Soulful songs from blues country

Let’s face it – Gregg Allman is rock and roll royalty due to his 40-year tenure manning the vocals and Hammond B-3 organ for the Allman Brothers Band, but his solo career has been spotty at best. From an ill-advised album with then-wife Cher to the commercial success of the really pretty silly “I’m No Angel” (complete with lyrics “Come on baby / come on and let me show you my tattoo”) his solo offerings have, despite a few decent efforts, detracted from his legacy as the cream of the crop among white blues singers.

That trend won’t continue on this record. Low Country Blues, Allman’s first solo album in 14 years, came out Jan. 18 and, alongside producer T-Bone Burnett, Allman and co. have crafted a swampy, stomping tribute to the blues. The record is mostly a covers album of songs by such blues luminaries as Skip James, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and Junior Wells, with Allman delivering the vocals with a little help from friends Dr. John and Warren Haynes.

The album kicks off with “Floating Bridge,” a steady, walking blues to a plodding rhythm which Dr. John graces with his gumbo and Cajun shrimp-soaked fingers shaking with New Orleans style. Allman’s famed organ makes its first front row appearance in “Little By Little,” which also features some growling flair from guitarist Scott Sharrard, filling in for some impressive names as Allman’s guitar sidekick. Each song, while inviting input from band members, primarily focuses on Gregg’s voice, as well they should; it sounds in fine form, aged at the same rate over the years so that it’s never been ragged, only rugged, never been fabricated or manufactured, always equal parts guts, gypsy and the genuinely raw emotions of a man born to sing the blues.

Overall the record sees Allman get back to the roots of what the Allman Brothers Band was mining when they started, without the pressure that 40 years of innovation can bring upon a group. He seems more deft and able in his vocals, clearly at home with the new songs and seemingly looser with the newer lyrics. This is obvious in the smoky jazz club feel of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Blind Man,” which Allman commands with authoritative vocals that bring Ray Charles to mind, and not just because of the song’s title. In fact, much of the album evokes a bit of Mr. Charles, as Allman takes center stage as soul-singer in the rain-soaked mourn of “Tears Tears Tears.” “Rolling Stone,” the seven-minute album closer, is a haunting track with Sharrard’s slick acoustic slide slipping over an ominous descending bassline and Allman’s gruff vocals and strong piano.

“Devil Got My Woman” goes back to an old Allman strength – singing over acoustic guitars. It’s a form that used to make an appearance at least once on every Allman Brothers record: “Trouble No More,” “Midnight Rider,” “Melissa,” to name one off three of their first four. Yet as the years went on some acoustic songs had morphed into full-throttle electric versions with the Brothers or had fallen to the vocal talents of Dickey Betts or Warren Haynes in later years. Meanwhile, the sole Allman-penned track on the album, “Just Another Rider,” (with Haynes) follows a lot of Allman’s own past groundwork – singing about lonesome riders through defined choruses and guitar and horn-led verses, even winding up sounding a lot like some of the tracks on 2003’s Hittin’ The Note – and in some ways updates them. Others might say he’s just re-treading old ground, but for a covers album, isn’t the point to update the past?

At this point, Gregg Allman will never recreate the apex of Eat A Peach, and will never form a band as formidable as the Allman Brothers, whether the original version or its current, star-studded incarnation, but if Gregg wants to lay down some of those soulful Southern pipes on a few blues tracks every few years, that’s fine by me. The album’s great and it’s definitely worth a listen, but here’s hoping the next time Gregg heads into the studio it’s more of a family, maybe a more fraternal, affair.