The Allman Brothers Band’s 2010 March Madness run at the United Palace Theatre showed two things – the Beacon needs the Allmans and the Allmans need the Beacon. Though just a few miles north of the Beacon Theatre, the 2010 March Madness run lacked the energy and spirit of previous runs as well as last year’s 13 ABB performances at the Beacon.  Meanwhile, the Beacon was shuttered for most of the start of 2010 due to the massive failure of Cirque Du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel. Thankfully, though unsurprisingly, the Allman Brothers Band will return to the Beacon Theatre this March for 10 shows, though there’s always the possibility more will be added.

Tickets for the 10 shows currently on the docket – scheduled for March 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24 and 25 – go on sale this Friday, January 6 at 10AM EST through Ticketmaster. Face value for tickets to this year’s March Madness run range from $60.99 – $150.99. Billed as the “The Year of the Peach” in press materials, the Allmans plan to celebrate the 40th anniversary of legendary double-LP Eat A Peach’s release this year, starting with the Beacon shows.

In 2011 band members Derek Trucks, Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes each spent the year focusing on solo efforts, so it was a light year for the Allmans. Drummer Butch Trucks is already alluding to a bigger year for the ABB as he mentioned in the press release, “It’s shaping up to be a great year. We just wanted to make music that was honest and play it for friends, which is pretty much what we’ve done.  It’s an honor to be able to be recognized like this.” The recognition Trucks is talking about will come from The Recording Academy, who will honor the band with a Lifetime Achievement Award during Grammy Week and on the Grammy telecast.

Throughout the Allman Brothers Band’s over 40 years in the music biz, the jam titans have received very little love from The Recording Academy. In fact, they’ve never won a Grammy outside of a live version of Jessica from An Evening with the Allman Brothers: 2nd Set scoring the band the Best Rock Instrumental Performance award in 1996. On February 12th that will change as three members of the band’s solo efforts will battle for the Best Blues Album Grammy and more importantly the group will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Allmans, Gil Scott-Heron, Diana Ross, Glen Campbell, George Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim and the Memphis Horns make up the Class of 2012 Special Merit Awards recipients along with Trustees Award honorees Dave Bartholomew, Steve Jobs and Rudy Van Gelder; while Celemony and Roger Nichols are this year’s Technical Grammy Award honorees. We’ll see if ousted guitarist Dickey Betts appears with his old mates during a special, invite-only ceremony during Grammy Week. In addition, the Allmans will be recognized during the February 12th telecast on CBS.

HT’s Stuart Raper, was in attendance at last week’s Allman Brothers Band Orpheum run and will file reports on each show. Monday we shared his take on the November 29 run opener,  on Tuesday he wrote about the “Eat A Peach” performance on November 30, yesterday Stuart recapped the penultimate Orpheum run show from December 2 and today he reviews the finale…

The Allman Brothers Band returned to the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday night to close out this run of shows with a bang. From the first B3 notes of Hot’Lanta it was obvious that Gregg Allman was ready to play, and so were his bandmates. They rocked out another Gilded Splinters and Trouble No More before leading into a nice Come and Go Blues in which Gregg sounded great after his issues on the previous night. Guitarist Warren Haynes stepped up to the microphone next for a downright nasty Sky Is Crying. He ripped on guitar and projected the beautiful lyrics all through the Orpheum, treating the old Elmore James song to his gravelly bellow.

[Photo by Rob Chapman from March]

But not even Haynes’ growl could be heard over the crowd’s cheering once Derek Trucks stepped up for his solo on this song. As bassist Oteil Burbridge backed him up with a deep bluesy pocket, Trucks attacked those strings in a blaze that left everybody in the room nearly breathless. When the audience finally mustered the energy to cheer, they didn’t stop for a good 10 seconds as Haynes sang the final verse and chorus. All in all, this was one of the most memorable versions of Sky Is Crying I’ve seen played in a while.

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HT’s newest contributor, Stuart Raper, was in attendance at last week’s Allman Brothers Band Orpheum run and will file reports on each show. Monday we shared his take on the November 29 run opener,  yesterday he wrote about the “Eat A Peach” performance on November 30 and today he reviews the penultimate Orpheum run show from December 2.

With a night off in between, the Brothers came back on Friday night in Boston to welcome in their weekend fans for their second to last performance of the run. There were more seats filled and lots of excitement amongst many of those who had yet to catch the band on this rare late-year tour. Friday evening’s show definitely had some great moments, but it was obvious that Gregg was feeling a bit drained from the last two shows. There were times where he had trouble coming in at the right moment with lyrics, sometimes missing them…but that just comes with the territory.

