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"Little Martha" was the only Allman Brothers Band track written solely by group leader and partial namesake Duane Allman. The tune first appeared on the final studio track on the Allman Brothers Band's fourth album, Eat A Peach, released in 1972. The track was recorded in October 1971, a few weeks before Duane Allman's death in a motorcycle accident.

Allman's original recording of the song is a bouncy fingerstyle acoustic guitar instrumental duet with minimal accompaniment. Allman and bandmate Dickey Betts played the tune on 6-string guitars using open E tuning. The song's simple melody and rhythmic counterpoint quickly made it a favorite among fans; acoustic guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke, who often covered the song in performance, once called it "the most perfect guitar song ever written."

Song Origin[link]

The story goes^{[clarification needed]} that Allman had a dream where Jimi Hendrix showed him the melody of the tune in a Holiday Inn motel bathroom, using the sink faucet as a guitar fretboard. Remembering the melody during the October 1971 sessions that produced most of the third side of what would become Eat A Peach, Allman laid down the track, joined only by Dicky Betts and bassist Berry Oakley, though Oakley's part would be mixed out of the final version, leaving the number as a duet for the two guitarists. (Oakley's part would be restored on the 1989 box set Dreams.)

The song's namesake was Martha Ellis, a twelve-year-old girl whose grave the Allman Brothers Band had come across during their frequent trips to Rose Hill Cemetery in their homebase of Macon, Georgia. (Both Duane Allman himself and Berry Oakley would be buried there by the end of 1972). As with Dicky Betts' 1970 instrumental "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", the song was named for one person but actually about somebody else. Allman envisioned it as an ode to his then-girlfriend, a groupie named Dixie Meadows, who later would unsuccessfully sue to control Allman's estate after his death.

Longevity and cover versions[link]

Both Gregg Allman and Dicky Betts have included "Little Martha" on live albums. It appears in a wildly different electric version as the opening track to Dicky Betts' 2004 limited-release live album, Instant Live At The Odeon. On Allman's 1974 effort, The Gregg Allman Tour, the studio version can be heard faintly on the PA system after the closing track, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken". It was also interwoven into bassist Oteil Burbridge's bass solos during certain live shows in the late 1990s by The Allman Brothers Band.

The song has occasionally been recorded by other instrumentalists in the decades since its original release, including notable versions by guitarists Leo Kottke, Tim Farrell, and dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas.

The song is played over the PA system after every Allman Brothers Band show as a tribute to Duane Allman.

From roughly 1985-2005, Little Martha, along with Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Stang's Swang", was played on Kentucky Educational Television during a scroll of significant sponsors at the end of the broadcast day.

A 2008 commercial for E & J Gallo Winery features a cover of the song.

Saint Martha
Martha on the left, Jesus at the house of Mary and Martha, Harold Copping
Virgin, Myrrhbearer, Wonder Worker of Southern Gaul
Born	probably Iudaea Province (modern-day Israel or West Bank)
Died	traditionally Larnaca, Cyprus or Tarascon, Gaul (modern-day France)
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Christianity, Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church
Canonized	Pre-congregation
Feast	July 29 (Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran), June 4 (Orthodox)
Attributes	broom; keys; ladle[1]
Patronage	butlers; cooks; dietitians; domestic servants; homemakers; hotel-keepers; housemaids; housewives; innkeepers; laundry workers; maids; manservants; servants; servers; single laywomen; travellers; Villajoyosa, Spain[1]

Martha of Bethany (Aramaic מַרְתָּא Martâ) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She is the middle child of her family with Lazarus being the eldest and her sister Mary Magdalene the youngest. She was witness to Jesus' resurrection of her brother, Lazarus.

