Duane Allman
Slide guitar that sang like a voice and soared like jazz
Howard Duane Allman was born in Nashville in 1946 and raised, with his younger brother Gregg, largely by their mother after their father was killed in 1949. The family eventually settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, and around 1960 Duane picked up the guitar, quickly overtaking his brother. The pair played in a string of teenage bands, most notably the Allman Joys, gigging endlessly across the Southeast and absorbing blues, soul and British Invasion rock along the way.
The brothers moved to Los Angeles with Hour Glass, a band signed to Liberty Records whose producers steered it toward a polished pop sound that suited neither sibling. Frustrated, Duane returned south and became a first-call session player at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. His playing on Wilson Pickett's version of Hey Jude caught the ears of the industry, and he went on to record with Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, Boz Scaggs and many others during a brief but remarkable studio run.
In 1969 he assembled the Allman Brothers Band in Jacksonville, pairing his guitar with Dickey Betts's in twin-lead harmony over two drummers, Berry Oakley's roaming bass and Gregg's voice and organ. Based in Macon, Georgia, the group became a formidable live act. In 1970 Duane joined Eric Clapton at Criteria Studios in Miami, playing lead and slide on most of Derek and the Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, including the title track.
The Allmans' 1971 double album At Fillmore East, recorded over two nights that March, captured the band's extended improvisations and became their commercial breakthrough. Only months later, on 29 October 1971, Duane died after a motorcycle crash in Macon at the age of 24. The band finished Eat a Peach, released in 1972, and carried on without him. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 1995 and remains the standard by which rock slide guitar is judged.
The 10 greatest Duane Allman solos
- 1Derek and the Dominos · solo by Eric Clapton & Duane Allman · 1970
- 2The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman · 1971
- 3The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman, Dickey Betts · 1971
- 4The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman & Dickey Betts · 1971
- 5The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman · 1969
- 6The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman & Dickey Betts · 1971
- 7The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman & Dickey Betts · 1972
- 8Boz Scaggs · solo by Duane Allman · 1969
- 9The Allman Brothers Band · solo by Duane Allman, Dickey Betts · 1972
- 10Wilson Pickett · solo by Duane Allman · 1968
The sound
Allman's slide playing, usually in open E tuning with a glass Coricidin medicine bottle on his ring finger, was astonishingly vocal: he could hit pitches dead-on, add a singer's vibrato and swoop between notes with total control. His standard-tuning lead work was just as strong, built from long, modal lines inspired by Miles Davis and John Coltrane rather than stock blues licks. He favoured a warm, fat Les Paul tone through loud Marshalls, and in the Allman Brothers he pioneered a conversational twin-guitar approach with Dickey Betts, trading phrases and locking into harmony lines.
- 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (guitar) His main instrument on the Layla sessions in 1970.
- 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (cherry sunburst) (guitar) Acquired in 1970 and heard on much of the Allman Brothers' later work.
- Gibson SG (guitar) His preferred slide guitar on stage, set up in open tuning.
- Coricidin bottle slide (effect) The small glass medicine bottle he adopted in 1968 and made famous.
- Marshall 50-watt heads with 4x12 cabinets (amp) The loud, full stack behind the At Fillmore East sound.
- Fender Twin Reverb (amp) Part of his amplifier setup at various points in his career.
Covers
- Statesboro Blues, originally by Blind Willie McTell He turned a 1920s acoustic blues into a charging electric slide showcase.
- Stormy Monday, originally by T-Bone Walker A slow, jazzy reading with long, lyrical lines.
- Trouble No More, originally by Muddy Waters A tough, driving slide arrangement on the band's debut.
- Hey Jude, originally by The Beatles He pushed Pickett to cut the Beatles song and then set its finale on fire.
- Little Wing, originally by Jimi Hendrix His slide weaves around Clapton's leads in a heavier, cathartic arrangement.
- Key to the Highway, originally by Big Bill Broonzy A loose, extended jam where he and Clapton trade blues choruses.
- You Don't Love Me, originally by Willie Cobbs Stretched into a long workout featuring an unaccompanied guitar passage.
Timeline
- 1946 Born in Nashville, Tennessee
- 1960 Gets his first guitar
- 1967 Moves to Los Angeles with Hour Glass
- 1968 Begins playing slide using a Coricidin bottle
- 1968 Becomes a session player at FAME Studios; plays on Wilson Pickett's Hey Jude
- 1969 Forms the Allman Brothers Band in Jacksonville, Florida
- 1970 Records Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs with Eric Clapton
- 1971 At Fillmore East is recorded in March
- 1971 Dies after a motorcycle crash in Macon, Georgia
- 1995 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band
Facts
- He started playing slide in 1968 using an empty Coricidin cold-medicine bottle.
- He was only 24 when he died, yet had already played on dozens of other artists' records.
- Eric Clapton first saw him play at an Allman Brothers concert in Miami in August 1970 and invited him to the studio afterwards.
- He played lead and slide on 11 of the 14 songs on the Layla album.
- Rolling Stone ranked him second only to Jimi Hendrix on its 2003 list of greatest guitarists.
- The Allman Brothers were paid $1,250 per show during the Fillmore East recordings.
- His nickname was Skydog.
- The acoustic instrumental Little Martha is the only Allman Brothers song credited to Duane alone.
- Bassist Berry Oakley also died in a motorcycle accident in Macon about a year after Duane.
- He cited Miles Davis's Kind of Blue as a key inspiration for his improvising.