Humboldt_Redwood

I had a sort of similar experience I've wondered about for nearly 30 years. In about 1985 or 1986 we lived near Atlanta with two little boys. I was getting into rock climbing and one weekend we headed up to Mt. Yonah about an hour and a half NE of the city. We pulled over to buy some boiled peanuts from this guy at a roadside stand ( I lurves me some boiled peanuts!) and he claimed to have played guitar in Gregg Allman's solo band. He told us he quit because, as he said, "Gregg Allman is a asshole." The particular way he spoke that phrase, "is a asshole," was actually hilarious and has remained a staple in our vernacular to this day.

Anyway I figured at first that he was probably full of shit but I happened to have a guitar with me an asked if he'd play us a couple tunes, which he did, impressing the hell out of us to the point where we actually believed him.

To this day I feel like an idiot for not getting his name (or failing to remember it if I did) so I will probably never have any idea if it was true or not. Do you happen to know of any of Gregg's former guitar players who may have gotten disgruntled, quit, and launched a career in roadside boiled peanut sales?

Hey Alan, Are you going to attend Wanee? Have you been there before? Can you offer any advice to a first timer travelling from afar, best places to camp, etc.?

Can you tell me if the band has any specific bias against the west coast, or is it just too big of a hassle to travel that far? They haven't been out since early in the 2009 tour. The show quality was top shelf, audience was great, just really wish they'd do it again.

Cheers, Scott in Humboldt

I met Johnny Neel's sister Sharon out here a few years ago when she was trying to raise funds and buy property to launch a music school for blind children. I lost touch with her and it never did happen here. Do you know if she ever got that project off the ground someplace else?

I cannot imagine what an experience that must have been. I only about a year ago stumbled across the video of him in the studio between takes with Dickey and Dan where he starts off noodling Midnight Rider before launching into Come and Go Blues. I bet I've watched it a hundred times since. It's become a real ear worm and I keep thinking, hey, I can pull that off, I want to learn it. Then I go back and watch it again and every time come away thinking no way, even if I get all the mechanics I can never do it justice, only to go through the cycle again and again almost daily. As big a fan of Gregg's entire body of work as I've been my whole life, it just seems like his entire universe of talent is distilled down into that one supernova of a performance, and the whole time he's so turned inward it looks like he's not even aware of anybody else in the room much less that it's being captured on film. I guess there's a chance it was actually staged but it feels pretty organic to me. It's about the most moving performance I can think of. That you got to experience it like you tell in this story must have left you speechless for days.

Well if you do make it I hope we get to meet. Hopefully your next trip our way is at a more relaxed pace.

Southern Humboldt is a fantastic festival venue. Reggae on the River is an institution and very well attended every year. There's been a pretty successful event in Eureka, Blues By the Bay, but attendance was down the last couple years and it looks like it might not survive. Weather is an issue right on the coast, as even in August it's often cool and foggy. But just ten miles inland is a different story altogether, perfect temps, not too hot, not too cold, no bugs, stunning scenery, etc. Other than ABB itself it seems like all the rest of the family of bands make at least one foray a year out west but rarely if ever appear together. I'd sure like to figure out a way to make it happen here, Rocking the Redwoods in mid-September or something like that.