Customer Reviews

Brothers & Sisters

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Brothers and Sisters is one of the all-time best records!

I've been a fan since the beginning so I know my ABB. The previous reviews seem to be about the album's content which I won't dispute except to add that brother Richard Betts was an integral part of the band and can't be separated from their legacy. He influenced a generation of guitar players and has contributed some of the most amazing guitar solos in recording history. I just want to be clear that while some may have felt he stood somewhat in the shadow of brother Duane, I believe he certainly stands on his own as a great musician, singer and songwriter responsible for many of the Allman Brothers Band's best tunes and most memorable guitar lines.

What I mainly want to comment on here is the Remastered version of Brothers and Sisters. I was sorely disappointed in the sound quality as compared to the record album. Unfortunately, they "cleaned it up" to the detriment of the music. Here are the specific problems I spotted. The worst offense is the amount of emphasis inflicted on the vocals: it makes brother Gregg's vocal too bright and clean sounding (when he had probably just smoked an entire pack of cigs prior to cutting each track to get some more gravel in his voice as Cat Stevens used to do), and the same vocal-tinkering makes Dickey sound like a 12 year old boy, unlike the LP which is an accurate recording of how their voices sounded.

The other problems I have with this Remaster is the snare drum and cymbals are also sonically enhanced to the point of causing ear fatigue ... it stresses me out, man! The LP was mellower AND you could hear the tambourine. Also I miss the beautiful rumble of Chuck Leavell's honkytonk piano ... now all sparkly clean (and sounding more like a toy) on this Remaster. Finally, some of the rhythm guitars on this CD Remaster sound a bit Disco for my taste (with that bright top end): the LP guitars were perfect, however. Shocking difference.

Apparently Johnny Sandlin is a darn good record producer and I think he should have been consulted for this Remaster! It reminds me of the poor remastering job done on another great, early '70s album, Relayer, by YES. Like Brothers and Sisters, they turned an album I was used to listening to from the '70s into a '90s-sounding album. Why? You could hear everything fine the way it was ... unless your ears don't work anymore. These great albums are from their time and they should be celebrated as such. This particular era was the best for music in my opinion, it had a particular sound, and there is no disgrace in that whatsoever. Mastering engineers need to learn about preserving "the vibe" of an album instead of always trying to "correct" things that don't need correcting! "Flat" sound always gives the proper balance, unless the whole point of the reissue is to put a different spin on the music. Then it should be marketed as such. Maybe the ABB can revisit this mastering process for the digital 24-bit release and create an Ultimate Version before the master tapes completely lose their dynamics. Please consider restoring the album's vibe, guys. It deserves as much.

But for the surface noise, I'm happy with the LP version, though I may still have to track down a pre-Remastered edition of this great album for archival. The casual or new listener may not mind the sonic "enhancements" offered in the Remastered version, especially if it is bound for a sound-crusher like an iPod, but those who are already familiar with this album might be a bit surprised with the new take on things. I would like to dedicate this review to brother Berry Oakley ... it's wonderful to hear him one last time.

Update: I managed to find a Gold Disc and it sounded righteous. There is no comparison. Too bad they are so hard to find (and so expensive) because that's THE ONE.

this cd is one of my top 3 allman brothers albums. every type of music the allmans have played thru their career is on this cd. straight out southern rock (ramblin man) blues (come and go blues) a classsic instumental (jessica). their trademark trading guitars are not here (this was the first studio album without duane allman) but chuck leavell does more than excellent trading with dicky betts. no, its not duane and not the same, but it works. listen to it straight thru and you will find an excellant work. (just in case you didn't know what happened to chuck leavell, he is now the rolling stones pianist)

I love this album. Any band that suffered the losses that the Allman Brothers did would have folded, and those that didn't would have come out with a product that sounded familiar but was clearly inferior and was nothing more than a desperate effort to hang on to the money making name brand. Not only did they create something genuine,authentic and toe-tapping, they delivered something that would still sound fresh 35 years later. "Rambling Man" got a lot of air time when it was first released. You would hear it everywhere: in your car; on the beach; at barbeques and picnics; in between classes --and no one got sick of it. Every song is a gem. They also had the foresight to dump the 22 minutes jams. Get this cd, pop open your favorite beverage and enjoy it. I hate to sound like some old guy but when we old guys say THEY DON'T MAKE MUSIC LIKE THEY USED TO this is a prime example of what we are talking about.

