(2020) The Allman Brothers Band – Trouble No More (50th Anniversary Collection)


Review:
The November 1969 arrival of the self-titled The Allman Brothers Band heralded the arrival of a group which would change the face of music. Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Jai Johanny Johanson, and Butch Trucks fused rock, blues, and country with jazz-inspired improvisation to become one of the most beloved bands of all time. UMe and Mercury Records  celebrate 50 years of The Allman Brothers Band with a remarkable, career-spanning box set available on 5 CDs. Trouble No More: 50th Anniversary Collection contains recordings from the group’s Capricorn, Arista, Epic, and Peach years. Produced by Bill Levenson, John Lynskey and Kirk West, Trouble No More boasts 61 Allman Brothers Band classics, rarities, and live tracks spanning their entire 45-year career. Additionally, it premieres seven previously unreleased tracks beginning with the Allmans’ original 1969 demo of the Muddy Waters song which lends this collection its name: “Trouble No More.” It was the first demo recorded for The Allman Brothers Band. Appropriately, “Trouble No More” also concludes the box set with a live performance from the band’s last-ever show at New York’s Beacon Theatre in 2014. Trouble No More is sequenced chronologically and thematically to represent all of the group’s lineups, and so each disc of the CD version showcases one era of Allman history. CD 1, The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part I, spans the Allmans’ earliest years and such albums as The Allman Brothers Band, Live at Ludlow Garage, Idlewild South, and the seminal At Fillmore East. The Capricorn Years 1969 -1979 Part II, on the second disc, chronicles the live and studio double album Eat A Peach which featured the final recordings of Duane Allman made in 1971 before his unexpected death. This disc continues with cuts from Brothers and Sisters (the Allmans’ only No. 1 album which yielded their only top 10 Pop single, “Ramblin’ Man”) as well as live tracks from the Mar y Sol Festival and New York’s A&R Studios (released in 2016). The third disc covers two eras, The Capricorn Years, 1969-1979 Part III/The Arista Years, 1980-1981. It opens with live performances from their Summer Jam show of July ’73 at Watkins Glen including an unreleased “Mountain Jam.” Five albums are covered here, culminating in 1981’s Brothers of the Road, their second and final Arista platter, Brothers of the Road. Their eighth studio album, it was their only one without Jai Johanny Johanson, their final LP to feature bassist David Goldflies and guitarist Dan Toler, and their only album with drummer David Toler. The Allmans broke up in 1982 but reunited seven years later to mark their twentieth anniversary. Their first retrospective box set, Dreams, was also issued that year. The revitalized band, now a seven-piece featuring guitarist Warren Haynes, signed with Epic Records. Disc Four covers 1990-2000 and the Epic studio albums Shades of Two Worlds and Where It All Begins plus live tracks such as an unreleased “I’m Not Crying.” The final disc of Trouble No More, The Peach Years 2000-2014, found the Allman Brothers Band persevering as Dickey Betts departed and Derek Trucks joined the lineup. Three unreleased cuts feature on this disc, two of which are from the 2005 annual stand at the Beacon.





Track Listing:

Disc 1
01. Trouble No More (Demo)
02. Don’t Want You No More
03. It’ Not My Cross To Bear
04. Dreams
05. Whipping Post
06. I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
07. Midnight Rider
08. Revival
09. Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’
10. Hoochie Coochie Man
11. Please Call Home
12. Statesboro Blues
13. Stormy Monday
14. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed

Disc 2
01. One Way Out (Live at Fillmore East)
02. You Don't Love Me / Soul Serenade (Live at a&R Studios, August 26, 1971)
03. Hot 'Lanta (Live at A&R Studios, August 26, 1971)
04. Stand Back
05. Melissa
06. Blue Sky
07. Ain't Wastin Time No More (Live at Mar y Sol Festival, Puerto Rico, April 2, 1972)
08. Wasted Words
09. Ramblin’ Man
10. Southbound
11. Jessica
12. Early Morning Blues

Disc 3
01. Come And Go Blues
02. Mountain Jam (Live at Watkins Glen, New York, July 28, 1973)
03. Can’t Lose What You Never Had
04. Win, Lose Or Draw
05. High Falls
06. Crazy Love
07. Can’t Take It With You
08. Pegasus
09. Just Ain't Easy (Live at Merriweather Post Pavilion, July 19, 1979)
10. Hell & High Water
11. Angeline
12. Leavin’
13. Never Knew How Much (I Needed You)

Disc 4
01. Good Clean Fun
02. Seven Turns
03. Gambler’s Roll
04. End Of The Line
05. Nobody Knows
06. Low Down Dirty Mean (Live at the Beacon Theatre, March 10 & 11, 1992)
07. Come On Into My Kitchen (Live at Radio & Records Convention, Los Angeles, June 11, 1992)
08. Sailin’ ‘Cross The Devil’s Sea
09. Back Where It All Begins
10. Soulshine
11. No One To Run With
12. I'm Not Crying (Live at the Beacon Theatre, March 13, 1999)

Disc 5
01. Loan Me a Dime (Live at World Music Theatre, August 26, 2000)
02. Desdemona (Live at the Beacon Theatre, March 25, 2001)
03. High Cost Of Low Living
04. Old Before My Time
05. Blue Sky (Live at the Beacon Theatre, March 21, 2005)
06. Little Martha (Live at the Beacon Theatre, March 21, 2005)
07. Black Hearted Woman (Live at the Beacon Theatre, March 26, 2009)
08. The Sky Is Crying (Live at the Beacon Theatre, October 28, 2014)
09. Farewell Speeches (Live at the Beacon Theatre, October 28, 2014)
10. Trouble No More (Live at the Beacon Theatre, October 28, 2014)


Media Report:
Genre: blues-rock, southern rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits