9.27.2007

Gregg Allman - Searching For Simplicity



Gregory Lenoir Allman (born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee), known as Gregg Allman (sometimes spelled Greg Allman), is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist, and songwriter, best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 with The Allman Brothers Band, and personally received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Raised in Daytona Beach, Florida, attended Seabreeze High School along with his older brother Duane, Gregg took an interest in the guitar before Duane did. But while Duane would soon become the superior guitarist, Gregg focused more on vocals. Little Milton was one of his favorite singers.

Allman's solo career has continued intermittently throughout the subsequent decades, sometimes touring when the Allman Brothers Band is off the road. Generally, these solo efforts - first with the Gregg Allman Band, and later with Gregg Allman & Friends - eschew lengthy guitar solos and cast Allman more in the mode of his favorite soul singers. The bands often include a horn section and are more groove-oriented. The template of mixing originals with reworked Allman Brothers songs and covers of blues, R&B, and soul classics remains in place.
Allman's biggest hit single came in 1987 with "I'm No Angel", from the album of the same name. The song's production is slick, as befits the time it was recorded, but it is in a sense a more radio-friendly take on a prideful blues boast, which he has always done well. It fits with Allman's persona as a singer, although he did not write the title track (other stand-outs on the album include "Can't Keep Running" and "Lead Me On"). The album went on to be certified Gold for 500,000 copies sold and led to a renewed interest in Gregg and leading to a reformation of the Allman Brothers Band less than three years later.

GREGG's SOLO WORK:

1973 Laid Back
1974 Gregg Allman Tour (live)
1977 Two the Hard Way - Allman and Woman (Cher)
1977 Playin' Up a Storm
1987 I'm No Angel
1988 Just Before the Bullets Fly - The Gregg Allman Band
1997 Searching for Simplicity
2002 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection (compilation)
2002 No Stranger to the Dark: The Best of Gregg Allman (different compilation, with 3 new tracks)

PASSWORD: mud
GREGG ALLMAN

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