"Brothers And Sisters" is often considered the Allman Brothers' last great album (until 1990 anyway).
It features sole guitarist and occational lead vocalist Richard "Dickey" Betts and newly added 21-year-old pianist Chuck Leavell, and sees the Allman Brothers Band starting to move away from the almost pure blues of their earliest records, focusing more on Southern rock with a country flavour (like on the melodic country rocker "Ramblin' Man").
The lengthy jams are mostly absent, and the songs are tighter and perhaps a little less experimental. Dickey Betts is a magnificent guitarist, but where Duane Allman was primarily a bluesman, Betts is also a country rocker, and the choice of material obviously mirrors this difference.
There is still some great, swinging blues rock here, though, particularly classics like "Wasted Words" and "Southbound", which still pepper the band's set list 35 years later. "Jelly Jelly" is a fine slow blues, penned by Gregg Allman, and Dickey Betts plays some truly sublime acoustic slide guitar on his own country-blues-fusion "Pony Boy", one of the album's finest songs.
"Brothers And Sisters" features some great interplay between Betts and Chuck Leavell, and it was the Allmans' most lighthearted and pop-oriented record at the time, topping the charts for a month and a half and going platinum.
Some listeners may miss the gritty blues of the group's previous efforts, but others will probably find it to be more immediately accessible. Either way, "Brothers and Sisters" is one of the Allman Brothers' most diverse and enjoyable records.
4½ stars - highly recommended.