Canadian Politics Today

Gregg Allman died of liver cancer a couple of weeks ago, aged 69 years.

The "Southern rock" genre was dead before I was even born, and I only knew of the Allman Brothers from a few hits like Ramblin' Man, and I guess also the scene from "Field of Dreams" where Kevin Costner is driving his VW bus down the road as "Jessica" plays.  I started getting interested in the Allman Brothers while discovering other Southern rock acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Outlaws, and Blackfoot.  Gregg Allman had a remarkable voice, and also he just *looked* the part-- this tall lanky figure with a long mane of blond hair, he just *looked* like Southern rock personified.

Derek Trucks of the Tedeschi-Trucks Band knew him from a very young age, because Derek is the nephew of the Allman Brothers' drummer. Derek said this about him:

He was very sweet, but just his persona was intimidating. He was Gregg Allman. I think a lot of people had that feeling when they met him. The way he walked and talked and acted. He had whatever the "it" thing is. It was like meeting Willie Mays or something. It's like, "Holy ****, they exist!" Even when Dickey Betts was leading the band, Gregg was the focal point at all times. He just had that magnetism, and that **** voice. They don't hand those out often. He was the keeper of the mojo. It was just effortless for him, that part of it. He was just a bona fide **** badass. There's a lot of pretenders and a lot of people who think that those torches get passed, but there's not another Gregg. It feels like this fictional, amazing, Southern gothic epic. It's un-****-believable. From childhood on, at every turn, something major and traumatic and awful was happening.

These awful things included the death of the other Allman Brother, Duane, just as the band was taking off in the late 1960s. They remained "the Allman Brothers Band" for another 45 years, despite there being just one Allman left.




 -k