from Georgia since the peach

[groverw]

That blues voice, backed up by 6 musicians who could each front their own band: 2 Lead guitars and 2 drummers were vital - High school garage bands in the day dropped their set list and started working on jazz/blues when this album came out.
Truly original, not just 'southern rock' - ask Tom Dowd or the people of Fillmore East.

[BERGO]

"The fucking Allman Brothers." - Calvin Lewis

[jimicolorado]

First time I heard Gregg's voice, on this 1st track of 1st album, in 1969, I knew we had found the Great White Blues Singer.

[manricocasini]

oggi il postino mi ha recapitato il terzo pacco contenente gli LP della raccolta "BLUES IN VINILE" che conteneva questo LP e quello appresso cioè TEXAS FlOOD di STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN, è inutile dire che me li sono subito sparati nel giradischi.

[BohemianConspiracy]

Wow top quality sound ! ...To say the truth i'm not one of their die hard fans...but hey... those guys knew how to play... this always was my fave song out of their 1st LP