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When two of its original members were killed in motorcycle accidents in succeeding years in the early 1970s, the surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band paused, drew deep breaths and kept making music.
Gregg Allman hopes the same will happen when he dies and joins his brother, guitarist Duane Allman, on the other side of this life.
"There's a lot to love in the Allman Brothers, there really is," Allman says during a telephone interview from his home in Savannah, Ga. "I imagine we'll do it till we drop, and then just pass the torch.
"Even though my name is Allman, I'd love for them to get a hell of a singer to take over, and they can go ahead and call it the Allman Brothers."
Not that Allman, 61, plans on departing anytime soon.
"Hell no," he says, "I'm talking about 20 years from now."
Though Allman battled a series of health problems last year, he played and sang with a bluesman's vigor during a summertime tour with the Allman Brothers that included a stop in Hershey.
Perhaps the most moving moment of that show happened when Allman stepped from behind his Hammond B-3 organ, strapped on an acoustic guitar and sang a weathered version of "Melissa," perfectly capturing the song's wistful melancholy.
He's currently in the middle of a tour with his own seven-piece band that includes a Friday stop at Harrisburg's Whitaker Center. Allman said he and his band mates will play songs from all phases of his career and throw in some new ones for good measure.
Allman says he hopes to get into the recording studio this year to record a new solo album.
He also hopes the Allman Brothers will record a new studio album. The band's last album, "Hittin' the Note" (2003), was arguably its strongest since "Brothers and Sisters" (1973).
"Hittin' the Note" signaled the band's return to relevance not only as a touring entity relying on one of the strongest repertoires in rock music but also as studio musicians able to chart their own course through creative songwriting.
The current lineup (Allman, drummers Butch Trucks and Jaimoe, guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, percussionist Marc Quinones and bassist Oteil Burbridge) is certainly one of the best in the band's long, storied history.
Allman says he feels his late brother's presence in 29-year-old Derek Trucks, a gifted slide guitarist.
"Sometime I look over there, man," Allman says before breaking into a laugh. "He even bites his fingernails. My brother bit his nails down to his shoulder blades. It makes your fingers kind of round on the end. I just look over at his hands and the way he stands. He's not doing that on purpose."
Allman says he knows Duane would enjoy hearing the present version of the band the brothers founded in 1969.
"He'd be prouder than a peacock, yes sir," he says. "I can feel him up there cheering me on some nights."
THAT'S THE TICKET
Gregg Allman
Fri. 8 p.m.
$49.50, $95
Sunoco PerformanceTheater
Whitaker Center
222 Market St., Harrisburg
214-ARTS
www.whitakercenter.org
(77)
