On Saturday, December 16th, at 8 pm in the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, one of rock and roll’s most enduring legacies, the music of the Allman Brothers Band, will be reimagined by the “Friends of the Brothers.” Alan Paul and members closely associated with the original band will continue the musical brotherhood with passion, committed to the ideals of every performance being a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. Mr. Paul was kind enough to share this with hamptons.com.
Alan Paul believes the core of getting into the groove that creates the authentic sound of the Allman Brothers band is the “intensity and purity of intent.” He believes you have to know the songs inside out but then feel free to express yourself within them. He said, “Nothing could be further from the spirit of the Allman Brothers Band than playing songs, down to the solos, just as they were recorded. The ABB themselves never did that! And that’s part of why we prefer to call ourselves ‘a celebration of the music of the Allman Brothers Band’ rather than a tribute band.” David Browne of Rolling Stone wrote about the band, “Though they honor the music, ‘Friends of the Brothers,’ never feel like a ‘tribute band.’ They play the songs as if they’d written them.”
Paul said, “Also, you can’t have any weak links, and no one is ‘just’ anything. The obvious components are the lead vocals and lead guitars. If those aren’t great, everyone will immediately know it, but the intensity and personality of the rhythm section are just as important.” Alan Paul has spent 25 years around the bend and has written two best-selling biographies about the Allman Brothers Band, One Way Out, and Brothers and Sisters. He said he would never take the stage with a band playing this music without a really strong, confident belief that they could do it justice.
“Friends of the Brothers” plays music from all the periods of the Allman Brothers band. They lean more heavily towards the first, the Duane era, but since they have a great keyboard player – South Hampton’s own Mike Katzman, they enjoy rolling out versions reminiscent of the band’s Brothers and Sisters era commercial peak, which featured Chuck Leavell. Alan Paul believes “Jessica,’ is the happiest song ever written, along with “Come and Go Blues.”
When asked to pick three songs that nail the essence of the Allman Brothers, Alan Paul said, “I can’t pick three. Our whole set varies every show. Just as with the Allman Brothers Band themselves, we can’t guarantee you’ll hear your favorite song because the catalog is too deep, and we keep it fresh by mixing things up. What really helps us nail the sound is that our Junior Mack is, in my estimation, the greatest person in the world at singing Gregg Allman vocals in a manner that nails the original feel while being completely himself.”
Paul explains they never intended to be an actual band. He said, “It’s not like someone thought we could make money playing Allman Brothers music. We came together to pay tribute to Butch Trucks after his very shocking, very tragic death in January 2017. I was pretty close with Butch and was just torn apart. Once the shock wore off a little, I was determined not to let his passing go unmarked. I wanted to pay him proper tribute because Butch was as integral a part of the Allman Brothers Band as anyone and its greatest apostle and most fervent believer. I got to work on putting a show together with the help of the Live for Live Music website.”
Alan Paul asked three friends he thought were the best at playing the music right to join: Junior Mack, who has played with Jaimoe’s Jazz Band for a dozen years. Mack is a true student and fan of the Allman Brothers and is on guitar and vocals. Then there is Paul’s good friend Andy Aledort, his Guitar World colleague who also played with Dickey Betts for 12 years. Also in the band is keyboardist Peter Levin, who played with Gregg Allman for the last years of his solo band. All of them felt the same way Alan Paul did about the music, about Butch, about the importance of doing it right and making it a celebration.
Mr. Paul also said, “Brandon “Taz” Niederauer opened and joined us for a few songs – he was 13 and just coming into his own, and Butch was his mentor. We sold out a club, and we had a great show. It was done purely in passionate remembrance of Butch and love for the music, but we all had so much fun we decided to keep going. I ran into Peter Shapiro [Brooklyn Bowl, Capitol Theater owner] shortly after at a Grateful Dead symposium and told him about it, and he said, ‘You need to play Brooklyn Bowl!’ So, we did. That spirit has stuck with us through every show. This band is based around our shared love of the Allman Brothers Band and our friendships with one another. It’s not just a gig.” Get to the WHBPAC this Saturday, Dec. 16th, for the 8 pm show.
