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The Allman Brothers Band music biography continued...

to take form in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 when guitarist Duane Allman convened a jam session including bassist Berry Oakley, guitarist Dickey Betts, and drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks. They would later add Duane's brother Gregg on vocals and Hammond organ to round out the outfit. The Allman Brothers Band, the group's debut on Capricorn Records, was well received only in the South, and the band members continued to record on the albums of other artists and play live. On the strength of the Allman Brothers' growing reputation as a live band, its second album sold well. In March 1971, four shows at New York's Fillmore East were recorded for release as a live double LP set in July. By the time the album reached the Top 10, the Allman Brothers Band was being hailed in print as "America's best rock & roll group." But on October 29, 1971, less than three months after At Fillmore East's release, Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon. A year later, Oakley would also perish in the same fashion. The band continued to record through the losses, coming out with Eat a Peach, a double LP which entered the chart in the Top 10, and rose to Number Four, and Dickey Betts' hit single "Ramblin Man." In July1973, the group's popularity peaked when over half a million fans converged on Watkins Glenn, New York to see an all day concert with The Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead.



Despite their success, there was dissension in the band and Dickey Betts left to start his own southern rock outfit, while Gregg Allman headed an Allman Brothers Band newly reconvened in 1978. Since that time, the group has been in almost perpetual flux, regrouping with some of the original members, only to split apart in search of distinct musical missions. In 1995 the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and released 2nd Set. It received its first Grammy Award (for Best Rock Instrumental Performance) the next year, for "Jessica." The group's recent albums and performances have attracted a new generation of fans who have come to appreciate the Allman Brothers as the pioneers of jam rock.