[rating=8.00]
The multiple virtues of Gregg Allman’s final album, Southern Blood, are rooted in the pragmatism he displayed by enlisting his own band for the project. Add to that the wisdom of his choice of Muscle Shoals as the site for the recording: the seminal Southern rocker’s late sibling Duane first made a name for himself as a session man in Rick Hall’s Fame Studios, so the last surviving Allman brother rightfully invokes the indomitable spirit of “Skydog” throughout this posthumous work, not just on the final cut, “Song for Adam.”
That song of Jackson Browne’s stands as a poignant moment that recapitulates this record as a personal statement of purpose rather than a maudlin meditation on mortality. Whatever traces of bitterness linger in the ominous “My Only True Friend,” Allman’s songwriting collaboration with guitarist Scott Sharrard, those elements disappear with the stately gait of the ensemble and the delicate trumpet solo Mark Franklin floats near the close. The pedal steel on “Once I Was” likewise draws out the yearning in this song of Tim Buckley’s, one of Allman’s self-professed favorite composers. In contrast to this cover of Bob Dylan’s “Going Going Gone” it sounds a bit too obvious for its own good.
A forlorn take on Lowell George’s “Willin’” also becomes redundant by the time “I Love the Life I Lead” rolls around; Gregg’s singing on this tune of Muddy Waters’, measured but nevertheless jovial and knowing, elicits a saucy strut from a group that knows just when to defer to the leader and how much. Immediately preceding, the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter composition, “Black Muddy River,” sounds like the heart of Southern Blood. This cover serves a testament to perseverance, albeit a guarded one; Gregg Allman knows all too well not to take anything for granted.
Still, he authoritatively leads his musicians through “Love Like Kerosene” at the same brisk clip at which they offered it from the concert stage in recent years. The mutual affection and camaraderie in their relationship no doubt inspired producer Don Was, who assumed his role at Allman’s request. He deserves kudos for his laudable management of a surfeit of resources, right down to the sequencing of the ten tracks.
The stark imagery in Sharrard’s tune, for instance, complements that of “Blind Bats and Swamp Rats,” where Marc Quinones’ syncopated percussion maintains the foundation of a laid-back rhythm Allman personified during the better part of his career. It’s also only fitting that “Out of Left Field” follows because it’s the kind of classic R&B ballad the younger Allman doted on in his formative years; it also renders the aforementioned song of his former California roommate’s a touching eulogy for the founder of the ABB, as well as an exemplary closing for this album.
Southern Blood logically follows the 2011 T Bone Burnett-produced rediscovery of roots, Low Country Blues, the concert document of Allman and Back to Macon, and the well-timed retrospective of 2014’s All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs and Voice of Gregg Allman. An excellent record on its own terms, it also compares favorably to his famous solo debut, Laid Back, making the final work of this iconic artist all the more memorable.
