The loss of the legendary Gregg Allman shook the music community to its core back in May. With his final work Southern Blood officially due out on Friday, September 8th, NPR’s First Listen has the entire album available now for stream. Allman’s Southern Blood was produced by manager and friend Michael Lehman and Grammy-winning producer Don Was, with Rolling Stone noting that on the night prior to his death, Allman had just been sent four completed songs off the album and was excited to hear the tracks. In the same Rolling Stone article, Was notes, “It was kind of unspoken, but it was really clear we were preparing a final statement, in many ways. . . . It was so fuckin’ heavy, man. We weren’t going to a picnic.”
After fighting liver cancer for five years following a liver transplant in 2010, Allman went into Southern Blood with a very clear intention to make use of what would be his final studio session. A previous press release via Allman’s website notes that the late rock star was excited to “capture the sound of the ultimate Gregg Allman Band in flight,” as Allman considered the group the tightest kit combo of lineup that he had worked with over his multi-decade solo career, with Lehman stating, the group was “like a family or a well oiled machine, always knowing what the other band members were thinking and doing.” Recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Southern Blood simultaneous taps into the past while creating a statement for fans for generations to come. Fame Studios is the local that Gregg and his late brother Duane Allman recorded their pre-Allman Brothers Band project, Hour Glass, and Gregg considered recording his final album there a means “to bring him full circle.”
The album itself is one of Allman’s most personal solo efforts, featuring a host of meticulously chosen and heartfelt covers, as well the crowning jewel of the album, an original titled “My Only True Friend,” which was released earlier this month and begins with the lyrics: “You and I both know this river will surely flow to an end.” Co-written by Scott Sharrard, the Gregg Allman Band’s guitarist and musical director, along with Allman, “My Only True Friend” is a retrospective that allowed Allman to reflect and, as Was notes, “contextualize the course of his life.” Was continues, “The man that his fans saw performing onstage was the essential Gregg Allman – he was whole and truly satisfied when he was up there playing music. The trials and troubles he faced in life were mostly the result of not knowing what to do with himself in between shows. In this song, he’s addressing a woman and explaining that, although he loves her and doesn’t want to face living his life alone, being away on the road and performing every night is his lifeblood. If you understand this about Gregg Allman, every other aspect of his life makes complete sense.”
Listen to Gregg Allman’s final masterpiece, Southern Blood, on NPR:
Southern Blood Tracklist
My Only True Friend (Gregg Allman-Scott Sharrard)
Once I Was (Tim Buckley-Larry Beckett)
Going Going Gone (Bob Dylan)
Black Muddy River (Jerome J. Garcia-Robert C. Hunter)
I Love the Life I Live (Willie Dixon)
Willin’ (Lowell George)
Blind Bats and Swamp Rats (Jack Avery)
Out of Left Field (Dewey Lindon Oldham Jr.-Dan Penn)
Love Like Kerosene (Scot Sharrard)
Song for Adam featuring Jackson Browne (Jackson Browne)
Scott Sharrard will be celebrating Gregg Allman and the Allman Brothers Band at the upcoming Brooklyn Come Alive with a very special The Road Goes On: A Tribute to the Allman Brothers Band set. Sharrard will bring together Al Schnier, Vinnie Amico (moe.), Bernard Purdie, Nate Werth(Snarky Puppy, Ghost Note), Brett Bass (Gregg Allman Band), along with special guests Eric Krasno (Lettuce, Soulive), Rob Compa (Dopapod), Roosevelt Collier (The Lee Boys), and Brandon “Taz” Niederauer to perform classic Allman Brothers material. More information on Brooklyn Comes Alive can be found here.