In anticipation of its Sept. 8 release, the final Gregg Allman album, “Southern Blood,” is now available for streaming.
NPR Music’s “First Listen” series has made the recording available here.
In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, producer Don Was told us that, in a roundabout way, the seeds of his involvement were planted just before the 2014 Fox Theatre Allman tribute concert.
“In the weeks leading up to the show, Gregg was giving some interviews to promote it and in one of them he mentioned that I was producing it at (FAME Studios) Muscle Shoals (Alabama),” Was said. “Maybe if I hadn’t been (involved in the show) he might not have given that interview, but basically at the show we firmed it up…I hustled hard for 10 years to work with him.”
On “Southern Blood,” Allman is backed by the Gregg Allman Band as they perform songs carefully chosen by Allman, including work from Bob Dylan, Lowell George and Jackson Browne.
“Everything is on the album for a reason. They all said something,” Was said.
The 10-track album also includes the wrenching new song, “My Only True Friend,” which Allman wrote with his band’s musical director, Scott Sharrard.
Allman died in May of liver cancer.
You can read more of the interview with Was, as well as with Duane Allman’s daughter Galadrielle and Allman’s longtime manager Michael Lehman, in the Sept. 10 Living & Arts section of the AJC.
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