Etymology of the name[link]

The name Martha is a Latin transliteration of the Koine Greek Μαρθα, itself a translation of the Aramaic מַרְתָּא Martâ, "The mistress" or "the lady", from מרה "mistress", feminine of מר "master". The Aramaic form occurs in a Nabatean inscription found at Puteoli, and now in the Naples Museum; it is dated AD. 5 (Corpus Inscr. Semit., 158); also in a Palmyrene inscription, where the Greek translation has the form Marthein. ^[2]

Biblical references[link]

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha. The two sisters are contrasted: Martha was "cumbered about many things" while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen "the better part", that of listening to the master's discourse.^[3] The name of their village is not recorded, nor any mention of whether Jesus was near Jerusalem:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
- (Luke 10:38-42, New International Version)

In the Gospel of John, Martha and Mary appear in connection two incidents: the raising from the dead of her brother Lazarus (John 11) and the anointing of Jesus at the home of Simon the Leper (John 12:3).

In the account of the raising of Lazarus, Jesus meets with the sisters in turn: Martha followed by Mary. Martha goes immediately to meet Jesus as he arrives, while Mary waits until she is called. As one commentator notes, "Martha, the more aggressive sister, went to meet Jesus, while quiet and contemplative Mary stayed home. This portrayal of the sisters agrees with that found in Luke 10:38-42."^[4] In speaking with Jesus, both sisters lament that he did not arrive in time to prevent their brother's death: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21,32). But where Jesus' response to Mary is more emotional, his response to Martha is one of teaching calling her to hope and faith:

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord", Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord", she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
- (John 11:20-27, New International Version)

As the narrative continues, Martha calls her sister Mary to see Jesus. Jesus has Mary bring him to Lazarus' tomb where he commands the stone to be removed from its entrance. Martha here objects, "But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days", to which Jesus replies, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:39-40). They then take away the stone and Jesus prays and calls Lazarus forth alive from the tomb.

Martha appears again in John 12:1-8, where she serves at a meal held in Jesus' honor at which her brother is also a guest. The narrator only mentions that the meal takes place in Bethany, while the apparently parallel accounts in the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 26:6-13) and Mark (Mark 14:3-9) specify that it takes place at the home of one Simon the Leper. As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "We are surely justified in arguing that, since Matthew and Mark place the scene in the house of Simon, St. John must be understood to say the same; it remains to be proved that Martha could not 'serve' in Simon's house."^[2] It is at this meal that a woman (Martha's sister Mary, according to John) anoints Jesus with expensive perfume.

Catholic traditions[link]

Martha from the Isabella Breviary, 1497

In Roman Catholic tradition, Martha's sister Mary was often equated with Mary Magdalene. Therefore, additional information is supposed for Martha as well:

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are represented by St. John as living at Bethania, but St. Luke would seem to imply that they were, at least at one time, living in Galilee; he does not mention the name of the town, but it may have been Magdala, and we should thus, supposing Mary of Bethania and Mary Magdalene to be the same person, understand the appellative "Magdalene". The words of St. John (11:1) seem to imply a change of residence for the family. It is possible, too, that St. Luke has displaced the incident referred to in Chapter 10. The likeness between the pictures of Martha presented by Luke and John is very remarkable. The familiar intercourse between the Saviour of the world and the humble family which St. Luke depicts is dwelt on by St. John when he tells us that "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus" (11:5). Again the picture of Martha's anxiety (John 11:20-21, 39) accords with the picture of her who was "busy about much serving" (Luke 10:40); so also in John 12:2: "They made him a supper there: and Martha served." But St. John has given us a glimpse of the other and deeper side of her character when he depicts her growing faith in Christ's Divinity (11:20-27), a faith which was the occasion of the words: "I am the resurrection and the life." The Evangelist has beautifully indicated the change that came over Martha after that interview: "When she had said these things, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: The Master is come, and calleth for thee."^[2]

Golden Legend[link]

According to legend, St Martha left Judea after Jesus' death, around AD 48, and went to Provence with her sister Mary (conflated with Mary Magdalene) and her brother Lazarus. With them, Martha first settled in Avignon (now in France). The Golden Legend, compiled in the 13th century, records the Provençal tradition:

Saint Martha, hostess of our Lord Jesus Christ, was born of a royal kindred. Her father was named Syro and her mother Encharia. The father of her was duke of Syria and places maritime, and Martha with her sister possessed by the heritage of their mother three places, that was, the castle Magdalen, and Bethany and a part of Jerusalem. It is nowhere read that Martha had ever any husband ne fellowship of man, but she as a noble hostess ministered and served our Lord, and would also that her sister should serve him and help her, for she thought that all the world was not sufficient to serve such a guest.

