It was perfectly apropos for the late drummer Butch Trucks, one of the original members of The Allman Brother Band, to nickname one of his own groups “Freight Train.” Even in the later years of his career, Trucks was the driving force of whatever band he was part of, taking as much relish in his contributions as he did in savoring the loyalty of the ABB community.
The percussion partnership he forged with drumming partner Jai Johanny Johanson, aka Jaimoe, is one of the greatest distinctions in the sound of the Brothers, a virtue founder guitarist Duane Allman envisioned when he brought the two of them together in 1969. Herewith some highlights from Butch Trucks days at the kit, with ABB and otherwise…
-
There’s no more crisp drum interlude on a rock album than the one that punctuates the version of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” as it appears on The Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East.
-
Trucks’ main role in the Brothers was to supply a bedrock foundation around which Jaimoe could add rhythmic accents and Butch’s hammer-and -kick intro to “Trouble No More” from Eat A Peach is the archetype of that style.
-
The reunited ABB truly found their groove in the studio with producer Tom Dowd on Shades of Two Worlds and the way Butch Trucks drove the band on “Nobody Knows” might well represent the moment that ensemble truly coalesced.
-
As much as his straightforward approach commanded attention, Butch Trucks was above all a member of the band and his generosity of spirit never more evident than when he surrendered the spotlight to percussionist Marc Quinones during their two-man drum interlude during the Les Brers show in Rutland, Vermont in September of 2016.
-
It’s worth debating which musician had to adjust most when The Allman Brothers reconfigured itself in the wake of the deaths of Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley, but it’s easy to make a case for Butch Trucks: he needed to lighten his touch considerably for guitarist Dickey Betts’ country-flavored material. The extended “Ramblin’ Man” appearing on the ABB archive release Nassau Coliseum Uniondale, NY 5/1/73 may be no better illustration of his fluency.
