Allmans Call Upon Many Guests For Gregg-Less Show

A case of bronchitis forced Gregg Allman to miss his second straight The Allman Brothers Band show at the Beacon Theatre on Saturday night, so the band called in the cavalry. The vibe was loose in NYC as guest musicians shuffled on and off-stage all night long. While the Allmans persevered a pair of shows without Gregg this weekend, there’s no doubt it’s welcome news that the keyboardist and co-founding member of the group expects to return for the run’s final four performances.

[Photo by Adam McCullough]

Kofi Burbridge (ARU, Tedeschi Trucks Band) and Rob Barraco (Dark Star Orchestra, Phil Lesh Quintet) filled in for Gregg on keys all night long as they did on Friday night. For the majority of the evening Barraco and his trusty Kurzweil were setup on the opposite side of the stage from where Gregg usually plays, while the elder Burbridge took up residence at Gregg’s Hammond B3 organ. Southern rock legend Jimmy Hall was the first guest of the night to join the core band of Butch, Derek, Jaimoe, Rob, Kofi, Oteil, Marc and Warren. Hall led the Allmans’s Capricorn Records label mates Wet Willie in the ’70s (and beyond) and was a member of the fantastic BHLT (Betts, Hall, Leavell & Trucks) ensemble in the ’80s. Jimmy added harmonica to the “Done Somebody Wrong” opener.

Guitarists Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes both left jaws agape throughout the two-set performance. Just when you thought they had taken their solos to a powerful climax, they would kick it into a new gear you didn’t think existed. As much as Gregg Allman is the heart and soul of the Allman Brothers Band, it’s the interplay between Trucks and Haynes that stokes the audiences’s fires each night and will be sorely missed when the pair leaves the group at the end of the year. Warren’s also an exemplary vocalist and handled Gregg’s “Come and Go Blues” with ease. “Dusk Till Dawn” featured a sizzling flute solo from Kofi and powerful blasts of the sax from Jay Collins (Gregg Allman Band, Levon Helm). Hall then returned to lead the ragtag ensemble through Muddy Waters’s “Can’t Lose What You Never Had.” Susan Tedeschi made her first appearance of the night on “All My Friends,” which followed a spot-on rendition of the psychedelic instrumental “True Gravity.” Jimmy had another turn in the spotlight to front the fourth-ever Allman Brothers Band version of the Taj Mahal classic “She Caught The Katy.” Hall and Tedeschi also helped out on vocals for the joyous “Revival” that closed the first set.

The first two songs of the second set saw two very different approaches to Gregg’s vocals. Jimmy Hall’s laid back delivery of “You Don’t Love Me” was nothing like the way Gregg usually sings it, while if you closed your eyes you just might have thought it was Allman on stage when Junior Mack (Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band) sang “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” Derek and Warren unleashed one ferocious riff after another during a “Black Hearted Woman” jam that was more intense than usual, which is really saying something. Tedeschi then returned for “Feel So Bad” before Haynes stepped in for Gregg on a “Dreams” that contained another earth-shaking pair of guitar solos. As the clock approached midnight it was clear “Les Brers In A Minor” would end the second set, but the group kept the guests and surprises coming by bringing out Beacon residency veteran Jimmy Vivino (Conan O’Brien, Fab Faux) to lend a hand on a fiery “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?” (Derek & The Dominos) that was inserted in the middle of “Les Brers.” All of the evening’s guests returned for the “Southbound” encore that put the stamp on a very unusual, yet successful, Allman Brothers Band show at the Beacon Theatre.

Check out the setlist from Saturday night’s show:

Set One: Done Somebody Wrong (w/ Jimmy Hall on harmonica), Come and Go Blues, End Of The Line, Dusk Till Dawn (w/ Jay Collins on sax), Can’t Lose What You Never Had (w/ Jimmy Hall on vocals and harmonica), True Gravity, All My Friends (w/ Susan Tedeschi on guitar and vocals & Jimmy Hall on harmonica), She Caught The Katy (w/ Jimmy Hall on vocals and harmonica), Revival (w/ Susan Tedeschi & Jimmy Hall)

Set Two: You Don’t Love Me (w/ Jimmy Hall on vocals and harmonica), Ain’t Wasting Time No More (w/ Junior Mack on guitar and vocals), Black Hearted Woman, Feel So Bad (w/ Susan Tedeschi on guitar and vocals), Dreams, Les Brers In A Minor > Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? (w/ Jimmy Vivino on guitar and vocals, Susan Tedeschi on vocals & Jimmy Hall on sax) > Les Brers In A Minor (w/ Jimmy Vivino on guitar, Jimmy Hall on sax and Jay Collins on sax)

Encore: Southbound (w/ Jimmy Vivino on guitar and vocals, Susan Tedeschi on vocals, Junior Mack on guitar and vocals, Jimmy Hall on sax and Jay Collins on sax)

[Entire Show without Gregg Allman and with Rob Barraco and Kofi Burbridge]

The Songs -Allman Brothers Band Beacon Run 2014:

1983 -1
Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More -4
All My Friends -1
And It Stoned Me -1
Black Hearted Woman -3
Blind Willie McTell -1
Blue Sky -3
Can’t Lose What You Never Had -1
Come and Go Blues -3
Come On In My Kitchen -1
Desdemona -1
Done Somebody Wrong -4
Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ -4
Don’t Want You No More -2
Dreams -3
Dusk Till Dawn -4
Egypt -3
End Of The Line -3
Every Hungry Woman -2
Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home -2
Feel So Bad -1
Franklin’s Tower -1
Gambler’s Roll -1
Get On With Your Life -2
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl -2
High Cost Of Low Living -1
Hoochie Coochie Man -3
Hot ‘Lanta -3
I Found A Love -2
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed -3
Into The Mystic -1
It Makes No Difference -1
It’s Not My Cross To Bear -2
I’ve Been Loving You Too Long -1
I Walk On Gilded Splinters -2
Jessica -3
Leave My Blues At Home -3
Les Brers In A Minor -3
Little Martha -2
Low Down Dirty Mean -2
Melissa -2
Midnight Rider -4
Mountain Jam -3
No One To Run With -4
Old Before My Time -1
Old Friend -1
One Way Out -4
Please Call Home -2
Preachin’ Blues -1
Rain -2
Revival -4
Rocking Horse -3
Sailin’ ‘Cross The Devil’s Sea -1
Same Thing -2
Seven Turns -3
She Caught The Katy -1
Smokestack Lightning -1
Soulshine -2
Southbound -4
Spots of Time -2
Stand Back -3
Statesboro Blues -5
Stormy Monday -1
That’s What Love Will Make You Do -2
The Sky Is Crying -2
The Weight -1
Trouble No More -3
True Gravity -5
Turn On Your Love Light -1
Wasted Words -1
Whipping Post -2
Who’s Been Talking -2
Who To Believe -1
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? -2
Woman Across The River -2
Worried Down With The Blues -3
You Don’t Love Me -5