After the ascension of our Lord, when the disciples were departed, she with her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary, also Saint Maximin [actually a 3rd-century figure] which baptized them, and to whom they were committed of the Holy Ghost, and many others, were put into a ship without sail, oars, or rudder governail, of the paynims, which by the conduct of our Lord they came all to Marseilles, and after came to the territory of Aquense or Aix, and there converted the people to the faith. Martha was right facound of speech, and courteous and gracious to the sight of the people.^[5]

The Golden Legend also records the grand lifestyle imagined for Martha and her siblings in its entry on Mary Magdalene:

Mary Magdalene had her surname of Magdalo, a castle, and was born of right noble lineage and parents, which were descended of the lineage of kings. And her father was named Cyrus, and her mother Eucharis. She with her brother Lazarus, and her sister Martha, possessed the castle of Magdalo, which is two miles from Nazareth, and Bethany, the castle which is nigh to Jerusalem, and also a great part of Jerusalem, which, all these things they departed among them. In such wise that Mary had the castle Magdalo, whereof she had her name Magdalene. And Lazarus had the part of the city of Jerusalem, and Martha had to her part Bethany. And when Mary gave herself to all delights of the body, and Lazarus entended all to knighthood, Martha, which was wise, governed nobly her brother's part and also her sister's, and also her own, and administered to knights, and her servants, and to poor men, such necessities as they needed. Nevertheless, after the ascension of our Lord, they sold all these things.^[6]

St. Martha in Tarascon[link]

St Martha's Collegiate Church in Tarascon

Martha and the Tarasque, from a 15th century manuscript

Gothic Tomb of Saint Martha in Tarascon

A further legend relates that Martha then went to Tarascon, where a monster, the Tarasque, was a constant threat to the population. Martha managed to tame the monster and eventually died in Tarascon, where she was buried. Her tomb is located in the crypt of the local Collegiate Church. Again, the Golden Legend provides the details:

There was that time upon the river of Rhone, in a certain wood between Arles and Avignon, a great dragon, half beast and half fish, greater than an ox, longer than an horse, having teeth sharp as a sword, and horned on either side, head like a lion, tail like a serpent, and defended him with two wings on either side, and could not be beaten with cast of stones ne with other armour, and was as strong as twelve lions or bears; which dragon lay hiding and lurking in the river, and perished them that passed by and drowned ships. He came thither by sea from Galicia, and was engendered of Leviathan, which is a serpent of the water and is much wood, and of a beast called Bonacho, that is engendered in Galicia. And when he is pursued he casts out of his belly behind, his ordure, the space of an acre of land on them that follow him, and it is bright as glass, and what it toucheth it burneth as fire. To whom Martha, at the prayer of the people, came into the wood, and found him eating a man. And she cast on him holy water, and showed to him the cross, which anon was overcome, and standing still as a sheep, she bound him with her own girdle, and then was slain with spears and glaives of the people. The dragon was called of them that dwelled in the country Tarasconus, whereof, in remembrance of him that place is called Tarasconus, which tofore was called Nerluc, and the Black Lake, because there be woods shadowous and black. And there the blessed Martha, by licence of Maximin her master, and of her sister, dwelled and abode in the same place after, and daily occupied in prayers and in fastings, and thereafter assembled and were gathered together a great convent of sisters, and builded a fair church at the honour of the blessed Mary virgin, where she led a hard and a sharp life. She eschewed flesh and all fat meat, eggs, cheese and wine; she ate but once a day. An hundred times a day and an hundred times a night she kneeled down and bowed her knees.^[5]

