I had no idea what I was walking into when I saw the Allman Brothers Band for the first time, November 13, 1993. I walked in expecting moldy oldies; I left with my mind blown. My life has truly never been the same.
I caught the second of a three-show run through Florida. I had no idea Dickey had just returned from a leave of absence.1
The band was fierce, powerful. Dickey was simply outstanding. Warren and Woody blew me away. I was ecstatic.
The setlist featured only songs from the original band and songs from the Warren & Woody era. Several—“All Night Train” “Temptation Is a Gun” “Change My Way of Living” “Back Where It All Begins”—had been recorded for Where It All Begins but were yet to be released.
The show ended in reverse order of the Fillmore East recordings2, “Mountain Jam” and “Whipping Post.”
Recall that “Mountain Jam” is holy to me.
What I didn’t know was it was only the band’s second full “Mountain Jam” in nearly 20 years. (The first was the night before in Gainesville.)
I’d hoped to hear “Mountain Jam” that night, not realizing had I caught any other show from 1989 to May 2000
I had no idea the band wouldn’t keep playing a song THAT good every chance they could. (Little did I know…)
A staple of the original band’s sets since Jacksonville in March 1969, “Mountain Jam” stayed in the repertoire on the 1972 5-man band tour.3
The band played it throughout 1973. There are notable versions with the Grateful Dead, including at Watkins Glen in July and New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. But “Les Brers in A Minor” and “Jessica” were more common as a show’s extended romps.
Then, with the exception of a few times in 1979 and tease in “Jessica” that began in the Warren & Woody era, “Mountain Jam” fell out of the lineup for good.
Why? “Dickey flat-out refused to play it,” says John Lynskey, Resident Historian of the Big House Museum in a clip from our recent Conversation from the Crossroads. Dickey agreed to do so in November 1993 as a concession to his bandmates, to see if they still had the magic.4
They did. I heard it with my own ear.5
Here’s my full conversation with John where we talk about this and much more
The Summer of Mountain Jam
“Mountain Jam” returned to the setlist for good in summer 2000 following the band’s bitter divorce with Dickey Betts. Jimmy Herring subbed for Dickey that summer and the music he and Derek Trucks made together was truly sublime.
Here’s one example, from the archives of my dear friend, the late Jules Fothergill:
Derek Trucks- There were two or three nights where we really just let go. Right before the drum solo in “Mountain Jam” we detuned and went all the way out. Sometimes Oteil would go with us and sometimes he wouldn’t. There was one night though, I believe at the PNC Arts Center, when all three of us went and there was just no hope of coming back. It was funny because I think Gregg said something about it on the bus6 and then came back about twenty minutes later and said to me, “Don’t worry, me and my brother we used to have fights about that all the time. He loved going out. But you guys do whatever you want to do.” It was funny. It was worth it.
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Stand-ins for Betts included: Jack Pearson, David Grissom, and heavy metal guitarist Zach Wylde, in the most infamous sit-in in Allman Brothers’ history.
My favorite hour of music of all-time, “Whipping Post>Mountain Jam” from the wee hours of the morning 3/14/71 at Fillmore East.
The playing on those versions is both POWERFUL and EMOTIONAL.
The November 1993 “Mountain Jam” arrangement included a vamp the band revived for “True Gravity” in Summer 1996.
Yep, ear. I was born deaf in my right ear.
What Gregg said was “Alright, who’s the fucking Phish fan?!”
