Allman Brothers Band Brothers And Sisters CD

Allman Brothers Band: Gregg Allman (vocals, guitar, organ), Richard Betts (vocals, guitar, slide guitar, dobro), Chuck Leavell (acoustic & electric piano), Berry Oakley, Lamarr Williams (bass), Butch Trucks (drums, percussion, congas), Jaimoe (drums, congas).
Additional personnel: Les Dudek, Tommy Talton (guitars).
Engineers: Johnny Sandlin, Ovie Sparks, Buddy Thornton.
Recorded at Capricorn Sound Studios, Macon, Georgia.
The Allman Brothers Band: Gregg Allman (guitar, organ); Dickey Betts (electric guitar, slide guitar, dobro); Lamar Williams, Berry Oakley (bass instrument); Chuck Leavell, Jaimoe Johnson, Butch Trucks.
Personnel: The Allman Brothers Band (vocals, organ, background vocals); Richard Betts (vocals, guitar, slide guitar, dobro); Dickey Betts (vocals, guitar); Chuck Leavell (vocals, piano, electric piano, keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals); Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards); Les Dudek (guitar, acoustic guitar); Tommy Talton (acoustic guitar); Butch Trucks (drums, congas, timpani, percussion); Jaimoe Johnson (drums, congas, percussion).
Additional personnel: Les Dudek.
Brothers and Sisters, the Allman Brothers Band's first new studio album in two years, shows off a leaner brand of musicianship, which, coupled with a pair of serious crowd-pleasers, "Ramblin' Man" and "Jessica," helped drive it to the top of the charts for a month and a half and to platinum record sales. This was the first album to feature the group's new lineup, with Chuck Leavell on keyboards and Lamar Williams on bass, as well as Dickey Betts' emergence as a singer alongside Gregg Allman. The tracks appear on the album in the order in which they were recorded, and the first three, up through "Ramblin' Man," feature Berry Oakley -- their sound is rock-hard and crisp. The subsequent songs with Williams have the bass buried in the mix, and an overall muddier sound. The interplay between Leavell and Betts is beautiful on some songs, and Betts' slide on "Pony Boy" is a dazzling showcase that surprised everybody. Despite its sales, Brothers and Sisters is not quite a classic album (although it was their best for the next 17 years), especially in the wake of the four that had appeared previously, but it served as a template for some killer stage performances, and it proved that the band could survive the deaths of two key members. ~ Bruce Eder
Three songs into these sessions, bassist Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle accident, eerily similar to the one that had claimed founding member Duane Allman a year earlier. Given these circumstances, it is amazing that, on balance, BROTHERS AND SISTERS is probably the Allman Brothers' strongest studio effort. Songwriter and guitarist Dickie Betts really hits his artistic stride here; his "Ramblin' Man," for example, not only has country soul to burn but also features one of the all-time great fadeouts, with the instrumentation building on itself and soaring into the stratosphere.
Founding member Gregg Allman, whose contributions lean more toward the band's blues roots, is in equally good form. In particular, "Wasted Words" and "Jelly Jelly" plumb seemingly bottomless depths of feeling, and the band, notably pianist Chuck Leavell, renders them with an effortless textural transparency and swing. Though not as essential as the Allman Brothers' first four albums, the superb writing and performances on BROTHERS AND SISTERS still place it among their finest releases.