Southern survivor Gregg Allman returns with his first solo record in 14 years. A straight-up blues album, it proudly displays the scrapes, dents and scratches of its battered bodywork from one who knows.
Referencing Muddy Waters, Otis Redding, Skip James, and BB King, its watchword is ‘authenticity’. If you’re gonna take “trains to nowhere” or “walk in the rain while the sun is shining”, then those tears better be earned.
And no-one could accuse Gregg Allman of not having walked the walk. Opener ‘Floating Bridge’ has the gothic grit of a William Faulkner short story. The treble echo of the guitars adds an eerie edge to the wrought emotions flowing throughout.
T Bone Burnett’s sparse and earthy production provide the instruments with space to breathe, and room to move, allowing the rhythm patterns time to saunter casually towards one another in a slow, drunken sway.
‘Tears Tears, Tears’ could be the soundtrack to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks with its brass section laying on soul and a Dr. John piano solo bringing on the heartache. ‘Rolling Stone’ is all driving bass, portentous slide guitar and intoning piano. Its laconic gravel-crunch vocal is a stealthy miasma of shifting moods.
If there is a criticism, it is perhaps that some of the renditions could have done with a bit more variety. But the star is undoubtedly Allman’s voice which is capable of evoking the beauty in slate grey skies and offering shelter from the sharded rain. Still got the blues...