Searching For Simplicity

Performer: Gregg Allman
Artist: Jimmy Hall; Hank Crawford; Jim Horn
Producer: Johnny Sandlin; Tom Dowd
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Gregg Allman (vocals, Hammond B-3); Carla Russell (vocals); Jack Pearson (acoustic, electric & slide guitars, guitar, dobro); Scott Boyer (electric guitar, background vocals); Derek Trucks (slide guitar); Kelvin Holly, Johnny Sandlin (guitar); Topper Price, Jimmy Hall (harmonica); Sam Levine, Hank Crawford (alto saxophone); Harvey Thompson (tenor & baritone saxophones); Jim Horn (baritone saxophone); Vinnie Ciesielski, Gary Armstrong (trumpet); Charles Rose (trombone); Clayton Ivey (piano, Wurlitzer, Hammond B-3, Clavinet); N.C. Thurman (piano); Oteil Burbridge, David Hood, Tommy Miller (bass); Bill Stewart, Preston L. Thrall (drums); Mickey Buckins, Roger Hawkins (percussion). Engineers: Johnny Sandlin, Mark Harrelson, Vincent Wojno. Recorded at Duck Tape Music Studio, Decatur, Alabama and Fantasy Recording, Berkeley, California. In his initial solo recordings, Gregg Allman tried for a more eclectic pop approach than the Southern blues-rock of his day job with the Allman Brothers Band. His later solo work, done during breaks in the Brothers' career, was much closer to the traditional ABB sound. On his first solo album since the Allmans' reformation in 1989, he again makes what is essentially an Allman Brothers Band record without the other members, except new guitarist Jack Pearson, whose Duane Allman/Dickey Betts-style slide work is all over the disc. Allman signals the same-but-different approach by opening the album with an "unplugged" version of the Allmans' signature song, "Whipping Post," and though he adds horns to some tracks for a more R&B feel, the rest of the album finds him growling through standard-issue blues-rock, some of the songs originals, some covers, among them an excellent version of "Dark End of the Street" and an arrangement of John Hiatt's "Memphis in the Meantime" that makes it sound like a Betts country-rocker. Recovering from personnel changes, the Allman Brothers Band didn't release an album in 1997; this record should help tide their fans over. ~ William Ruhlmann

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