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On March 11th, the Allman Brothers Band open their annual spring residency in New York City, moving uptown from their traditional haunt, the Beacon Theatre — currently held hostage by a new Cirque de Soleil production — for 13 shows at Harlem’s United Palace Theater. That leaves you plenty of time to relive every note of last year’s 15 Beacon concerts, which have been released in a deluxe box set of 45 CDs through the Allmans’ Website, Hittin’ The Note. The 2009 Beacon Box comes in a hefty wood case with a glossy booklet, souvenir backstage passes and a two-CD bonus show from December 2008. The price is $499.99 (about 10 bucks a disc); the 2009 Beacon concerts are also available separately for $27 each.
The Allmans’ 2009 Beacon season was a 40th anniversary celebration of the band’s founding in 1969 by the late guitarist Duane Allman and the release that year of the group’s debut album on Capricorn Records, The Allman Brothers Band. They performed the entire thing, in sequence, on March 26th, the original release date. There were guest appearances on all of the other nights by all-star friends and fellow travelers, from Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter and Z.Z. Top’s Billy Gibbons to Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell of Phish, the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and Phil Lesh and, on March 19th and 20th, Eric Clapton in his first-ever performances with the Allmans.
“The way you could tell it was different,” Allmans guitarist Derek Trucks says of the 2009 concerts, “is that at the end of every Beacon run, on the twelfth or thirteenth night, you can feel the guys want to go home. Gregg’s a little wore out. But at the last show of that run, Gregg was like, ‘Shit, I can do 10 more like this.’ “
Many guests had personal histories with the Allm...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily