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Music CD - Gregg Allman: Laid Back
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Music CD: Laid Back
Artist: Gregg Allman
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $5.53
Your Save: $ 6.45 ( 54% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Polydor / Umgd
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Tracks:
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1. Midnight Rider
2. Queen Of Hearts
3. Please Call Home
4. Don't Mess Up A Good Thing
5. These Days
6. Multi-Colored Lady
7. All My Friends
8. Will The Circle Be Unbroken
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0042283194120
Format: Original recording reissued
Label: Polydor / Umgd
Manufacturer: Polydor / Umgd
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Polydor / Umgd
Release Date: 2001-05-01
Studio: Polydor / Umgd
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Classic Greg Allman
Comment: One of my favorite Greg Allman records.
Fantastic songs and players.
Glass of wine, favorite companion and Laid Back...
Some of Greggs best songs as well...
Customer Rating: 
Summary: just great!
Comment: Forget all the babel! This album is great!. It can be argued It's as good as any a.b effort.
The sound is wonderful and warm, as wonderful and as warm as greggs playing and his vocal.
Beautiful arrangements.Great song choice.Great album.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Soulful Masterpiece
Comment: Some old bed I hope to be sharing.....sung like somebody who has seen too much and is letting it all flow out. Midnight Rider starts this record off with a sultry doeful groove that weaves thru the entire album. This is Gregg Allman singing for the down and out and it is one of the cool things that music like this actually makes you feel happy. I find my head constantly bobbing up and down as I listen to songs like Queen of Hearts and All My Friends. This is church music for rock and roll sinners...the kind of folks that drink too much but in the end have a good heart. The band is stellar- check out the 3/4 jazz riffing in Queen of Hearts. Please Call Home is as soulful as it gets brother- a man singing from his gut to a lover on her way out with nice guitar touches and gospel background vocals accentuating the sadness of the plea. The cover version of the Jackson Browne penned These Days captures the wistfullness of the lyrics perfectly especially as Gregg sings don't confront me with my failures I'm aware of them. Allman is as good a soul singer as this country has ever produced and this album is a masterpiece.
Customer Rating:
Summary: LAID BACK IS BEAUTIFULLY PRODUCED, ROMANTIC, AND FULL OF TEARS (It also has the slow, swampy version of Midnight Rider)
Comment: In 1973 Gregg Allman went into the studio to record his first solo album with Chuck Leavell, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton of Cowboy, Allman Brothers Band producer Johnny Sandlin, and produced a near perfect album of reflective, sorrowful, romantic, and acoustically beautiful songs, and it has been the hallmark of his solo recording career. The production is glossy, yet never overdone. The acoustics are crisp and clear, the orchestration is lush yet never intrusive, and the musicianship is precise and professional. Gregg's voice has never sounded better as he interprets these songs of love, loss, hope, sadness, and regretful contemplation.
The opening song, Midnight Rider is done with an acoustic guitar, a dobro, an electric piano, horns, and bongo drums. It's that excellant, slow, swampy version that you've heard on the radio. Queen Of Hearts is a love song that features some great vocals from Gregg and a jazzy tempo change for the piano and saxophone solos. Please Call Home has gospel singers and electric guitar along with the standard piano the Allman Brothers song is known for. Allman steps up and rocks a little bit on the piano boogie Don't Mess Up A Good Thing. The Jackson Browne penned These Days is a highlight here and of Gregg's solo career. With an arrangement that features a beautiful pedal steel guitar and Allman's mournful vocals, the song will send you into thoughtful rumination and it sounds just great. Multicolored Lady is an acoustic guitar and orchestra ballad that tells the tale of the singer boarding a bus and sitting "next to a broken-hearted bride". It's sentimental , and the tender story of two lonely strangers holds your interest as it unfolds. All My Friends is an acoustic guitar based song with plenty of orchestration and a nice electric guitar solo. Very moody, very contemplative, and very good. The spiritual Will The Circle Be Unbroken closes the album with a full-tilt gospel arrangement, and Gregg's most sorrowful singing ever. With the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley still recent, the song takes on a new life, once again, and sounds as sad and melancholic as it ever has.
Laid Back is a beautiful album, with many moods and textures, and it has a sort of resigned and reflective feel to it. This is the type of album that's best listened to on a cold and cloudy or rainy afternoon, while sitting next to a window. It's Gregg Allman's most romantic and well produced solo album,and probably his best, too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ****4+1/2 Stars**** Gregg's Very Best Solo Effort
Comment: "These Days" was such a fitting anthem for Brother Gregg Allman back in '73 when Laid Back was released. I remember seeing the ABB on Thanksgiving night in 1971 at Carnegie Hall. It was their first concert following the dragic death of Duane Allman. I never would have thought The Allman Brothers Band would perform Will The Circle Be Unbroken. Gospel?...The Brothers?....Yea Right! But there it was at the end of that very memorable evening. I watched Gregg as he shared with the audience his pain and his grief, and something more.
That something more manifested itself two years later with his very rewarding debut solo effort. It took those two years for him to reflect on his first five years on the road. two and half years with his big brother and two and a half years without him. Gregg was truly inspired to lay down his finest vocal performance ever. Queen of Hearts delivers just that. What feeling, what depth. Just stunning!!!! The two ABB covers Please Call Home and Midnight Rider evoke the deep loss and agonizing despair of burying Brother Duane and reopening the wound a year later with the loss a of band member Berry Oakley.
Not without it's faults, Laid Back is my favorite solo album by Gregg. It took courage and it took fortitude for Gregg to stay the course. I'm sure he knew in his heart it was what Duane would have expected of him. Till this day, when I listen to Laid Back, I can't help but see his face before me on that long ago Thanksgiving night. Hurt beyond belief, but determined to go on and go on he did. Keep on keeping on Brother and thanks for all the great music and wonderful memories along the way.
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Editorial Reviews:
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By the end of 1973, the Allman Brothers Band seemed to have it all nailed down. They'd proven their mettle with a fine synthesis of blues, jazz, folk, and country influences; expanded upon it with the definitive Fillmore East set; and moved forward after the separate losses of guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley. The group's myriad strengths, in fact, might've been the reason that one of their most obvious gifts--Gregg Allman's pained, growling voice--was sometimes overlooked. Laid Back, Gregg Allman's first solo disc, seems in part an effort to gain a little more recognition. It worked, particularly given the strong radio response to its opening track, a loping remake of "Midnight Rider." Likewise, much of the album's remainder finds Allman tweaking the band's blues ("Queen of Hearts") and country sides (a cover of Jackson Browne's "These Days"); horns and gospelish backing vocals add to the personal, often mournful feel. Much more coherent than its dated cover art (an either childlike or blasted-out-of-his-gourd Gregg ignoring a blazing volcano) indicates, Laid Back is an often convincing version of the man's music. For Allman, it would get much, much worse before it would be this good again. --Rickey Wright
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