short version: go buy this now.

long version: i was not aware that gregg had been working on an album while he knew his time on this earth was a known quantity, namely about nine months. released last week, i have listened to it all the way through three times now, and i can confidently tell you that it is a must add for the music collector that has at least a passing fancy in the allman brothers.

‘laid back’ was gregg’s first solo album, and many consider it to be a sort of eulogy to his brother duane. he does a version of jackson browne’s ‘these days’ that is one of my favorite songs, period. in many ways this is a bookend to that release and gregg’s life. this album ends with browne’s ‘song for adam’, and jackson duets with gregg. if you listen closely, you can hear gregg choke up in the last verse. they broke for the night, intending to come back the next day and get a better take, but they never did.

recorded at the legendary fame studios in muscle shoals alabama, and magnificently produced by the great don was, gregg uses his nine piece traveling band to lay down ten tracks that define his life and career. almost all are cover songs, chosen by either the material, the artist, or both. dylan’s ‘going, going gone’, lowell george’s ‘willin’, garcia/hunter’s ‘black muddy river’, willie dixon’s ‘i love the life i live’, to name but a few. the only allman penned tune (cowritten by guitarist scott sharrad) is his tribute to life on the road, ‘my only true friend’.

as the liner notes and other source material make clear, he knew that this would be his final musical statement in life. he was actually making final approval of the mixes on the evening of his death. knowing this background, and being a huge fan of his work for forty years, i will readily admit that this curmudgeon’s eyes get a little moist at each repeated listen. he poured his heart and soul into every cut, and i think it is one of the finest things he has ever done.