The dedication of the Collegiate Church at Tarascon to St. Martha is believed to date from the 9th century or earlier. Relics found in the church during a reconstruction in 1187 were identified as hers, and reburied in a new shrine at that time.^[7] In the Collegiate Church crypt is a late 15th century cenotaph, also known as the Gothic Tomb of Saint Martha. It is the work of Francesco Laurana, a Croatian sculptor of the Italian School, commissioned by King René. At its base are two openings through which the relics could be touched. It bears three low reliefs separated by fluted pilasters representing : on the left, Saint Martha and the Tarasque; in the center, Saint Mary Magdalene born aloft by the angels; on the right, Lazarus as Bishop of Marseille with his mitre and staff. There are two figures on either side: on the left, Saint Front, Bishop of Perrigueux, present at the funeral of Saint Martha, and on the right, Saint Marcelle, Martha's servant.^[8]

St. Martha and Villajoyosa[link]

The town of Villajoyosa, Spain honors St. Martha as its patron saint and celebrates The Festival of Moors and Christians annually in her honor. The 250-year old festival commemorates the attack on Villajoyosa by Berber pirates led by Zalé-Arraez in 1538, when, according to legend, St. Martha came to the rescue of the townsfolk by causing a flash flood which wiped out the enemy fleet, thus preventing the corsairs from reaching the coast.^[9]

Eastern Orthodox tradition[link]

In Orthodox Church tradition, though not specifically named as such in the gospels, Martha and Mary were among the Myrrh-bearing Women. These faithful followers of Jesus stood at Golgotha during the Crucifixion of Jesus and later came to his tomb early on the morning following Sabbath with myrrh (expensive oil), according to the Jewish tradition, to anoint their Lord's body. The Myrrhbearers became the first witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus, finding the empty tomb and hearing the joyful news from an angel.^[10]

Orthodox tradition also relates that Martha's brother Lazarus was cast out of Jerusalem in the persecution against the Jerusalem Church following the martyrdom of St. Stephen. His sister Martha fled Judea with him, assisting him in the proclaiming of the Gospel in various lands.^[11] While Mary Magdalene remained with John the Apostle and assisted him with the Church of Jerusalem. The three later came to Cyprus, where Lazarus became the first Bishop of Kittim (modern Larnaca).^[12] All three died in Cyprus.

Gnostic tradition[link]

Martha appears in the sacred gnostic text Pistis Sophia. She is instructed by the risen Christ on several of the repentances that must be made in order to have salvation. She also makes several prophetic interpretations of different Psalms.^[13]

Veneration or commemoration as a saint[link]

Christ with Martha and Maria, by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1886

Martha is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches, and commemorated by the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Communion.

Feast days[link]

In the Roman Catholic tradition, her feast day is celebrated July 29. Her celebration, classified as a "Semi-Double" in the Tridentine Calendar, became a "Simple" in the General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII, a "Third-Class Feast" in the General Roman Calendar of 1962, and an obligatory "Memorial" in the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions, Martha and her sister Mary are commemorated on June 4. They are also commemorated collectively among the Myrrh-bearing Women on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers (the Third Sunday of Pascha—i.e., the second Sunday after Easter). She also figures in the commemorations of Lazarus Saturday (the day before Palm Sunday).

Martha is commemorated on July 29 in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church (together with her siblings Mary and Lazarus) and in the Calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church and the Church of England (together with her sister Mary).^[14]

Churches[link]

A number of churches are dedicated to St. Martha including:

• Roman Catholic: Tarascon, France; St. Martha Catholic Church in Morton Grove, Illinois, USA, and others in East Providence, Rhode Island; Valinda, California; Kingwood, Texas; and Harvey, Louisiana, USA and Plainville, MA, USA; and Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia.
• Church of England: St Martha-on-the-Hill in Surrey and Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England
• Episcopal: St. Martha's Episcopal Church in Papillion, Nebraska, Bethany Beach, Delaware and Lexington, Kentucky, USA
• Methodist: St Martha's Methodist Church in Tring, Hertfordshire, UK.
• Lutheran: St Mary and St Martha Lutheran Church, San Francisco, California, USA

Depictions in art[link]

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Diego Velázquez, 1618

The subject of Martha is mostly found in art from the Counter-Reformation onwards, especially in the 17th century, when the domestic setting is usually given a realistic depiction. However it appears in some Ottonian cycles of the Life of Christ.

• Christ in the House of Martha and Mary - an early work by the Spanish painter Velázquez.
• Christ in the House of Martha and Mary - by Johannes Vermeer
• Martha and Mary Magdalene (Caravaggio)
• "The Sons of Martha" - A poem by Rudyard Kipling.

See also[link]

• Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary
• Lazarus of Bethany
• Martha and Mary Magdalene (Caravaggio)
• Mary of Bethany
• Myrrhbearers

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Martha". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martha

• "St. Martha, Virgin", Butler's Lives of the Saints
• St. Martha on catholic.org
• Mary & Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
• Patron Saints: Martha
•  "St. Martha". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• "The Life of Saint Martha", text from the Golden Legend

Duane Allman
At Fillmore East, 1971
Background information
Birth name	Howard Duane Allman
Also known as	Skydog
Born	(1946-11-20)November 20, 1946 Nashville, Tennessee
Died	October 29, 1971(1971-10-29) (aged 24) Macon, Georgia
Genres	Southern rock, blues, blues-rock, soul, rock, jazz
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1961–1971
Labels	Mercury, Capricorn
Associated acts	The Hour Glass, Wilson Pickett, The Allman Brothers Band, Derek and the Dominos, Aretha Franklin, Herbie Mann, Gregg Allman, The Allman Joys
Website	AllmanBrothersBand.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Les Paul Gibson SG Fender Stratocaster Gibson ES-345

Duane Allman (born Howard Duane Allman; November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder and leader of the The Allman Brothers Band, until his early death in a motorcycle accident in 1971 at the age of 24.

ABB was formed in 1969 and, unusually for the time, based in the Southeastern United States. In the early 1970s the band was hugely successful. Duane is best remembered for his brief but influential tenure in that band and in particular for his expressive slide guitar playing and inventive improvisational skills.^[1] In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Allman at #2 in their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, second only to Jimi Hendrix and in 2011 he was ranked #9.^[2] His tone (achieved with a Gibson Les Paul and two 50-watt bass Marshall amplifiers) was named one of the greatest guitar tones of all time by Guitar Player.^[3]

A sought-after session musician both before and during his tenure with the band, Duane Allman performed with such established stars as King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Herbie Mann. He also contributed heavily to the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos.

Duane Allman’s skills as a guitarist were complemented by personal qualities such as his intensity, drive and ability to draw the best out of others in making music.^[4] He is still referred to by his nickname "Skydog".^[5]

Early years[link]

Duane Allman was born November 20, 1946 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was the eldest son of Willis Allman, a career United States Army sergeant, and Geraldine (née Robbins). His younger brother Gregg Allman was born in late 1947.

While the family were living near Norfolk, Virginia, his father was murdered by a fellow veteran hitchhiker.^[6] In order to retrain as an accountant, Geraldine "Mama A" Allman sent Duane and Gregg to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, which they both disliked intensely.^[7] In 1957, the family moved to Daytona Beach, Florida where the boys attended Seabreeze High School.

The boys returned to Nashville to spend summers with their grandmother where Gregg learned guitar basics from a neighbour. In 1960, Gregg had saved enough money to buy his first guitar, a Japanese-made Teisco Silvertone while Duane acquired a Harley 165 motorbike which he soon wrote off. So Duane began to take an interest in the guitar leading to fights over it and eventually their mother bought Duane a Gibson Les Paul Junior.^[8]

It was also in Nashville that the boys became musically inspired by a rhythm and blues concert they attended, at which blues guitar legend B. B. King performed. Apparently, Duane turned to Gregg and said, "We got to get into this." ^[8]

Duane learned to play very quickly and soon became the better guitarist of the two, dropping out of high school to stay home during the day and focus on developing his guitar skills.

Allman Joys and Hour Glass[link]

The two Allman brothers started playing publicly in 1961, joining or forming a number of small, local groups. Shortly thereafter, Duane quit high school to stay home during the day and focus on his guitar playing. Their band the Escorts opened for The Beach Boys in 1965 but disbanded and eventually became the Allman Joys. After Gregg graduated from Seabreeze High School in 1965, the Allman Joys went on the road, performing throughout the Southeast and eventually being based in Nashville and St. Louis, Missouri.

