Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues

There are any number of reasons why an album might get held up for release after production is completed, but we wouldn't imagine that a liver transplant is high on that list. Leave it to iconic southern blues rocker Gregg Allman to add that particular wrinkle to Low Country Blues, his long-awaited and masterful solo project arriving January 18 (Rounder). Working with esteemed producer and musicologist T-Bone Burnett, a veteran who knows a thing or two about roots music and career revival, Allman takes a sure-footed step forward on his first solo album in thirteen years by looking back at the music that lit a spark for him and his late brother Duane when they were just kids: the blues...and in particular, the swampy, sweaty south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line variety.

Allman singing and playing classic (and obscure) blues covers would be a worthy listen in itself. But adding Burnett's inspired collaboration, from track selection to rounding up a killer studio band, is what makes Low Country such a treat. As he did with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand, Burnett simply raises the bar for what an album can and should sound like...and ultimately be about. Bonding with Allman quickly, Burnett brought in a core group of players including guitarist Daryl Bramhall II, bassist Dennis Crouch and drummer Jay Bellerose, supplementing Allman's B-3 organ with horns and even a guest piano turn from Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack. “The band was just a bitch, man,” Allman says. “If it works right, it all turns real magic. And that’s what happened this time, more so I think than anything I’ve ever recorded." Check out the album sampler as well as the lone Allman original "Just Another Rider."

Artist Site  Facebook

Gregg Allman - "Just Another Rider" (from the album Low Country Blues)

Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues Sampler ("Please Accept My Love", "Little By Little", "Blind Man")