LIVE ALLMAN BROTHERS BROADCAST FROM MADISON SQUARE GARDENS, NEW YORK, 31ST OCTOBER 1986
The Allman Brothers had played only one other show in 1986 - prior to which they hadn’t performed together since disbanding in 1982 - and had no further plans to tour or record, but were on good form. The group stuck to old material, reviving 'One Way Out,''Statesboro Blues,''Blue Skies'and 'Midnight Rider' - appropriate for a set that began at midnight.• Blues-based, country-smoothed and laced with bits of jazz and gospel from pianist Chuck Leavell - who hadn’t played with the others since 1976 - the high points came in Dickey Betts' guitar solos, with his ringing tone and slowly spiraling phrases, and in the crossfire between the drummers Jai Johnny Johanson and Butch Trucks.• But a shortened set meant that a band who’d made its reputation with extended jams had to hold back.Harmonica player Paul Butterfield was performing with Santana on the evening, but joined the Allman’s forSkip James’ ‘One Way Out’, as did ex-Young Rascal Felix Cavaliere, handling vocals for an R’n’B tinged‘Good Lovin’ - originally a number one Billboard hit for the Rascals back in 1966.• Carlos Santana, Stephen Stills and Mick Taylor joined in for the Allman’s penultimate number, an already crowded ‘Key To The Highway’, before a kind of ‘Come All Ye’ version of ‘Got My Mojo Workin’ - which broke into an All-Star-Jam as the stage filled with everybody who was anybody from the backstage cortège -and that was about it.
