“It might seem strange to apply the adjective “lovely” to a heavy-white-blues album, but that is what this record so paradoxically is. Sometimes it sounds like what Led Zeppelin might have been if they weren’t hung up on gymnastics. Sometimes it sounds like the more-lyrical Louisiana cousins of Johnny Winter. But what it is consistently is subtle, and honest, and moving. “
– Lester Bangs (Rolling Stone Magazine)

The Allman Brothers Band, released in 1969, was the debut album of  the Allman Brothers Band.

“Dreams” and “Whipping Post” would become the basis for two of The Allman Brothers’ most famed epic concert numbers.

In April 1969 the Allman Brothers Band moved from Jacksonville, Florida to Macon, Georgia. They first rented a house at 309 College Street. The front album cover photo was taken at the entrance of the College House (now owned by Mercer University) right next door at 315 College Street. The back cover photo of the album was taken at the Bond Tomb at Rose Hill Cemetery located at 1091 Riverside Drive in Macon. “Don’t Want You No More” is a cover of a 1967 song by The Spencer Davis Group.

The Allman Brothers Band – Black Hearted Woman (Audio):

“This might be the best debut album ever delivered by an American blues band, a bold, powerful, hard-edged, soulful essay in electric blues with a native Southern ambience. Some lingering elements of the psychedelic era then drawing to a close can be found in “Dreams,” along with the template for the group’s on-stage workouts with “Whipping Post,” and a solid cover of Muddy Waters’ “Trouble No More.” There isn’t a bad song here, and only the fact that the group did even better the next time out keeps this from getting the highest possible rating.”
– Bruce Eder (allmusic)

The album is fresh and full of life, it deserves all the praise it gets and should be in all record collections!

Personell:

Duane Allman – slide guitar and lead guitar
Gregg Allman – vocals, organ
Dickey Betts – lead guitar
Berry Oakley – bass guitar, backing vocals
Butch Trucks – drums
Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson – drums, congas

The Allman Brothers Band (album, 1969) on Spotify:

– Hallgeir