Rock and roll historians and fanatics alike will be ecstatic to hear the final show of The Allman Brothers Band founder and guitarist Duane Allman will be released on CD this October. Recorded on October 17, 1971 at the Painters Mill Music Fair in Owings Mills, MD, the recording was the rock legend’s final show before his untimely passing 12 days later in a tragic motorcycle accident. According to a press release, the performance was recorded on a hand-held tape cassette by radio journalist Sam Idas (then just 18 years old) and will be released for the first time ever as a compilation package called The Final Note on Friday, October 16 of this year.
The Final Note release will include a total of seven performances from the Painters Mill Music Fair show including live staples of the band’s sets during the early 1970s like “Statesboro Blues” and “Whipping Post.” Additionally, the album will feature various never-before-published photos from the band’s show at the Painters Mill Music Fair, detailed liner notes from Allman Brothers Band long-time archivist John Lynskey as well as a photo of the actual cassette Idas used to record the band’s performance.
Discussing how he ended up recording the performance, Idas says he initially meant to only record a post-show interview with singer Greg Allman. “My only intention was to record the interview. This was a brand-new cassette recorder with an internal microphone, and I had one 60-minute cassette tape,” explains Idas. “I was sitting there with the recorder in my lap, and I remember thinking ‘Why don’t I try this out? I can record the concert!’ It was a totally spontaneous decision. I’d been to many concerts, but this was the only time I had the thought–and the motivation–to record the show.” Years later, knowledge of the recording made it’s way to band manager Bert Holman and the project was off and running.
The Allman Brothers Band was founded in 1969 in Jacksonville, Florida by brothers Duane Allman (lead guitar) and Greg Allman (vocals, keyboards) along with Dickey Betts (guitar), Berry Oakley (bass), Butch Trucks (drums) and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson (drums). The band has long been known as one of the greatest rock bands in history. Along with 18 studio releases over the course of their career, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and won the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
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