[Photo by Rob Chapman from March]

The last few years have seen Allman face some serious health issues, which would take their fair toll on anyone. It requires a lot of energy to perform at the level to which ABB fans are accustomed to, and some nights the elder members play stronger than others. The beauty of this lineup is, there is such an abundance of talent, that no matter what, every show will have incredible moments. Guys like Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones and Warren Haynes don’t really have bad nights. All in all, this was definitely a show still worth coming out for.

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HT’s newest contributor, Stuart Raper, was in attendance at last week’s Allman Brothers Band Orpheum run and will file reports on each show. Yesterday we shared his take on the November 29 run opener and today we’ve got his viewpoints on the second night (November 30).

Having given it their all the night before with At Fillmore East, the Allman Brothers Band had to rally hard to come back and play Eat A Peach in its entirety at the second show of the group’s Orpheum Theatre run. This was no small task but they worked hard to guarantee their fans a special night of music. There was certainly a lot of expectation in the air, much of it over hearing Blue Sky sung for the first time in over five years on an ABB stage. Most of the songs on Eat A Peach are still regularly played in the Allmans setlist, however hearing them all in this particular order, with Blue Sky and Little Martha at the end, was something everyone was looking forward to in the second set.

The band opened up with Revival, which put everyone in a great mood as Gregg and Warren sang “love is everywhere” again and again. Haynes took on much of the lead guitar on this one and played some great solos, while Derek backed him up wonderfully on rhythm. Both of these guitarists are so talented and it’s enthralling seeing them play together. They have a mutual love and respect for one another mixed in, with just a dash of friendly competition. The pair rotate solos and make sure that each other’s riffs get heard, but still push one another to keep things fresh. For this first set, it seemed as though Derek was happy to play a little more rhythm then he had the previous night while Warren stepped up on lead.

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HT’s newest contributor, Stuart Raper, spent the past week in Boston attending the Allman Brothers Band’s four-night stand at the Orpheum Theatre. Stuart will share his take on each show for Hidden Track. Today, we present his thoughts on the first Orpheum performance, from November 29.

The Allman Brothers are no strangers to Boston. From the old days when the original lineup would set up in Boston Common and play for free, to the live album they recorded at the Orpheum in the ‘90s, the town has always welcomed their performances. To express gratitude to their generations of Boston fans, the group decided to devote two very special nights of their four-night residency at the Orpheum Theatre to perform their seminal albums At Fillmore East and Eat A Peach in their entirety. With lots of anticipation and electricity in the air, everyone could tell these shows would be special.

[Photo by Rob Chapman from March]

On night one of the Orpheum run, before going in to the At Fillmore East set, the Brothers came out strong with a great first set. They opened with Don’t Want You No More into It’s Not My Cross To Bear, real bluesy, with a lot of feeling. They then tore into I Walk On Guilded Splinters next which kicked up the energy another notch. Derek started off digging in deep to the slide rhythm part before taking a nasty solo in which he alternated between slide and using his bare fingers. Gregg came back with the second verse, faltered for a second, then nailed the next line. Then,they bring it down for a drum break followed by Warren coming back with a greasy slide solo. Derek fired back and it became a full-on guitar duel. They wrap up their guitar onslaught and hit the chorus one last time to close out the song. One of the best versions of Guilded Splinters I’ve heard them play in a while, it was obvious at that point that this was a special night.

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The Allman Brothers Band haven’t played many shows in 2011, but apparently the group aims to make the most of the six shows they have in front of them. On Friday, at the first of two performances at Philadelphia’s Tower Theater, the Allmans will perform Live at Fillmore East in its entirety according to Warren Haynes, who broke the news to WMMR DJ Pierre Robert.

A few hours later Gregg Allman told Boston DJ Carter Allen that the band didn’t want New England fans to feel left out so the Allmans will play Live at Fillmore East on Tuesday, November 29, at the first of four shows at the Orpheum Theater. Furthermore, the next night, November 30, will find Gregg and his band mates covering all of Eat A Peach. Hopefully Warren will sing Blue Sky on the 30th rather than playing the instrumental “jam” they’ve been fond on dropping in recent years.

For this week’s B List we found ten videos on YouTube featuring just the guitar players from some of our favorite bands without any accompaniment. When we sat down to put this together, we thought it would be easier to find clips of just the axe-slingers in action without anyone else but it didn’t work out that way. Thankfully, after a few hours of digging, we did find ten gems worth sharing.

1. Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey of moe. – Summer Camp Guitar Clinic

The dual lead guitar players for moe., Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier, jammed out by their lonesomes on May 27, 2011 at the Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois as part of a Guitar Clinic. Over the past 20 years these guys know each other’s style like the back of their hands and you can see that connection in this clip.

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[Originally Published: April 12]

Pattie Boyd man. How could one woman be the inspiration for so many epic rock songs? We’re talking Bell Bottom Blues (Cover Wars), Wonderful Tonight, Something, and believe it or not – a few others as well. Layla was released in 1970 by Derek & The Dominos on their incredible LP Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. In 1992, Clapton rearranged the tune for MTV Unplugged and took home the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. And it keeps going from there, one of Clapton’s arrangements is just a couple of days old, at the bottom of this Cover Wars you’ll see some videos from April 9th’s performance at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis. And, if you haven’t seen Goodfellas, well. . .

The Contestants:

Duane Allman died less than a year after he lent his legendary slide guitar skills to the original Derek & The Dominos studio take. Thirty-three years after its release, The Allman Brothers Band started covering the song, a nod that some attributed as a tribute to both Duane and the producer of the original record Tom Dowd, who died months before the Allman’s debuted it. Guitarist Warren Haynes handles the vocals. Audio Source: 9-25-2004

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Video from 2003:

READ ON for more covers of Layla from the likes of The Charlie Daniels Band, Derek Trucks, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee and Herbie Mann…

When the Associated Press writes a music-related news item, the article is typically posted in dozens of newspapers and hundreds of websites. So when they mess up information within their article, the misinformation is spread far and wide as it was for an AP piece on Gregg Allman.

[Photo by Rob Chapman]

It all started with an article from the Jambands.com news department that reported Gregg Allman cancelled all of his solo band’s performances from August 26 until September 15 “due to an upper respiratory condition.” The Jambands.com story was picked up by Patrick Buchnowski of Johnston, PA’s The Tribune-Democrat — the paper of record in a town where Allman played this weekend as part of the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival — who dutifully pointed out that this might be area fans’ last chance to see Gregg, as well as to catch HT faves The Bridge, who will hang it up later this year after ten years on the road. The AP cited Buchnowski’s piece for an article about Allman cancelling his tour and somehow made the incorrect assumption that The Bridge is Allman’s backing band.

Now, articles on the websites for the USA Today, the Boston Herald, Yahoo! News, the Miami Herald and other prestigious papers are running the erroneous article. The AP article states, “The newspaper says Jambands.com reports” – then why even give any credit to The Tribune-Democrat instead of just giving a nod to Jambands.com who broke the story? Regardless, here’s hoping Gregg Allman makes a speedy recovery and decides to play a show with The Bridge, ’cause that would actually be a good pairing.

The Allman Brothers Band have a long illustrious history of performances at the Beacon Theatre that includes literally hundreds of sit-ins. That tradition continued tonight when the pioneering southern rockers welcomed a cavalcade of guests to join them at various points of their Tune In To Hep C Benefit Concert at the venue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side including Furthur/Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, vocalist Natalie Cole and legendary musical duo David Crosby and Graham Nash.

[Video Playlist: Franklin's, Into The Mystic, One Way Out, Find The Cost of Freedom, Almost Cut My Hair, Shakedown St.]

This evening’s show, which was a benefit concert to help raise awareness of chronic hepatitis C virus infection, was the band’s first since April’s Wanee Festival and marks a departure for the group who normally performs at the Beacon in March. For the first set, the Allmans mixed a variety of covers (Into The Mystic, Guilded Splinters, Blind Willie McTell) with classic originals (Don’t Want You No More > It’s Not My Cross To Bear, One Way Out) before bringing out hep C survivor Natalie Cole to sing her take on Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come which also featured Danny Louis on piano and Ron Holloway on sax. Cole and Holloway stayed out for The Weight. One of the evening’s finest improvisational moments closed the set when jazz saxophonist Bill Evans came out to blow on In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.

David Crosby and Graham Nash appeared to start the second set accompanied by Derek Trucks on Teach Your Children. The pair then offered Guinevere and Find The Cost Of Freedom along with Warren Haynes. Next, Phil Lesh came out to augment the Allmans and Crosby/Nash for a track from Crosby’s 1971 solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name – Cowboy Movie. Lesh, along with some of his Grateful Dead band mates, lent their talents to the original studio track back in 1971. The Lesh/Crosby/Nash triumvirate stuck around for the first ABB version of Almost Cut My Hair, which also featured Louis on keys. Phil led the Allmans through a trio of Dead tunes next, namely Shakedown Street, Sugaree and Franklin’s Tower. A shockingly good Whipping Post with Natalie Cole on vocals brought the incredible set to a close. All of the evening’s guests along with Devon Allman helped out for the Midnight Rider encore, which was followed by the first ABB Will The Circle Be Unbroken in over 14 years. ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons also came out for the show closer. Quite a night at the Beacon.

