A glimpse into my creative process

I’ve been curating of late¹—revisiting the bits of things I’ve been putting out into the world.

Lately I’ve been on a “horns and the Allman Brothers Band” tip, which resulted in a post: The Juicy Carter Experiment.

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The Juicy Carter Experiment

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I’m sharing the video above, a compendium of me unpacking the argument I made in the post, as I thought y’all might enjoy a look at my creative process.

Truth be told, I didn’t realize I was working toward a core argument. I was just riffing on why Juicy was an ill fit and why King Curtis would not have been.

I’m pleased with how the post turned out, not least which because it made me pull together a playlist of horns on Allman Brothers tunes.

Paid subscribers stay tuned for PLAYLIST LINK

Juicy Carter & Berry Oakley, Fillmore East March 1971 📷 Gary Gold

The Juicy Carter Experiment began with a clip from a podcast interview on my book Play All Night! Duane Allman & the Journey to Fillmore East.

Over the course of a week or so, I posted three more videos exploring Juicy Carter’s Fillmore East sit-ins and horns and the Allman Brothers Band.

I transcribed those videos and cleaned everything up for print.

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Part 1: The Juicy Carter Experiment began with a discussion with my dudes Jeff and Harvey from The Bluest Tape Podcast. I teased out two key ideas: 1) Juicy Carter was a terrible fit and 2) an R&B horn section not have been.

Part 2: Next, I looked a little deeper at Juicy’s sit-ins from Fillmore East, Tom Dowd’s role in the experiment, and Juicy’s relationship with Jaimoe.

Part 3: I listened to the Friday 3/11/71 early show. A lot. Verdict: I can’t unhear Juicy bleating all over that 17-minute “Liz Reed.”²

Part 4: Why King Curtis would’ve been an obvious choice, what he was up to in March and July 1971 and horns and the ABB, including Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” from Dickey’s 1974 tour.

Part 5: BONUS CUT: Big Band of Brothers “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” 1/23/25.

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PLAYLIST

PLAYLIST LINK BELOW PAYWALL

Here’s a playlist of Allman Brothers’ songs with horns. It’s far from definitive, just things I could easily find on Youtube.³

ABB - “True Gravity” The Tonight Show August 1990

ABB - “Kind of Bird” The Tonight Show October 1991

Big Band of Brothers - “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” January 23, 2023 (w/Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge, Lamar Williams Jr., and Drew Smithers)

Gregg Allman & the Alabama Allstars - “Trouble No More” and “Can’t Lose What You Never Had” 10/8/94

Big Band of Brothers (studio) - “Stand Back” (with Jack Pearson)

ABB - “Southbound” (with Eric Krasno & Jukes Horns) 3/15/13

Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band - “Mountain Jam” 2/24/18

Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band - “Melissa” (studio)

John Hiatt - “One Way Out” All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman

Sam Moore - “Please Call Home” All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman

Gregg Allman - “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” Back to Macon

Gregg Allman - “Whippin’ Post” Searchin’ for Simplicity

Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” 3/25/22

Tedeschi Trucks Band - “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” (w/Warren Haynes) 10/9/21

Betts, Hall, Leavell, Trucks - “Ramblin’ Man” 5/7/83

Gov’t Mule - “Dreams” (w/Sonny Landreth & Ron Holloway) 1/17/15

Gov’t Mule - “Soulshine” (w/Ron Holloway) 2010

Gregg Allman - “Dreams” The Gregg Allman Tour

Dickey Betts - “Blue Sky” 11/6/74 Richard Betts American Music Show

Dickey Betts - “Jessica” 12/14/74 Richard Betts American Music Show

Dickey Betts - “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” 12/14/74 Richard Betts American Music Show

Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band FULL SHOW 2/24/18

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LAGNIAPPE

Friends of the Brothers “Dreams” (w/Jaimoe & Dick Griffin, trombone).⁴ This is a snippet of Griffin’s solo. (Griffin is a longtime friend of Jaimoe’s who used to play in Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s band.)

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PLAYLIST LINK

Playlists are available to all readers, playlist links are a bonus for paid subscribers.

I’m grateful to all of y’all who are subscribed and reading, but particularly thankful for my paid subscribers, who support my efforts to connect Allman Brothers Band music and history to the wider world of Southern music and history.

Thank you, truly for supporting Conversation from the Crossroads.