Eat A Peach (Capricorn) [Remaster] by Allman Brothers Band (The) (CD, Oct-1997, Capricorn USA)

OK... i am 48 and I had this album in my collection in my 20's. Actually, I got turned onto the ALLMAN BROS. by my oldest brother the year after Duane Allman died. So I was well familiar with this album and I am sure (back then) I had a recorded copy on a cheap cassette player that I would listen to all the time. I, myself would later on become a serious music affectionundo and would dj at my college in the mid 80's SUNY New Palz (WNPR about 20 miles from Woodstock). This album was always more than just one of my favorite albums. As I assembled a collection it always remained in my top 10 of all time. Simply because this is the Allman Bros. in their prime. Not to mention the last album that has Duane Allman on it. (Incidental, Duane Allman was in Eric Clapton's band "Derek and the Dominos" and you can hear alot of Duane's slide guitar on "Layla" in the second part of the song. Its not Eric as most "non-knowing" would have you believe.)

Moreover, this album is almost sacred to me for so many reasons: Probably most importantly the song "(Sweet) Melissa" has Duane Allman's sweetest slide guitar performances ever recorded. BTW, this album was named for Duane Allman who died when his motorcycle crashed into a peach farmer's truck. Another big reason why I like this album so much is because this album was recorded in the tradition of non-commercialized record industry crap that would have taken over (the record industry) shortly thereafter this album was released in the mid 1970's. Yet strictly because of its essence alone it was established as one of the most important Southern Rock albums of all time. It has held up for so long by its own merit. A fan favorite all these years simply by it's music and not by the advertising and promotion of Capricorn Records (the label it was recorded on. It has maintained it's greatness all these years- a timeless classic.

Originally a double LP due to "Mountain Jam" a live recorded free and open mellow guitar jamming tune. (Duane Allman and Dicky Betts). Sort of like a kick back and relax on a back country road (southern style journey) for 33 and a half minutes- the actual song length. There are no lyrics sung on that Mountain Jam tune but - "OH!!!! Doesn't Duane make that guitar sing!!!" And then there is one of my favorite songs of all ALLMAN BROS songs; "Blue Sky".


The LP inner sleeve is famous for it's artwork of the mushroom elves gathering and working. Most definitely it's related to the psychedelic era- the era from which this album was created. I think the small insert of this CD of the formerly LP size artwork doesn't do the artwork justice (It is loss in the changing of format from LP to CD) but certainly nothing is loss in the audio recording in the changing of format.

Back in the 1970's if you didn't know about "Idlewild South" - one of the early Allman albums- then this album was what put the Allman Bros. on all FM radio stations playing list. And all FM rock listeners music listening compass back in the 1970's. It made the Allman Bros more than just "some Southern Rock band" but a serious American rock band and probably laid the foundation for the future evolution of Southern Rock as a type of genre that influenced way too many modern performers that can be listed here. There are hundreds! But certainly people like John Cougar and John Mayer and many other Johnny Somebodies were influenced by the ABB and "Eat a Peach" is a big reason why.