The Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
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Free Music Notes for Idlewild South
Free Music Review: what a great, great album
Hit: 5 Stars
What a masterpiece this is! If you enjoy a combination of rock, soul, blues, jazz then this will appeal to you.
Although this is a short album, the brief nature of it works well...it leaves you wanting more. The duel guitar playing was so tremendous that it made the solos sound like vocals rather than self indulgent notes.
It starts with "Revival" which is perfectly titled. The song starts out as a jazzy, instrumental but then turns into a wonderful call and response tune. It is very uplifting and one of my favorite Allman Brother songs.
"Don't keep me wondering" is a scorching rocker with great, greasy, slide guitar. Dune Allman employs a terrific fat tone.
"Midnight Rider" is a classic song that epitomizes the Southern Rock sound. Check out the interplay between the guitars of Dickie Betts and Duane Allman.
"In memory of Elizabeth Reed" is an instrumental. It is jazzy yet it also remains in a true song structurerather than an excuse to play a lot of notes. The Allman Brothers never noodle on the guitar. Every note counts
"Hoochie Coochie man" is another blazing rocker featuring Duane Allman's slide.
Besides the awesome guitar you also get Greg Allman's soulful, whiskey throated vocals and classic Hammond organ sounds.
The duel drumming rocks, Berry Oakely's bass playing is stellar and most of all, this was an incredible work for such a young band.
For anybody not familar with this band, this is an excellent starting point. I do not believe in compilations for this band b/c they were too good and have way too much depth. You cannot reduce a monumental band like this to a compilation. "Idlewild South" reflects a great period of this band when they were building maturity and confidence that would be more fully demonstrated on the next album, "Eat a Peach"
Free Music Review: ABB finds their voice
Hit: 5 Stars
This is where the "classic Allmans sound" - blues mixed with rock, R&B, gospel, country, and bits of Latin and jazz - really started to take hold. In other words, it's their first mature work. And it's one of their best ever. This also began a longstanding Allmans tradition: including at least one lengthy, dramatic instrumental. The one in question is the jazzy In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, by far Dickey's best composition with the group. I know it's not the most original observation, but Duane lands one of the most intense guitar solos I've ever heard on this song, channeling John Coltrane. That part just explodes, serving as a nice contrast to Dickey's more tame (but still impressive) solo. Then there's Gregg's swirling organ parts, the brief drum solo, and theme. Dickey lifted this structure and applied it to Eat a Peach's Les Bres in A Minor (at least that song's second half) - Les Brers is quite good, but Liz Reed is far better. Anyway, Dickey's other song, the optimistic opener Revival, is another pick. The aforementioned gospel and folk influences really play a part in this song, which isn't blues at all. Always good to hear the group expanding. Another classic is Gregg's folky country-blues Midnight Rider. Again, listen for the slide solo, plus Gregg's rough lyrics about outlaw life.
The rest of the record shows the group falling back on the blues conventions on the first. But that's not an accusation - it's praise, since the blues is so good here. Nothing reaches the level of It's Not My Cross to Bear, but that doesn't matter - I'd rather hear the harmonica-and-slide Don't Keep Me Wondering or the wrenching, underrated sleeper Please Call Home than the debut's Black Hearted Woman, and I quite like Black Hearted Woman. And while the cover of Hoochie Coochie man doesn't top Muddy's original, what can? Good cover. My only quibble is Leave My Blues At Home. Not a bad song, good guitar weave during the fadeout in fact. But it's terribly average, and the only thing that keeps this from beating Eat a Peach as the Brothers' best studio album (Even then, it's their best "pure" studio album - Peach was, of course, half studio, half live).
Free Music Review: Play On, Brother!
Hit: 5 Stars
The Allman Brothers Band's 1970 sophomore effort finds them altering and expanding upon the "space blues" leanings of THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, highlighting songwriting and nuancing skills more than its predecessor but arguably coming up more of a mixed bag as a result. The mix is quite a good one, however, and testifies as much as any of the original ABB's efforts to the truly tragic nature of this group's premature demise.
"Revival" introduces guitarist Dickey Betts as a composer, and as its title suggests the song is basically a gospel hosannah done Brothers-style. While perhaps a less whelming opener than "Don't Want You No More," it shows the band moving into new territory, exploring the full range of its musical roots and - most important - showcasing the songwriting of its various members. "Don't Keep Me Wondering," a Gregg Allman tune, brings things back into the band's well-dug blues vein with a funky shuffle of instant appeal; it's small wonder this song became a regular concert workout for the ABB. "Midnight Rider" may well be the Brothers' greatest studio recording - an absolutely flawless three-minute study in mood, atmosphere and individual and collective musicianship, it's worthy of inclusion on THE SUN SESSIONS. Dickey's instrumental opus "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," soon to be disemboweled to heart-stopping effect on AT FILLMORE EAST, closes side one of the original LP with an effective nod to the Brothers' jazzier capabilities and leaves no doubt that this is a unit with at least two full-fledged songsmiths in its fold. "Hoochie Coochie Man," the lone cover tune here, sets a mediocre vocal by bassist Berry Oakley over an earthquake performance by the band, with drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks particularly tasty. "Please Call Home" is a lovely ballad by Gregg, whose sung heartache plays beautifully against Brother Duane's loping, melancholy guitar. "Leave My Blues at Home" throws its hands up on all the pain, hope, fear and bragadoccio of the previous tracks to end the album on a gruffly, almost threateningly affirmative note. All this in just over thirty-two minutes!
IDLEWILD SOUTH is, at the very least, a minor masterpiece from an era when masterpieces were almost common; and while its achievements may have been quickly overshadowed by those of AT FILLMORE EAST and EAT A PEACH, its own strengths remain undeniable and its songs - several of them, at least - unforgettable.
Free Music Review: A very good record but don't buy it
Hit: 4 Stars
A great record but don't buy it. Get it on Beginnings, which includes this record with their debut, which is even five stars, and it isn't that expensive.Free Music Review: Four and a half, actually
Hit: 4 Stars
I always thought it was a shame that "Idlewild South" opens with the unoriginal and repetitive "Revival". That one really doesn't give much of an indication of what's to follow, which is some of the finest 70s blues-rock you'll ever hear. Gregg Allman's "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" is a perfectly authentic electric blues number, all quivering harmonica fills, howling slide guitars, and some terrific hooks. A concert favorite for close to 40 years, this is one of band's best-ever songs.
But it's far from being the only highlight on an album which also includes the folkish, acoustic "Midnight Rider", the original "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" (a tight seven minutes!), and a great, swaggering "Leave My Blues At Home".
No-one has managed to out-Hoochie Muddy Waters, but the ABB do a very good "Hoochie Coochie Man" without trying to emulate the original too much. And while "Please Call Home" is one of the band's lesser-known songs, the soulful ballad is no throwaway.
Gregg Allman was the big songwriter back then, writing or co-writing nine out of fourteen songs on the band's first two albums combined, and he has written all the best songs here (with the obvious exception of Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man"). And the band is crackling with energy; Duane Allman and Dickey Betts have perfected their dual lead guitar onslaught, and Duane's slide guitar sounds amazingly clean and crisp.
"Idlewild South" is definitive must-have for ABB fans...and just fans of electric blues and blues-rock in general.