Gregg Allman passed away more than a year ago, but the extended Allman Brothers Band family—from fans to collaborators—continues to mourn his loss. Today, longtime Gregg Allman Band guitarist musical director Scott Sharrard has debuted a new single featuring Taj Mahal and Bernard Purdie via Rolling Stone. In addition to the revered artists it features, the track, “Everything A Good Man Needs”, carries significant emotional weight for one big reason: It was the last known song Allman helped finish before his death on May 27th, 2017.
According to Rolling Stone, Sharrard and Allman completed the song together shortly before Allman’s death. They had hoped to get the song onto Gregg’s eventually Grammy-nominated, posthumously released final album, Southern Blood, before his health took a turn for the worse. Instead, the song has now surfaced as part of Sharrard’s new album, Saving Grace, with help from Purdie, the legendary session drummer, and Mahal, the blues elder statesman. The band is rounded out by organist Peter Levin and trumpet player Marc Franklin.
The song references the wisdom learned from life on the road. As Sharrard explains to Rolling Stone,
Whenever we would pull into a town or a hotel on the road, Gregg would usually say, “This place has everything a good man needs”… This is definitely a true story with references to Gregg’s life on the road as a single man. We just wanted to do a fun, funky blues about finding love out on the road. I know that Gregg would be thrilled to have Taj and Bernard playing our song.
The recording evokes the gritty southern character that Gregg Allman always embodied, with traces of soul and funk layered in. The result is a cut that surely would have made Gregg proud. Take a listen below:
Scott Sharrard ft. Taj Mahal, Bernard Purdie – “Everything A Good Man Needs”
[Video: Scott Sharrard]
In 2017, Sharrard put together a star-studded tribute to Gregg Allman at Brooklyn Comes Alive featuring Purdie, Vinnie Amico and Al Schnier (moe.), Nate Werth (Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note), Brett Bass (Gregg Allman Band), Joey Porter (The Motet), Eric Krasno (Soulive/Lettuce), Rob Compa (Dopapod), Roosevelt Collier, Dave Harrington, Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, and more. At this year’s Brooklyn Comes Alive, set to take place September 29th, Peter Levin, Taz, George Porter Jr., Jeff Sipe, Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff, and Elise Testone will once again pay their respects to Allman, Butch Trucks, Col. Bruce Hampton, and other beloved artists we lost last year. For more information about this year’s Brooklyn Comes Alive, head here.
Scott Sharrard’s new album, Saving Grace, is due out September 21st. For more information, or to check out a list of Sharrard’s upcoming tour dates, head to his website.
[H/T Rolling Stone]