Allman Brothers Band. - Skydog: the Duane Allman story

Acclaim for Randy Poes Skydog: The Duane Allman Story

Thorough and enthralling.

Guitar Player magazine

This is a well-researched, respectful, and mercifully non-sensationalistic bio of an essential figure who straddles genres and musical ideologies to leave us a body of work that seems to grow in richness and meaning as time goes on.

Living Blues magazine

Author Randy Poe takes a scholarly look at this architect of Southern rock, piecing together the story of an artist whose brief career was influential enough to spawn a whole genre of popular music.

Blues Revue magazine

Well-written and researched... Allmans passion for music oozes off every page.

Classic Rock magazine

With an exhaustive discography plus many wonderful archival photos, Skydog is a highly valuable and quite poignant look at one of the finest guitarists in modern music history.

Nashville City Paper

Author Randy Poe is from the South, and he brings an understanding to the music and life of Allman thats respectful, insightful, yet surprisingly honest. Duanes significance as a musician, his too-short life, and his inspiring force are given the full treatment they deserve.

Harp magazine

Skydog: The Duane Allman Story is a fast-paced read full of essential detail.

All About Jazz

Poe does a fine job of detailing Duane Allmans life, making Skydog a good choice for those wishing to learn more about one of the greatest slide guitarists of all time.

Dirty Linen magazine

In-depth insight, with beautiful and rare photos and immaculate scholarship. If you are a Duane fan, you need to have this book!

Hittin the Note magazine

The excitement that Poe feels for his subject matter jumps off the page. Any rock or blues aficionado will love this book... but its key impact should be in converting the unschooled to Duane Allmans religion. Skydog rocks!

The Tennessean

This richly vivid biographical portrait... is the first, only, and may ultimately prove to be the defining book on Duane Allman.

Inside Connection magazine

With an introduction from ZZ Tops Billy Gibbons, Randy Poes exhaustively researched and lovingly penned tome paints a revealing portrait of a mold-breaking virtuoso.

Record Collector magazine

Poe captures the essence of Duane Allman. He did his homework and got it right. Skydog is a fitting tribute to one of the best and most influential musicians to ever come out of the South.

Chuck Leavell, Rolling Stones keyboardist and former member of the Allman Brothers Band

At last, someone has written a definitive biography of Duane Allman. Exhaustively researched and well written, Skydog is a thorough account of the life and times (and untimely death) of one of the greatest guitaristsand artistsof all time. Kudos to Randy Poe for finally giving Duane Allman the biography he deserves.

Patterson Hood, Drive-By Truckers

As a personality and musician, Skydog was the one and only. Randy Poe brings him back to life. His portrait of Allman is rendered with sensitivity, scholarship, and a whole lot of blues-loving passion.

David Ritz, four-time Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award Winner

The 17th Chapter of the Book of Duane [Duane, Eric & Layla] is as close as it gets. Its the next best thing to being there. I know. I was.

Bobby Whitlock, Derek & the Dominos

Backbeat Books

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

19 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2006, 2008 by Randy Poe

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Originally published in hardcover in 2006 by Backbeat Books

Revised paperback edition published in 2008 by Backbeat Books

Text Design and Composition by Leigh McLellan Design

Front Cover Design by Richard LeedsBigWigDesign.com

Front Cover Photo by Jim Marshall

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Poe, Randy, 1955

Skydog : the Duane Allman story / by Randy Poe ; foreword by Billy F. Gibbons.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical .

1. Allman, Duane, 1946-1971. 2. Rock musicians-United States-Biography. 3. Allman Brothers Band. I. Title.

ML419.A565 P63

787.87166092--dc22

[B]

2006023613

ISBNs: 978-1-6171-3487-6 (ePub); 978-1-6178-0518-9 (Mobi)

www.backbeatbooks.com

For

Bill Ector, Joe Bell, and John Lynskey,

Keepers of the flame

With special thanks to

Bert Holman and Kirk West,

Keepers of the backstage passes

Contents

by Billy F Gibbons

D uane Allman... the master of slitherin round with sound on his slide mo-chine. Killer guitarist and Southern gent who knew how to make a six-string sting with his personally branded savvy and swagger. What a blast! What a character... what a gifted kind of guy. Lets hit it....

I met Duane at the same time I formed the ZZ Top band, lookin round some of the same corners everybody was... checkin somehow and someway to embrace a bit of that spirit of this phenomenon now respectfully called The Blues. Quite the challenge... not only as interpreters, but as players and soothsayers of the mystical art form. Duane had it and had it down... his guitar-slingin slide work remains to be enjoyed, time after time... even in these contemporary times... through his association with his bandmates on record.

This work is a labor of love and a compliment to Duane Allman. And why not... ? Duanes unorthodox attack with his ever-present glass Coricidin bottle wrapped around his favorite finger wrung whips, flips, chunks, and chips of licks and chops that became super-suited for leanin hard into whatever was on the deck. That doesnt mean there were spaces left unturned... there were plenty... all combining timing with such taste that the legacy of his performances stands solid as rock, with grace... as does that ferocious command of delivery Duane brought forth whenever he felt like it.

My initial encounter with the Allman Brothers BandDuane, Gregg, Dickey, Butch, Jaimoe, and Berryoccurred way down in New Orleans for a big-time billing night with the ABB and ZZ Top, along with Canned Heat and Quicksilver Messenger Service at Don Foxs famed brick and wood-framed turn-of-the-century waterfront cotton warehouse, aptly named The Warehouse. The booking, scheduled to cover the two-night weekend, invited a quick and hasty dash into the Crescent City in advance of the opening night, as ZZ and the Brothers had been given privilege to come in early and stay overnight inside the room... a giant warm open room with a wide sturdy stage, an un-sturdy catwalk bridge overhead to what served as dressing rooms, and two tiny, box-like balcony spaces to crash in. Just enough for a headcount of a scant few. Yet, in those meager and humble beginning days, no one was about to complain as Mr. Willies house cuisine speciality (Mr. Red Beans and Creole Rices Gumbo), simmerin directly below, could be had by lowering a bucket-on-rope affair and hoisting it up backstage before show time.