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Smokin' Jam Bands Pay Tribute to Allman Brothers

lj | New York City | 05/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Woe!!! Hold on to your hats boys and girls - this CD is a must have for fans of The Allman Brothers Band. That's right - MUST HAVE!!!!!
Let's start by saying that there isn't one Brother on the disc - with the exception of Mantra & Gov't Mule drummer, Matt Abts who I do consider a brother through association of playing with Warren Haynes. The disc features Zoo People & Mantra doing 5 Allman tunes out of the ten. The balance has some very fine playing by David Kalish Band, Rollin' In The Hay, Charlie Terrell, Richie & The Pocket Rockets, and Jimmy & The Tercels. Disc highlights in particular: Zoo People's versions of "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" & "Les Bres in A Minor" - PLUS a great good feeling, sunny day, top-down, highway drivin' original in the Brothers vein called, Sage. You gotta here this tune - you'll go lookin' through your stack of Allman Brothers stuff to see if they didn' write the dang song themselves! Sage is written by John Nau - a very fine piano player in the Chuck Leavell style.
Two other highlights are Rollin' in The Hay's version of Jessica done in a bluegrass vein and GA-RON-TEED to keep you feeling every bit as good as if Dickey Betts was pickin'!
The other highlight which I can't stop playing is Mantra's version of "In Memory". This absolutely smokes!!! Bass player Eric Topolski had me really, really remembering just what a monster Berry Oakley really was. I'm not downplaying Oteil or even the late Allen Woody - but man - this is the guy to snatch for the warmth of that early 70's Allman sound. And can they extend the jam??? Hell Yeah!!! Matt Abts 'drums up a storm' and when guitarist Rich Meijer gets to really pushing some nastiness late into the tune - Matt is smokin' all four limbs in contrapuntal overdrive!!! I'm gonna say this cause after 25 listens to this one song in 4 days it has to be said...You don't miss the Jaimoe/Butch combo at all with Matt Abts at the helm! Drummers: NO JUNK, HE IS THAT GOOD!!!
Look I'm not going to say go out and buy this CD - it won't be for everyone and yeah, I admit, if you want the Allman Brothers music - listen to the Allman Brothers; but I've been an ABB fan since 1971 and I know the "FEEL" and this CD has that "FEEL"! So, to me - it gets the 5 stars and we get some very fine music to listen to!!!! To the Jam Bands I say, "Well Done!""