(Side 1)
On March 23, 1969, an interracial group of Southern musicians held a jam session in the front room of this house, known as the "Gray House." The jam went so well that veteran Muscle Shoals session guitarist Duane Allman barred the doorway and announced that anyone not willing to be in his band would have to "fight your way out." Duane's brother, Gregg, joined the group three days later as lead singer and keyboardist. Calling themselves the Allman Brothers Band (ABB), the group also featured Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, Berry Oakley, and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson. Comprised of four Florida musicians, a bassist from Chicago and a drummer from Mississippi, the ABB drew members from other bands, the 31st of February and the Second Coming, who had lived and jammed in a Victorian house down the block known as the "Green House." While living in the "Gray House," Gregg wrote most of the ABB's first album, including, "Whipping Post." Without access to pen and paper, Gregg wrote the song in the middle of the night using burnt matches on an ironing board cover. The ABB held initial rehearsals at the Comic Book Club on Forsyth Street in Jacksonville. Within weeks, the band moved to Macon, Georgia.
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(Side 2)
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In 1971, the Allman
Brothers Band drew critical acclaim with the live album, At Fillmore East, and their 1972 double-album Eat a Peach was a Billboard top five smash. The following year, Brothers and Sisters topped the Billboard album chart and gave the group its most successful single, "Ramblin' Man." written by Dickey Betts. Known as standard-bearers of Southern Rock, in truth they played rock and roll interpreted through deep blues, jazz, R&B, and country. The Allman Brothers Band produced ten gold and four platinum albums. Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, in October 1971. Bassist Berry Oakley died in a similar accident in November the following year. The group persevered, and in 1995, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Allman Brothers Band disbanded in 2014 following a concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City with newer, mainstay guitarists Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. After forty-five years of making music, the band's last song that night was the first they played at the "Gray House" in 1969, "Trouble No More." Fellow founding member Butch Trucks passed away in January 2017, followed by Gregg Allman in May of that year.
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