Set 1
Don’t Want You No More>
It’s Not My Cross To Bear
Walk on Guilded Splinters
One Way Out
Into the Mystic
Statesboro Blues
Blind Willie McTell
Black Hearted Woman>
Other One Jam
A Change Is Gonna Come (Natalie Cole vocals Ron Holloway sax Danny Louis keyboard)
The Weight (Natalie Cole vocals Ron Holloway sax)
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (Bill Evans sax)

Set 2
Teach Your Children (David Crosby & …

The Allman Brothers Band have made a tradition out of performing at NYC’s Beacon Theatre each March, but the band will return to the storied venue for a rare one-off show on July 27. The concert, dubbed “Tune In To Hep C Presents The Allman Brothers Band,” is a benefit concert to help raise awareness of chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

ABB front man Gregg Allman was diagnosed with hepatitis C back in 2007 and underwent a liver transplant a year ago this week after his liver became damaged by the condition. The July 27th concert marks the Allman Brothers Band’s first gigs since April’s Wanee Festival. Tickets for this show go on sale tomorrow at noon ET via Ticketmaster. Be sure to check out Spinner.com’s conversation with Gregg about the launch of the Tune In to Hep C foundation, his fight with the condition and much more.

Galadrielle Allman, the daughter of late Allman Brothers Band guitarist Duane Allman, has created a website with the help of Hittin’ the Note dedicated to preserving her father’s legacy. DuaneAllman.com boasts a bio, a photo gallery, links to Duane Allman resources and a message board.

The site also works with and links to DuaneAllman.info which contains a listing of Skydog’s studio credits and live appearances as well as numerous audio clips of unreleased tracks.

Here’s six other links of interest to keep you busy this afternoon…

• Radiohead to launch a 12″ remix series starting on July 5
• Jimmy Page stuns crowd with surprise U.K. appearance
• Red Hot Chili Peppers announce release date for new LP
• Apple’s iCloud “storage locker” system unveiled at WWDC
• Catskill Chill adds Umphrey’s McGee, Particle and others
• Sam Davis of Dog Gone Blog explains Phish “plinko” style

Finally, in more sad Allman Brothers Band news, former drummer David “Frankie” Toler passed away on Saturday. Jambands.com has a well-written obit on the man who replaced Jaimoe for a spell and also performed as a member of Great Southern.

With so many of their friends and side bands on the bill, it must’ve been hard for the Allman Brothers Band to figure out who would sit in with them at the Wanee Festival. Luckily one of the musicians they invited to the stage was Taj Mahal who led the band through Leavin’ Trunk and Statesboro Blues on Saturday night. Here’s a killer clip of Leavin’ Trunk…

Allman Brothers Band w/ Taj Mahal – Leavin’ Trunk

If you purchased the Wanee Festival webcast package from Moogis, you might want to make other plans this weekend. Yesterday, a scant three days before the festival kicks off, Moogis sent subscribers, who already paid for the event, a note saying the company will not be webcasting Wanee…

Webcasts are extremely expensive events to produce and bring to the viewer. Moogis uses the same equipment as a high definition television production in order to bring the highest possible production values to our subscribers.

Moogis priced subscriptions for the 2011 Beacon run and Wanee Festival so that we could webcast both events based on the assumption that we would have the same number of subscriptions as last year. Unfortunately, we fell 300 subscriptions short of the number necessary. As a result, we have to regretfully notify you that Moogis is not going to be able to webcast Wanee this year. We have explored every possibility to see if there was any way to make this happen but we have run out of options and time.

At the moment, Moogis is in a negative financial position. But once we get new funding, we will either refund the cost of Wanee to subscribers who want a refund or apply their Wanee payment to the next Moogis pay per view event.

For those who leave their payments with us, you will get a 20% discount on all future Moogis pay per view events.

We are very sorry that we have to do this, but we have no other choice at this time.

Considering webcasts from nearly all the major festivals this summer are available for free, this announcement is a hard pill to swallow for those who shelled out money months ago to watch Wanee on Moogis. Not only will subscribers miss out on watching Wanee as it happens, but they aren’t even getting an immediate refund.

Angry fans lashed out at Allman Brothers Band drummer and Moogis founder Butch Trucks on various forums leading him to respond on the Moogis.com message boards. READ ON for Butch’s response…