Book Review: “Brothers and Sisters” by Alan Paul
“Brothers & Sisters – The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album that Defined the 70s”
My first memory of hearing “Jessica” is in the movie “Field of Dreams” when Kevin Costener is driving from Iowa to Boston in one of his crazy steps to ultimately finding heaven. Throughout the movie, nothing came easy and common sense continuously indicated that it was time to stop, but faithful pursuit of his passion and curiosity rewarded Costener and those around him by making their lifelong dreams coming true.
This journey in “Field of Dreams” resembles a lot of what the Allman Brothers went through in the era of “Brothers and Sisters”.
“If you build it, he will come”
The making of “Brothers and Sisters” did not just require writing new songs and recording them, it required rebuilding the entire band. Imagine a band losing two if its founding members in the same year, but then imagine those two members being the two leaders of the band. Alan Paul does an incredible job of making the reader feel the emotional gravity of this situation . Fortunately the group did not try to simply replace the musicians they had lost, bur rather went in different directions and allowed the music to follow. The events and thought processes that lead to replacing Duane Allman with pianist Chuck Leavell practically read like a business school case study. It almost continues in that vain as it was a decision that not only shaped the future of the Allman Brothers but influenced the entire direction Southern Rock, as a genre, would take over the following decades.
“Ease his Pain”
Despite moving forward with new personnel and a rejuvenated sound, the Allman Brothers Band still needed to make peace with the loss of two founding, and leading members, Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. There is a lot of material specifically about how Gregg Allman dealt with the loss of his older brother Duane and the recording of his first solo album “Laid Back”. Gregg was essentially holding down two full time jobs and working day and night on two very different projects. (I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if yet another book comes out of just Gregg’s experience in this time period with the writing/recording of the two albums).
The parallel part of this story that really gave me goosebumps was how Jaimoe, one of the Allman Brothers drummers, dealt with the loss of Berry Oakley, their bassist. The part that specifically got to me was the description of Lamar Williams audition and how within hours the band went from being lost to launching themselves into brand new territory. It actually reminded me a little of the scene in the Beatles documentary “Get Back” where they bring in Billy Preston and everything just clicked into place.
“Go the Distance”
The cliche way to explain this title would be to say that this was “the beginning of the rest of the Allman Brothers story” enabled them to ‘go the distance’. The truth is, this was a new beginning for the Allman Brothers, but by no means would it be the last “new beginning” in their history. You really need to check out Alan Paul’s “One Way Out” if you want to get into all of that though.
For matters of this review, I am going to give the “Go the Distance” heading to Dickey Betts. My ABB fandom existed almost entirely in the Haynes/Trucks era and that is the only version of the band I have ever seen in concert. I always knew I appreciated Dickey’s playing but reading this book showed me a side of his personality I had not fully understood or appreciated previously. Despite the events that transpired with and around Dickey in the 90s, the Brothers and Sisters era was one in which he really stepped up and went the distance to keep this band afloat.
(If you have made it this far, then I appreciate you indulging my love of the movie “Field of Dreams” and hope it helped to organize my thoughts)
I still find it hard how to not give away too much in reviews and so I have concentrated primarily on the internal events that lead to the new lineup and to the recording of the new album but this book contains so much more! There is a lot of interesting context about the decade as a whole including the role the Allman Brothers played in getting Jimmy Carter elected. There are many interesting people that played a role in the bands existence at the time including Cher, Jerry Garcia and the entire Grateful Dead.
What can I say other than, “Alan Paul has done it again!” Admittedly, I have not read “Big in China” but I have read all of his other books and diligently keep up with his other published works in publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. I always learn an incredible amount from his works and would highly recommend anything he writes.
“Brothers and Sisters – The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album that Defined the 70s” is officially released on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
Signed copies are available Via words or Big House/Merch Mountain. Words copies can be personalized (by putting message in comments)
https://store.wordsbookstore.com/brothers-and-sisters-signed-alan-paul
