At Fillmore East (Deluxe Edition) [Extra tracks, Live, Original recording remastered]

I am at a loss to describe how definitive this album, or this band really were or are; it may just be that I am in awe. I am in awe of the legendary peak of the mountain that was the musical genius of Duane Allman. Although he alone cannot be credited for the high impact experience that At Fillmore East really is; one man could not make this sound, no matter how hard he tried, alone: the rest of the band are solid as a rock.

Rated at 49 in Rolling Stones 'Greatest Albums Ever' it's not hard to hear why; not only the skill but also the passion of The Allman Brothers Band makes this album something that you will undoubtedly come back to many, many times.

Having delved into the dark abyssal depths that is the blues, and having heard the argument that the Allman Brothers Band are somewhat better on the shallower side of things, I will summarise by saying that this album can only be described as a musical gem; inspirational rock, a tribute to the blues and a leviathan in the genre. Listen to it.

King Curtis: Live At The Fillmore West This too.

This repackaged double-disc reissue of the Allman Brothers Band's classic 1971 Fillmore West concert restores the original mixes, and presents them in truly stellar sound quality.

On the previous CD issue of the Fillmore concerts, producer Tom Dowd chose alternate takes and messed around with them, trying to create the ultimate listening experience by mixing bits of various takes together. However well-intentioned his attempt was, it didn't always improve the music (and sometimes it ended up doing the oppostite).
Now, this is not a complete end-to-end recording of one of the four Fillmore shows either, but it does restore the original un-tampered-with LP mixes, presenting a more authentic picture of what it was that people heard on those two days in March, 1971. And it is magnificent. The sound is crystal clear, with depth and nuances, and each instrument, Thom Doucette's harmonica in particular, sounds better and crisper than ever before. Honestly, I'm listening to it right now on my computer, with its standart-equipment speakers, and it sounds GREAT!

The first disc opens with a biting four-minute "Statesboro Blues", followed by an equally lean and mean rendition of the riff-driven "Trouble No More" with searing slide guitar by Duane Allman and Dickey Betts (wonderful solo about half way through the song). And then comes Gregg Allman's "Don't Keep Me Wondering", a superb performance with lots of great harp playing and a galvanizing slide guitar solo.

Gregg Allman then introduces "an old Elmore James song" (James had been dead less than eight years at the time), and the band lay down a terrific, muscular rendition of "Done Somebody Wrong" with more wonderful harmonica playing, including a gritty solo, after which the tempo goes down for a nine-minute "They Call It Stormy Monday", one of the band's finest pure blues covers, featuring a stellar 99-second guitar solo.

Rice Miller's "One Way Out" is performed as an up-tempo boogie with a rock n' roll-like urgency, and then comes "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed", Dickey Bett's classic instrumental, and a 19-minute (!) take on Willie Cobbs' "You Don't Love Me", which breaks down half way through to allow for a lengthy instrumental jam. (The Allmans' lenghty jams sometimes have the ability to bore casual listerers to tears, but this one is actually really good.)

Disc one winds down with a lovely, mellow, three-minute version of "Midnight Rider", and disc two opens with "Hot 'Lanta", a slightly psychedelic instrumental which isn't the most memorable thing the Allmans ever did, followed by an extravagant 22-minute take on the epic blues lament "Whipping Post".

Also featured here is the relatively rare "Drunken Hearted Boy", and the same never-ending "Mountain Jam" which first appeared on "Eat A Peach", including Duane Allman's stunning solo after the drum break, culminating in a grand instrumental rendition of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken". Everything is logically sequenced to resemble an actual 1971 Allman Brothers set list with the tight, bluesy stuff coming first, followed by the extended jamming, and this, to me, is the defintive reissue of the Fillmore tapes, better than "The Fillmore Concerts", and much better than the original seven-track LP.

Equipped with excellent liner notes which include a fine essay, this is the one to get. The sublime first disc earns it all five stars.

If you want to hear the benchmark in live modern rock music this is it. It's Duane Allman at the height of his powers. A must own for anyone with an appreciation for great rock bands like the Stones, Hendrix or Creedence. A true guitar masterclass.