Few bands could have gone through the challenges this band has and still come out swinging (Def Leppard is one that comes to mind). It makes one wonder just how much better they could have been had both Duane Allman and Berry Oakley made it to middle age instead of dying so tragically so early on and in such similar circumstances too.

Still, Dickey Betts pulls off the guitar parts very admirably by himself and composed both the strong tracks from this album, the great "Ramblin' Man" (probably the best pentatonic scale guitar solo ever)and "Jessica" the latter named after his daughter. For those of you who have played in bands and jammed a lot, you'll know what I mean about this being a great jam band as they were capable of tracks that ran into 20 mins to even 30 minutes on "Mountain Jam" from their "Eat a Peach" album just before this. However, just jamming and letting each member of the band play his stuff (a lot like old time jazz musicians do) is what this band is good at and it shows in tracks like "Southbound" and "Pony Boy".

This album is a pretty good one and overall the sound quality is very good considering the copy I have is not the remastered one. I see that the remastered version is the same price and so I guess you might as well go get that version of this cd if you can.

A very good example of the post-Duane version of the band. If you consider that Duane Allman together with Eric Clapton were probably the greatest blues guitarists of their time when Duane died (just hear their work together on Derek and the Dominoes' "Layla")the loss is truly great and one cannot but wonder at what might have been.

Alas, we'll never know but get this and "Eat a Peach" if you want to get the best of the Allman Brothers' work. If you are a guitarist and want to learn what great blues and slide work sounds like, get these two as well as the "Live at Fillmore East" albums as essential listening material.

With the passing in 1971 of Brother Duane Allman and the addition of keyboardist Chuck Leavell, a change in musical direction for the Allman Brothers Band was a certainly. Like 1972's Eat a Peach, this album was also recorded under trying circumstances. Brother Berry Oakley died during the album's sessions on November 11, 1972 from injuries resulting from a motorcycle crash eerily similar to that which took Brother Duane (the two crashes happened just two blocks from each other). It was on this album the Allman Brothers shifted from the blues into a more country-like direction. This change began, ironically enough, with Dickey Betts' "Blue Sky" from "Eat a Peach," and continued with the hit "Ramblin' Man," also a Dickey Betts tune. Of the seven songs on "Brothers and Sisters," four of them are Dickey's (including "Southbound", Pony Boy," and the instrumental "Jessica.") Throw in Brother Gregg's "Wasted Words," "Come & Go Blues," and "Jelly Jelly," you have a certified Allman Brothers classic. One can only wonder how good this album would have been had Brother Gregg not recorded his solo debut "Laid Back" at the same time the Brothers were cutting "Brothers and Sisters." Another must-have CD.

Their concert at Fillmore East is their best and infact probably the best live album ever recorded. If you're looking for a Fillmore East continued, you'll be disappointed. But If you know going in that there'll be a country flavor to some of the disc, some blues and a tad-bit of jazziness to a couple of songs then you'll appreciate this. What makes this a classic is the familiarity and yet the unique feeling of the performances. One can not help but continually return to Jelly Jelly, Wasted Words, Pony Boy, etc.

After the tragic death of guitarist Duane Allman, The Allman Brothers regrouped and came up with their most accesssible album up until that time. Gone were the extended guitar workouts that had previously been their signature (indeed, the entire running length of "Brothers and Sisters" is barely longer than the half hour-plus song "Mountain Jam" from the preceeding album). In their place came some terrific songwriting hooks and their most popular single, "Ramblin' Man," which took its place alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" as the twin towers of Southern rock anthems.

Other standout tracks include fine rockers "Wasted Words" and "Southbound," as well as the gorgeous instrumental "Jessica." The band also keeps in touch with its roots with "Come and Go Blues" and the more traditional country sounding "Pony Boy." Only the short length (only 7 tracks) of the album keep it feeling somewhat slight and out of 5 star territory.

Overall, a fine recording that once and for all established Southern rock as a cultrual force.