Gregg Allman Band/Jaimoe

What a difference a year makes. When Gregg Allman brought his band to Biloxi last year he was fully recovered from a 2010 liver transplant and with a brand new rip-roaring blues album hot off the presses. And his guitar player Scott Sharrard was his secret weapon. One year later, Gregg and his band are smoking hot, playing with a youthful vitality that was just a wee-bit lacking before, and Sharrard is no longer a secret.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Gregg Allman Band 2012. In some ways, they seem like a brand-new-spanking band, having all the charisma of a new toy on Christmas morning; all shiny and new and raring to go. Bass player Jerry Jemmott was smiling more than I have seen him do in years and sneaking funky bass lines in all over the place. Even Bruce Katz, who is always caught up in the music, was smiling out at the audience. You could feel those vibes coming off the stage as the band was, in Berry Oakley’s infamous words, “Hittin’ the note”.

Whatever it was that caused such an inspirational kick in the butt needs to be bottled. Maybe it was the horn section from Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band playing alongside sax player Jay Collins that created such a vibrancy and spring to the songs. Maybe it was the couple of different tunes added to the setlist from Allman’s monstrous repertoire. Maybe it was the crowd’s love. Or maybe it was Sharrard’s growth as a guitar player. More than likely, it was a combination of all of the above.

Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, featuring the legendary Allman Brothers Band drummer, opened with four jazzy funk tunes that had people heading to the merchandise table at intermission to buy their new CD Renaissance Man. Featuring the cool smoky vocals of Junior Mack, GAB’s Bruce Katz on keys, Dave Stoltz on bass and a horn section featuring Kris Jensen, Reggie Pittman and Paul Lieberman, you could feel the notes in your bones. “Rainy Night In Georgia” and especially “Leaving Trunk” got under your skin with Mack’s luminous blues solo and Katz’s humdinger of a finger orgy on the keys.

Allman certainly had to bring it to top these guys and this is where Sharrard shined. Filling his solos with more deep emotion and humble subtlety than the last time I saw the GAB, Sharrard has grown tenfold; perhaps due to his making his solo band more of a priority, allowing his playing to improvisationally soar. From his weeping willow notes on the absolutely beautiful solo during “Melissa” to his slide on “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin” and “Statesboro Blues”, he was on top of his game, better than ever.
Allman seemed in good spirits. After shanking a pic toss following “These Days”, he joked, “What a poor excuse for throwing a pic” and did a much better job on the second try. A smile cracked his face when the crowd finished singing the first chorus to “One Way Out” and I even noticed a small fist pump following a Sharrard solo. Bringing out old friend Floyd Miles – “We started playing music when we were about fourteen” – it is always a thrill when he sings his “Going Back To Daytona” and “You Must Be Crazy”. And when introducing “Wasted Words” as an old song, Allman made sure to clarify, jokingly, that he wrote it “not that long ago”.

With Low Country Blues up for several blues Grammys, hearing such tunes as the old Sleepy John Estes’ “Floating Bridge”, the Warren Haynes penned “Just Another Rider” and “Tears, Tears, Tears” were reminders that Allman’s voice is even more marinated with age. Adding “Wasted Words” and “One Way Out” to percolate up the setlist was a definite thumbs up, as was the return to the straight Southern rock blues version, albeit with some jazzy overtones, of “Whipping Post”. Sharrard was especially smitten with the addition of “Wasted Words”, as he told me pre-show: “It’s a song that I’ve been hoping we’d play for a while and we managed to get it in the mix on this tour. It’s a nice up-tempo number for the band and added some nice variety”. Fans knew “Melissa” from the first note and “Statesboro Blues” will always be “Statesboro Blues”. It was also exciting to see Jaimoe sitting in on some tunes, side-by-side with Miles and Steve Potts, and Jamo Van de Bogert.

Meeting up with Sharrard prior to the start of the Biloxi concert, he sat down with me to catch us up on what has been going on in his world since last year, when he was unnoticed by fans walking around and he was hoping to find time to work on his solo project.

             

So, Scott, what has been happening with you since the last time we talked?

A lot. We did a bunch of touring with Gregg for the Low Country record so we were all over Europe; did a really fun tour of Europe. Then in the fall, I recorded my new album with my new band, which went great. We’re getting ready to release that in the spring. Hopefully we’re going to have some special guests on it. I’m still trying to line up everybody’s schedules. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet but we’re talking to a couple of different people. That’s kind of the plan right now, just to get my solo project off and running.

I also have another project I’m doing with Bruce Katz from Gregg’s band, called The CKS Band. It’s Bruce and I and our friend Randy Ciarlante, who is a great drummer and singer. Randy is best known for playing with The Band in the nineties. He’s done a couple of their records and was touring for several years in the nineties, when they had the two drummer line-up. It was Levon Helm and Randy. Randy is just awesome and we started hanging out and playing. It’s an organ trio. Like Hammond B3 organ with Bruce playing bass with his left hand and then Randy playing drums and singing, and me playing guitar and singing. We have plans to make an album next year but right now we’re just doing little gigs around the East Coast.

Are you predominately playing in the north? Or will you have a chance to take it out further through the states?

I would like to. My manager has been talking to people in New Orleans about going down there doing a week run. A lot of clubs want my band but at this point it’s kind of tough cause we don’t have a label yet and we don’t have publicity in the South. We have publicity for like the northeast but we really don’t have a publicity company for the south. And I would love to come down here and play.

With Gregg we just played in St Louis and in Nashville and the shows were so incredible. Those audiences are just the best. And we’ve got a lot more. Baton Rouge was nice last night and now Biloxi. It’s a really good market for live music in general.
Right now, I’m just concentrating on getting my band’s record finished and with The CKS Band, we’re going to be doing a lot of festivals, but they’re all in the north again like in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, doing clubs and festivals. We may also go to Europe. There is a promoter in Germany that wants us and they actually want my band as well. My band is now actually called Scott Sharrard and The Brickyard Band.

That’s exciting news because the last time we talked you were hoping that you’d even find the time to record with your band.

Yeah, this came together really well. Actually, we were supposed to be on the road with Gregg through the fall but he had some more health issues, nothing major, but he ended up canceling the end of our European tour and our entire August/September tour, which was really hard for us but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me cause it gave me time to actually put my new band together and get all my tunes in order and go in the studio and get it tracked. It’s pretty much tracked. I just have to mix it and see if we can get some more people on it.

Do you have a release date for your CD?

I think we’ll have it out in April for sure. We’ve already planned a couple of CD release gigs and I am going to have a residency in New York City. People tend to come to New York so we’re going to be playing every Wednesday night at a club called The Red Lion hopefully. I haven’t confirmed that yet but that’s in the cards.

How is Gregg doing?

He seems to be really fired up. Let’s hope he gets the Grammy and that we get to hit the road as much as possible. We hit a little bump last year but this next year will be good … The gigs in St Louis and Nashville, I think they were the two best gigs I’ve done in the band. It was really inspiring.

So how long is this jaunt with Gregg?

Just until January 22.

Why so short?

Well, he’s got a lot going on. From what I understand his book is supposed to be coming out in February. Then we have the Grammys. The Allman Brothers are getting a lifetime achievement award.

Any more news about your band for 2012?

Yeah, when the Allman Brothers are at the Beacon this year, I will be doing a couple different after-show gigs. That’s in March, I think … And we’re doing a couple with The CKS Band, with Randy and Bruce, and we’re doing the Iridium, doing an after-show there. We’re going to play there and probably at another club called Prohibition and also at the Blue Note and that’s going to be my band there, Scott Sharrard & the Brickyard Band.

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