Gregg hits from the heart
Maybe this album being a product of its time (1973) was going to be an easygoing template to the improv-jams of Southern Rock. And wasn’t Gregg Allman fatefully married to the Elf of pop Cher? What strange ju ju were the casualties of 60s pop/rock stardom on come 1977. It was more fumblings for directions in bad ideas than good ideas at all – and some unhealthy addictions.
So. Laid Back Sessions is what the album equates to be – and well before any of the shit hit the fan. The songs are crafted with a direction in mind, not only do they lend to a more song-based chorus arched focus, but guitars are dimmed and the soulful growl and almost pitch perfect arrangements are set by Gregg. These are songs – escuse the term – that are lived in. They’re songs played and arranged and weighed up for a common goal which is to hit the listener gently in the heart. Best served with a cold beer looking at the sun set on warm summers day.
The Allman Brothers‘ rapid rise into the rock ‘canon’ had already been visible when they started becoming credited with the stylings of Southern rock. Gregg had seen the death of brother, the lead guitarist Duane just 2 years previous and was honing a less guitar dependent sound on the Brothers and Sisters (1973). Laid Back was released just amidst and after recordings of Brothers.. and has that easygoing country led stylings. But this is also an album that demonstrates Gregg’s earthy voice and skill at arranging songs old or new and making them his. Soulful and restrained. Gregg Allman’s Laid Back illustrates a musician not just kicking back but honing what could be heard as a healing impulse to the music that survives. All My Friends: ‘It’s all gone, for the last time it seems
And it’s a shame, all the feelings were lost in our scheme’
Laid Back offsets Gregg’s ability at arranging songs that are contained to his soulful gospel charge and display the essences of R&B, Soul, Blues, Gospel, and Country Rock. This was the time when pop music was disposed to the freedoms of reinvention and, the much uttered Gram Parsons ideal of a ‘melting pot’ of music. It’s not surprise that Stephen Stills sprawling masterpiece Manassas was released the year previous. But Gregg takes it to the elements of the song as opposed to the sprawl of cross-country and culture borderlines. Interestingly, Clapton had Duane play on Layla, and though Gregg didn’t feature on the album, ‘Queen of Hearts’ illustrates the affinity that Clapton had for affecting the soul sounding voice of Gregg and the Allmans.
The opener is a cover of the Allmans’ ‘Midnight Rider’. A sound of things to come. Restrained in comparison to the original, other than axe for hire Tommy Talton, the guitar licks lack any prominence in the songs and support the sum-of-the parts. Gregg’s organ playing is a constant, perhaps even to the point being anodyne.
It’s no surprise that the album is peppered with a few covers, standards of R&B and Gospel (‘Will the Circle be Broken’), or the Scott Boyer ballad ‘All My Friends’. Gregg distils these songs and makes them his own, even the lyrical references sound his own. No more is this displayed than on the Jackson Browne‘s ‘These Days’. Perhaps this is a highlight, but the album never falters from this tone and tenderness.
Considerately forgotten when hidden behind the lumbers of the Allmans Brothers back catalogue, but without brother Duane Greggs album wouldn’t sound so moving. In the words of Gregg:
“My brother always felt, and I learned from him, that if you lay down a sound, if it’s a hit in your heart, then it’s a hit. I don’t care how many it sells or how many like it or whatever – play what you want to play and stick to your guns.”
Stick to your guns and listen to this album.
