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Bruce Hornsby and Gregg Allman

Obituary: Bruce Hornsby and Gregg Allman is an easy link to make when you look back at Bruce’s history. May 27 2017 saw the sad passing of Gregg Allman after a long illness, aged 69.

Gregg’s Allman Brothers band produced three tremendous albums before tragedy robbed them of Duane Allman, and later Berry Oakley, in motorcycle accidents soon afterwards.

Such was their influence on Bruce’ Hornsby’s music that his early band with his brother, Bobby Hi-Test and the Octane Kids, would regularly include Gregg and the Allman Brothers’ covers in their shows.

Years later. Bruce would occasionally play at Allman Brothers shows. He attended their 40th anniversary residency at the Beacon Theatre (below) and Gregg’s Laid Back Festival in New York in 2015.

Bruce makes an appearance on the half-hour mark in the clip below to play “Southbound”. That song featured on an incredibly tight Noisemakers set with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (below bottom) in 2011. Gregg’s “Midnight Rider” was also played at a Noisemakers show in Asheville in 2013. The Windsor show can be purchased from BruceHornsbyLive.com.

In his memoir “My Cross to Bear”, Gregg said, “Music is my life’s blood. I love music, I love to play good music, and I love to play music for people who appreciate it. And when it’s all said and done, I’ll go to my grave and my brother will greet me, saying, ‘Nice work, little brother. You did all right.’ I must have said this a million times, but if I died today, I have had me a blast.”

Gregg Allman was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. His final work, “Southern Blood”, is yet to be released.

1 comment

Georgia Pines June 28, 2017 at 8:07 pm

I too was adopted by the great state of Georgia, like the Allman Brothers were. My dad is from there, but my mother is from Panama. I saw her learning to make preserves from figs, pears, peaches and homemade grapes. She also brought music in my life, at first, classical piano. Then I heard the Allman Brothers at age 13. I knew then who I was, what kind of music I would end up loving the most. I still remember where I was when I first heard Ramblin’ Man. Later, my daughter at 2 years old, hearing “Jessica” for the first time, clapping her hands and saying “Again, Again!” When she was four, then it was ‘Number eight ball’ she would request (Across the River). It’s hard to see that my two favorites at the Organ and Piano could have played together, maybe just one more time, but the joy continues.

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