Brothers and Sisters [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Allman Brothers Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 14, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Island / Mercury
• ASIN: B000003CMD
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,481 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #5 in Music > Blues > Slide Guitar
  • #6 in Music > Rock > Jam Bands > Rock Jam Bands
  • #10 in Music > Classic Rock > Southern Rock

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Their first full studio album without guitarist Duane, 1973's Brothers and Sisters doesn't match what came before it but would probably be considered a masterpiece if it came from most other bands. The Allman(s) move away from their rougher blues rock toward a groovier Southern rock, a shift that reflects the increased influence of Dickey Betts and new pianist Chuck Leavell. Betts contributes chestnuts such as "Ramblin' Man," "Southbound," and the classic instrumental "Jessica," plus the acoustic finale "Pony Boy," which showcases his work on Dobro. Gregg's impact is not nearly what it once was, although his "Come and Go Blues" and "Jelly Jelly" hit the mark. Original bassist Berry Oakley passed away during these sessions and is heard on just two cuts. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wasted Words, September 24, 2000

By 

"katja_r" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brothers and Sisters (Audio CD)

I enjoy the music on this album very much. Duane Allman had been the leader of this band until his untimely death. His brother, Gregg was left to pick up the pieces and keep the band going. In addition, Berry Oakley died during the making of this album, appearing on only the first two tracks. Against such adversity the band develops one of the defining albums of 1973. Gregg Allman really does hold his own with superb playing and by contributing two great songs true to the tradition of the Blues. JELLY, JELLY is a soulfull tune influenced by T Bone Walker and the Chicago Blues. It is Richard "Dickey" Betts who really comes up with the goods by stepping forward with a bona-fide hit, RAMBLIN' MAN, and the remainder of the songs as well as playing guitar which now defines Southern Rock. Whether he is playing Dobro in the style of the Mississippi Blues Singers on PONY BOY, or a firey lead on SOUTHBOUND, trading licks with Les Dudek while singing on RAMBLIN' MAN, it is Betts who defines the sound of this Allman Brothers' CD. JESSICA is possibly one of the best travelling songs ever written, and it is Dickey Betts' melodic, distinctly southern guitar playing that will stick in my mind as I fondly remember this CD. Anything else I would write would just be WASTED WORDS. If you are interested in US Southern Rock of the early seventies, or in great guitar music which is based on American Folk Blues, this CD will be interesting to you.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the new allmans at their peak, November 30, 2000

By 

"nehal51" (Rutgers or South NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brothers and Sisters (Audio CD)

Ok, no duane. no berry. but man! what an album. Jessica is the best song i have ever heard. ramblin man is...ramblin man, also one of my all time (top 3) favorites. Southbound rocks in a way that only the band that brought one way out, jessica, ramblin man, and mountain jam can. every other song is very very good filler material, but not quite to the extent that the three previous studio albums were. this album has some of the best songs the allmans ever came out with, but they are quite different than the original band, more country than their earlier blues period-when duane was around. this is a MUST HAVE for an allman brothers fan, but after you get "eat a peach", "beginnings", and "the fillmore concerts". Overall, it is their fourth best album, but better than 99% of the stuff that other bands put out.

i say that this is the new allmans at their peak because they will use this style for the next decade and a half. when they reemerge in the 1990's, they go back to their blues roots, though it is not as good as anything they made before 1975.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Great Allman Brothers Album, March 12, 2006

By 

Richard B. Luhrs (Jackson Heights, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brothers and Sisters (Audio CD)

1973's BROTHERS AND SISTERS was the first full-length studio album from the Allman Brothers Band in nearly three years, during which time the band had lost both guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley, who were replaced as it were by pianist Chuck Leavell and Lamar Williams. Surviving Duane's death had been nothing short of miraculous; surviving Berry's, without a major shift in the group's sound and sensibilities, proved impossible.
For this reason, as well as the remaining bandmembers' ongoing slide into the personal and chemical excesses which have always made the big time what it is, BROTHERS AND SISTERS presents a largely revamped ABB, with songwriting replacing jamming as the chief priority and a crisper, more commercial attitude than that of any previous Allmans release coloring the results. Guitarist Dickey Betts, having already proven himself capable of singlehandedly tackling the string-strangling front line he'd once so famously shared with Duane, here also takes the lion's share of composing credits; it is clearly his vision which predominates on this, the ABB's last genuinely great LP.
The first two tracks on BROTHERS AND SISTERS were the last to feature Berry Oakley, and the tragedy of his sudden exit is underscored by the fact that one of them, Dickey's country-rock anthem "Ramblin' Man," would become the band's only major hit single. It's a phenomenal piece of work, to be sure, with stinging guitar work from Dickey and guest strummer Les Dudek and a made-for-radio chorus which suggests that the Brothers could still go anywhere and do anything if it involved making music. Gregg Allman's opener, "Wasted Words," is a bit too similar in both title and mood to EAT A PEACH's "Ain't Wastin' Time No More," but that hardly makes it bad.
As for the post-Berry cuts, Gregg scores winners with both the soulful, lovesick "Come and Go Blues" and the updated Ray Charlesish "Jelly Jelly," while Dickey contributes "Southbound" - a tune so much in Gregg's vein that he gives Gregg the vocal - and a bright instrumental ("Jessica") which, inevitably, would be greatly expanded upon in concert over the years. "Pony Boy," the closer, a down-home acoustic number on which Gregg doesn't even play, is one of the album's strongest numbers, mixing clever and humorous lyrics with a flawless instrumental track which must have left listeners at the time wondering whether the next release from this group would be credited to the Allman/Betts Band.
It wasn't, of course, though perhaps it should have been. In any case, more than three decades later BROTHERS AND SISTERS stands as the right bookend on the ABB's top shelf of recordings, posthumous live releases by the original sextet excepted of course. A fully worthy addition to the catalogue, nevertheless; Duane and Berry would have been proud.