Allman Brothers Band Brothers Of The Road

The Allman Brothers Band: Gregg Allman (vocals, acoustic guitar, organ); Dickey Betts (vocals, acoustic, electric & slide guitar); "Dangerous" Dan Toler (guitar); Mike Lawler (piano, synthesizer, clavinet); David "Rook" Goldflies (bass); Butch Trucks, David "Frankie" Toler (drums).
Additional personnel: Charlie Daniels (fiddle); Jimmy Hall (saxophone, background vocals); Mark "Tito" Morris (congas, timbales, percussion); Thomas Cain, Johnny Cobb, Chip Young, Greg Guidry, Joy Lannon, Donna McElroy, Keith England, Jeff Silverman, Randall Hart, Peter Kingsberry, Joe Pizzulo (background vocals).
Producer: John Ryan.
Reissue producer: Mike Ragogna.
Recorded at Young'un Sound in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally released on Arista (9564).
The early '80s were not the Allman Brothers' peak years. Neither of the two albums they made at the time for Arista Records sold particularly well, and the band promptly broke up (for the second time) after the disappointment of BROTHERS OF THE ROAD. The album had been a conscious, if misguided, attempt to make the band's sound more radio-friendly. In 1981's terms, that translated into sounding as much like the Doobie Brothers, circa "What a Fool Believes," as possible.
The Allman Brothers managed a credible Doobie Brothers impression on Dickie Betts' "Straight from the Heart" (an actual Top-40 hit) and on "Two Rights." The rest of the album is more standard Allmans fare. The title song is a big, anthemic number dedicated to "all of the musicians who have made Southern rock a traditional art form in American music." Several slide-guitar workouts are reminiscent of happier days-including "Leavin'," "The Heat is on" (wherein Dicky Betts raps (!), sort of), and the extremely bluesy "I Beg of You."

• Genre: Rock
• Format: Vinyl