The Allman Joys morphed into another not-completely-successful band, The Hour Glass, which moved to Los Angeles in early 1967. There the Hour Glass produced two albums that left the band unsatisfied. Liberty, their record company, tried to market them as a pop band, completely ignoring the band's desire to play more blues-oriented material.

In 1968, Gregg Allman went to visit Duane on his 22nd birthday. Duane was sick in bed. Gregg brought along a bottle of Coricidin pills for his fever and the debut album by guitarist Taj Mahal as a gift. "About two hours after I left, my phone rang," Gregg states. "Baby brother, baby brother, get over here now!" When Gregg got there, he found that Duane had poured the pills out of the bottle, washed off the label and was using it as a slide to play "Statesboro Blues", an old Blind Willie McTell song that Taj Mahal covered. "Duane had never played slide before," says Gregg, "he just picked it up and started burnin'. He was a natural."^{[citation needed]} The song would go on to become a part of the Allman Brothers Band's repertoire, and Duane's slide guitar became crucial to their sound.

The Hour Glass broke up in early 1968, and Duane and Gregg Allman went back to Florida, where they played on demo sessions with the 31st of February, a folk rock outfit whose drummer was Butch Trucks. Gregg returned to California to fulfill Hour Glass obligations, while Duane jammed around Florida for months but didn't get another band going.

Session musician[link]

Allman's playing on the two Hour Glass albums and an Hour Glass session in early 1968 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, had caught the ear of Rick Hall, owner of FAME. In November 1968 Hall hired Allman to play on an album with Wilson Pickett. Allman's work on that album, Hey Jude (1968), got him hired as a full-time session musician at Muscle Shoals and brought him to the attention of a number of other musicians, such as Eric Clapton, who later said, "I remember hearing Wilson Pickett's 'Hey Jude' and just being astounded by the lead break at the end. I had to know who that was immediately—right now."

Allman's performance on "Hey Jude" blew away Atlantic Records producer and executive Jerry Wexler when Hall played it over the phone for him. Wexler immediately bought Allman's recording contract from Hall and wanted to use him on sessions with all sorts of Atlantic R&B artists. While at Muscle Shoals, Allman was featured on releases by a number of artists, including Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Laura Nyro, Wilson Pickett, Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie and jazz flautist Herbie Mann. Shortly after he recorded the lead break in "Hey Jude", he recorded all of the lead guitar in Boz Scaggs' "Loan Me a Dime". For his first sessions with Aretha, Allman traveled to New York, where in January 1969 he went as an audience member to the Fillmore East to see Johnny Winter and told fellow Shoals guitarist Jimmy Johnson that in a year he'd be on that stage. That December, the Allman Brothers Band indeed played the Fillmore.

Formation of The Allman Brothers Band[link]

The limits of full-time session playing frustrated Allman. The few months in Muscle Shoals were by no means a waste, however; besides meeting the great artists and other industry professionals he was working with, Allman had rented a small, secluded cabin on a lake and spent many solitary hours there refining his playing. Perhaps most significantly, Allman got together with R&B and jazz drummer Jaimoe Johanson, who came to meet Allman at the urging of Otis Redding's manager, Phil Walden, who by now was managing Allman and wanted to build a three-piece band around him. Allman and Jaimoe got Chicago-born bassist Berry Oakley to come up from Florida and jam as a trio, but Berry was committed to his rock band with guitarist Dickey Betts, the Second Coming, and returned south.

Getting fed up with Muscle Shoals, in March Allman took Jaimoe with him back to Jacksonville, Florida, where they moved in with Butch Trucks. Soon a jam session of these three plus Betts, Oakley, and Reese Wynans took place and forged what all present recognized as a natural, or even magical, bond. With the addition of brother Gregg, called back from Los Angeles to sing and replace Wynans on keyboards, at the end of March 1969, the Allman Brothers Band was formed. (Wynans became well known over a decade later as organist with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.) After a bit of rehearsing and gigging, the sextet moved to Macon, Georgia, in April to be near Walden and his Capricorn Sound Studios. While living in Macon, Allman met Donna Roosman, who bore his only child, Galadrielle. Despite their child, the relationship quickly ended.

