Duane & Gregg Allman - Duane & Gregg Allman (1968)

Not released until 1972

Here is one of the pre-Allman Brothers Band albums by the brothers themselves. It is technically by The 31st Of February, a band featuring drummer Butch Trucks, who were joined by the brothers Duane and Gregg Allman after the break-up of their group The Hour Glass. The bands were old friends, and upon meeting up, The 31st Of February fired their own lead guitarist and joined forces with the Allmans. These demo recordings were recorded in 1968, but never actually saw release until 1972, when it was credited to the brothers'. Not long after the album was recorded, the Allman Brothers Band was formed, and 31st Of February drummer Butch Trucks joined them. The album featured some great soul-rock, with flavours of folk and blues, mostly dominated by Gregg Allman’s vocals. It contained covers of folk singer Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew”, the blues standard “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down Out”, and a song called “Melissa”, which would later become a treasured part of the Allman Brothers Band repetoire. The actual line-up here was Gregg Allman (vocals, organ, piano), Duane Allman (lead guitar), Scott Boyer (guitar, vocals), David Brown (bass) and Butch Trucks (drums and percussion). Boyer sings the last song on the album - "In The Morning When I'm Real", and has a very good voice (he would later form the country-rock band Cowboy). If this lineup of musicians had continued to play together they could have become a really brilliant group. But then again if that was to have happened, we would never have had The Allman Brothers... 

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