It’s a scorching afternoon in July and Alan Paul is in a barn, of sorts, in Pittsburgh, listening to Macon music legend Chuck Leavell rehearse when I call him to talk about the Allman Brothers Band.

Paul has written a book about the band. He’s actually written two, and the most recent one, Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Album That Defined the 70s, focuses on ABB when they were at their commercial zenith, the Brothers and Sisters era.

The band was also reeling from the tragic losses of Duane Allman in 1971 and Berry Oakley a year later, both victims of motorcycle wrecks on the same stretch of road in Macon.

America was at a crossroads as well, mired in Vietnam and dealing with the Watergate scandal. A former naval officer and current governor from the tiny town of Plains, Georgia, was considering a dark horse presidential run.

In a few years, Gregg Allman would be dating Cher.

It’s a rich era for a storyteller, especially one as steeped in Allman Brothers Band lore as Paul. His first Allman Brothers book — One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band — covers the band from its inception in Macon to the final concerts in 2014.

One Way Out is, in many ways, the definitive work on ABB (It’s the book I bought when, a month into my new life in Middle Georgia, I realized I needed a crash course on the band). Paul thought he was done with the boys from Macon.

But then he had a call with Brad Tolinski, the former editor-in-chief of Guitar World.

“During the pandemic, he asked me what I was working on and he said, ‘You know, you shouldn’t really run away from the Allman Brothers,’” Paul said. “Brothers and Sisters is unexplained. We had a very long conversation, and I was convinced it was a good idea.”

Paul’s next call was to Kirk West. 

West is synonymous with the Allman Brothers: he served as the band’s “Tour Mystic” and official archivist, created the Big House Museum and was the associate producer for the “Dreams” box set. (He’s also a professional photographer whose stunning work is on display and for sale at Gallery West in downtown Macon).

While the bulk of Paul’s first ABB book was built on his own interviews, West provided Paul with interviews with the roadie Joseph Campbell, known as “Red Dog,” for the book.

West dug the idea as well. Paul began working on the book to publish it this summer, 50 years after “Brothers and Sisters” was released.

 

Doing the work

Paul got to work. The Washington Library in downtown Macon’s Allman Brothers archive was key. So was the Macon News and Telegraph’s contemporary coverage, as well as the archives at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. West’s recorded interviews were “just a goldmine.” And then there were Paul’s own interviews.

The scope of the result was unexpected, from the band’s role in helping Jimmy Carter on his presidential run to The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen.

“They were so involved in so many things,” Paul said. “Carter is an example. I knew that was going to be a part of the book, but there was more than I realized. Watkins Glen, the relationship between the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead, there was so much material.”

Brothers and Sisters contains some of the band’s most enduring work.

“On a musical level, they had to incorporate two new members,” Paul said. “It was their most successful period by far. They were a stadium band, one of the most popular bands in the country, and everything else was a reflection of how popular they were. They could even play a big role in the presidential race.”

Leavell was, of course, one of those new members, and Lamar Williams came in on bass.

“Lamar was really close with [ABB drummer] Jaimoe,” Paul said. “He was a really chill guy, easy to be with, a great player without a big ego. Same with Chuck, who was obviously incredibly happy and excited to be there. But also, he was a confident guy, an easy-going guy.”

(Leavell and Jaimoe, incidentally, made themselves “completely” available to Paul as he was writing Brothers and Sisters.

“I called them, emailed them, texted them all the time,” he said).

The band’s resulting success was remarkable and, in some ways, reflected a resiliency across the nation.

“This era, to some extent, is a microcosm of the whole thing; The way they pulled together and came through these deaths is remarkable,” Paul said. “It was almost a lesson for how to live in general. You have to move on, you can’t try to copy what was gone.”

 

Coming to Macon

A new book about the Allman Brothers wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Macon.

Friday night at 5 p.m., he gave a talk at Mercer Music at Capricorn (530 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.) with Big House Museum archives director John Lynskey.

That same night, Allman Brothers tribute act Trouble No More was set to perform at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon as part of the two day “Back Where it all Began” event.

Then, the Big House BBQ started Saturday at 3 p.m. with music from J.B. Strauss and including food and a tour. Paul was set to be at all three events, with books available for purchase.

 

An enduring legacy

Paul has become one of the Allman Brothers Band’s most prolific scribes, a role he takes seriously.

“I feel like I have this responsibility to tell the story of this band properly and as widely as I can,” he said. “I want to honor the band’s legacy and celebrate it with the people who really care, because they really, really care. They’ve entrusted me with that, and I take it pretty seriously.”

It’s been half a century since Brothers and Sisters was released. Why is it still so vibrant?

“You have to start with the music. It has endured,” Paul said. “It sounds like a cliché to say it’s timeless, but this album is 50 years old and it still sounds great. [The song] ‘Jessica’ was totally unique in 1973. It’s not jazz, but it has intense jazz leanings. It’s the happiest song in the world.

“I’m using that as an example because, as with most of their classic stuff, it didn’t sound ‘of the era’ when it was released. Now they do, because the songs defined the era. But they don’t sound stuck in it.”

There is a mystique that surrounds the Allman Brothers Band as well.

“I think the way they overcame the deaths of Duane and Berry and came out with something so great is inspiring to people,” Paul said. “Most of us aren’t going to be in an all-time great rock band. But we’re all going to experience tragedy, we’re going to lose loved ones and there’s going to be a period where we ask ‘How can I continue, how can I get up tomorrow?’

“The family vibe of the Allman Brothers, that was a real thing.”

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Telegraph.

Tags: Allman Brothers  Macon  Georgia