The Gregg Allman Band executed a well-wrought set list on The Flynn Mainstage January 14th, playing with an understated ardor that mirrored the leader’s naturally laid-back demeanor.
The casual observer might mistake Allman’s avoidance of show business trappings as mere diffidence, but that’s not the case. On this cold Vermont night, as is usually the case in his solo shows, as in his performances with The Allman Brothers Band, Gregg has his own style and sticks stubbornly to it. In fact, he has never seemed more like his own man, though his introductions of his band during the encore seemed a bit rushed, as befits a musician not wholly comfortable in the spotlight as the bandleader.
But as Allman and friends trooped across the stage to the strains of BB King’s “Playin’ With My Friends” on the house sound system, the group’s casual demeanor belied the stylized introduction as fully as their musicianship. The sextet slipped effortlessly into “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” the sole tune that most resembled the signature sound of ABB all night.
The most memorable moments of this two-hour show, however, were other famous staples whose arrangements hardly resembled their familiar charts. To be sure, “Dreams” flowed along with its usual momentum, but the prominence of Jay Collin’s sax gave it as much of an authentic R & B feel (and radiated a tangible jazz motif) as “Whipping Post”; by the time this latter tune appeared, as the concluding song of the regular set, drummer Steve Potts’ drumming was slipping and sliding around the beat as regularly as bassist Jerry Jemmott (once of King Curtis’ band) had been doing all night.
This rhythm section has been the foundation of Gregg Allman’s touring troupe for some years now and they are the most skilled musicians in the ensemble. Which isn’t to say that Woodstock New York natives, pianist Bruce Katz and guitarist Scott Sharrard, didn’t have their moments—the best of which occurred during the instrumental portions of the latter-named tune—but that they are serviceable musicians whose talents are best served in their roles as accompanists rather than free-rein improvisationalists.
The erratic sound mix early on in the evening had no effect on the heated audience response when Allman & co found their way into “I’m No Angel,” while the subsequent appearance of selections from Gregg’s Low Country Blues album, recently released on Rounder Records, benefited outright from their sparse blues structures. Muddy Waters’ “Can’t Be Satisfied,” was as effective as the first encore number, Sleepy John Estes’ “Floating Bridge,” on both of which Allman demonstrated how, after more than forty years on the road, his voice remains both strong and pliant.
He didn’t indulge himself with any kind of vocal histrionics during the course of the Fiynn concert, but then Gregg Allman isn’t given to calling attention to himself. Rather the wisdom of his well-traveled experience shows itself in the wizened turns of phrase he and his group used in playing “Statesboro Blues,” in an arrangement that sounded equal parts Taj Mahal and Dr. John. The septet slipped oh-so-deftly into the more customary shuffle for the climax, making a knowing statement hardly lost on the devoted attendees who had sung along so dutifully on “Melissa” the hour before.
Not nearly so memorable as his Higher Ground show of 2006 nor anywhere near as spectacular as recent shows with his Allman Brothers, Gregg Allman’s performance in the Green Mountains nevertheless suggested he brought a definite sense of self-renewal with him from his home in the Deep South.
