Posts by Doug Collette

With its emotional honesty and clarity of introspection, there’s such a deep-rooted melancholy in Gregg Allman’s greatest song, “Old Before My Time” (from 2003’s ABB album Hittin’ the Note), that it’s inclusion in the setlist for All My Friends might well have unduly dampened the celebratory atmosphere that permeates the concert. But every other well-known […]

Will Bernard/Just Like Downtown (Posi-Tone): Will Bernard may never impress with his guitar flash, but in a world overstocked with self-appointed heroes of the instrument, his approach is as much of a blessing as his deceptively sophisticated skill. And it’s in keeping with his skill as much as confidence that he enters to make a […]

Live in Holland 1976 is an ideal companion piece to the previously released Little Feat DVD Skin It Back recorded in Germany in 1977. On the latter, Lowell George was no longer titular leader of the group, but rather well into his withdrawal from that role as he acquiesced to the creative input of keyboardist […]

As handsomely packaged as last year’s Brothers & Sisters, ‘Deluxe Edition,’ 40 is so impeccably recorded in audio and video (the latter of which makes an often cheesy light show look impressive), it is comparable to 2003’s Live at the Beacon Theatre DVD (though lacking its assortment of bonus features). Classy as the designated event […]

“Please Be With Me, A Song for My Father” is, quite simply, the most insightful book written to date about The Allman Brothers Band. In a quest to learn the true nature of the parent she never knew—the famed guitarist died when the author was but two years old—Galadrielle Allman illuminates the passionate contradictions of […]

[rating=7.00] The camaraderie of The Chris Robinson Brotherhood belies their time together. Formed in 2011 by the co-founder of The Black Crowes, the group caught the proverbial lightning in a bottle with their two initial albums (Big Moon Ritual and The Magic Door) released in quick succession the very next year. Now the sextet has […]

[rating=7.00] Since leaving The Felice Brothers, Simone Felice has created truly cinematic contemporary folk music, in his collaborations such as The Duke & The King as well as on his own. Strangers expands on the scope of production from the previous eponymous album, but Felice maintains a rigorous restraint that stands him in good stead. […]

[rating=7.00] Since the dissolution of Cream in 1968, Jack Bruce has released a stylistic array of albums delving into the rock, jazz and classical genres he touched upon as a member of that seminal power trio. The personnel he has enlisted for his latest release, Silver Rails, is representative of that eclectic approach. They, along […]

[rating=9.00] The second installment of a live performance/recording series, Medeski, Martin & Wood + Nels Cline’s Woodstock Sessions Vol. 2 consists of edits from a roughly two-hour performance in front of a small audience conducted in late August of last year. Just as collaborating with guitarist John Scofield elicits largely funky goings on from the […]

Alan Paul creates the chronological narrative of One Way Out: The Inside History of The Allman Brothers Band by interweaving excerpts of interviews with band members, family and friends, business partners and acquaintances, with much the same intricacy the band itself improvises. In doing so, he, more often than not, illuminates familiar topics and uncovers […]