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Allmans Honored With Georgia Naming Ceremonies
03/23/2001 1:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Bruce Simon
(3/23/01, 1 p.m. ET) -- When former Allman Brothers Band members Duane Allman and Berry Oakley are honored by having their names attached to Georgia landmarks tomorrow (March 24), the surviving members will be smiling. A spokesperson for the band tells LAUNCH that the group is flattered about Georgia's renaming of a Macon street Duane Allman Boulevard for the late guitarist and for the designation of a bridge in honor of the late bassist Berry Oakley. Both musicians died in motorcycle accidents in Macon--Allman on October 29, 1971 and Oakley on November 11, 1972.
However, Oakley's sister has asked Georgia Governor Roy Barnes to cancel the bridge-naming for her brother, saying it will only draw crowds of people to the gravesites of the two musicians, which could lead to increased vandalism, among other things. The ceremony is expected to proceed as planned.
Meanwhile, the Allman Brothers Band continues its annual spring run at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, with the last three shows set for tonight (March 23), tomorrow (March 24), and Sunday (March 25). Fans attending these shows will get an added bonus, as singer-keyboardist Chuck Leavell is joining the group as a special, unannounced guest.
That's caused the Allmans to alter their setlist even more than normal, since the band rarely plays the same show during a tour. LAUNCH asked lead singer-keyboardist Gregg Allman why the band changes things up so often: "You get kinda worn out with playing the same song, you know, if you do it, like, every night, every night, every night, so you have to just kinda flip-flop 'em and, you know, space 'em differently on different nights, so you don't--you know, if you played the same songs in the same row, in the same order every night, it would, it would drive you crazy."
Leavell, who played with the Allmans during the '70s, has also worked with the Black Crowes, Eric Clapton, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and the Rolling Stones, among others.
-- Bruce Simon, New York
-- Darren Davis, New York
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