Song of the South: Duane Allman and the Rise of The Allman Brothers

Now they are part of the American music consciousness, the band that tours forever, the band who put the South in Southern Rock and taught all those new jam bands that it’s OK to play the same song for an hour or more as long as you’ve got the musical chops to make it interesting for the audience. There was a time, though, when the Allman Brothers Band was this close to being just a musical footnote in, of all things, the history of white soul music. That was the path they were taking – strictly middle of the road – until lead guitarist and driving force Duane Allman decided he was going to play the music in his head and nothing else. The results, as this great documentary proves, changed the world and is still changing it today, 42 years after Duane Allman died.