Duane Allman

This set attempts to set Duane Allman's career in perspective by gathering an extremely
varied set of performances, many of them session jobs where Duane basically functioned
as just one of the studio cats backing up an established star on his or her next hit single, or
an aspiring artist being given the big production on maiden voyage. It's clear now that
Duane Allman was one of the true innovators of the electric guitar to rise in the... More >

If Duane qualified as auteur, whatever that means, then he was the auteur-as-sideman. Over four sides (nineteen cuts, fifteen available elsewhere) he takes one vocal, contributes one original composition, and reserves his most definitive playing for other people's sessions--listen again to Boz Scaggs's "Loan Me a Dime," not to mention the overlays Clapton got out of him on "Layla." Since Duane's only concept was the open-ended jam that so many session players mistake for artistic fulfillment, this is just as well; any format that limits the Brothers to four-minute tracks has much to recommend it. It doesn't result in very coherent albums, though. For scholars and acolytes. (Grade - B+)