[edit] Success: Layla, At Fillmore East

The Allman Brothers Band went on to become one of the most influential rock groups of the 1970s, described by Rolling Stone's George Kimball in 1971 as "the best damn rock and roll band this country has produced in the past five years."^[9] After months of nonstop rehearsing and gigging, including free shows in Macon's Central City Park and Atlanta's Piedmont Park, the group was ready to settle on the Allman Brothers Band name, and to record. Their debut album, The Allman Brothers Band, was recorded in New York in September 1969 and released a few months later. In the midst of intense touring, work began in Macon and Miami (Atlantic South - Criteria Studios), and a little bit in New York, on the band's second album, Idlewild South. Produced mostly by Tom Dowd, Idlewild South was released in August 1970 and broke new ground for them by quickly hitting the Billboard charts.

A group date in Miami, also that August, gave Allman the chance to participate in Eric Clapton's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton had long wanted to meet Allman; when he heard that the Allman Brothers were due to play in Miami, where he had just started work on Layla with producer Tom Dowd, he insisted on going to see their concert, where he met Allman. At one point, Allman approached Clapton, fully admiring his ability to play guitar as much as Clapton admired his, and cautiously asked Clapton if he could come by the studio to watch. Clapton was in no way reluctant to say yes, as he knew that his masterful playing combined with Allman's would be greater than the sum of its parts. After the show the two bands—the Allman Brothers Band and Derek and the Dominos—returned to Criteria, where Allman and Clapton quickly formed a deep rapport during an all-night jam session.^[10] Allman wound up participating on most of the album's tracks, contributing some of his best-known work. Allman never left the Allman Brothers Band, though, despite being offered a permanent position with Clapton. Allman never toured with Derek and the Dominos, but he did make three appearances with them on December 1, 1970 at the Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa (Soulmates LP) and the following day at Onondaga County War Memorial, and one appearance (or possibly just Delaney Bramlett or both Duane and Delaney) November 20, 1970^[11] at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, California.

In an interview, Duane told listeners how to tell who played what: Eric played the Fender parts and Duane played the Gibson parts. He continued by nonchalantly noting that the Fender had a sparklier sound, while the Gibson produced more of a "full-tilt screech".^[12]

The Allman Brothers went on to record At Fillmore East in March 1971. Meanwhile, Allman continued contributing session work to other artists' albums whenever he could. According to Skydog: the Duane Allman Story, Allman was in the habit of spontaneously dropping in at recording sessions and contributing to whatever was being taped that day. He received cash payments but no recording credits, making it virtually impossible to compile a complete discography of his works.

Allman was well known for his melodic, extended and attention-holding guitar solos. During this period two of his stated influences were Miles Davis and John Coltrane, having listened extensively to Kind of Blue for two years.^[12][13]

As Allman's distinctive electric bottleneck steel sound began to mature it evolved in time into the musical voice of what would come to be known as Southern Rock, being picked up and redefined in their own styles by slide guitarists that included bandmate Dickey Betts (after Duane's passing), Rory Gallagher, Derek Trucks and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Death[link]

Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident only months after the release and initial success of At Fillmore East.^[14] While in the western part of Macon on October 29, 1971 during a band break from touring and recording, Allman was riding his motorcycle at high speed toward an intersection as a flatbed truck carrying a lumber crane approached. The flatbed truck stopped suddenly in the intersection, forcing Duane to swerve his Harley Davidson Sportster motorcycle sharply to the left to avoid a collision. As he was doing so, he struck either the back of the truck or the ball on the lumber crane and was immediately thrown from the motorcycle. The motorcycle bounced up in the air and landed on Allman and proceeded to skid another 90 feet with Duane pinned underneath, crushing his internal organs. Though he was still alive when he arrived at the hospital, despite emergency surgery, he died several hours later from massive internal injuries. He was just weeks from his 25th birthday.

Memorial[link]

After Allman's funeral and some weeks of mourning, the five surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band carried on, resuming live performances and finishing the recording work interrupted by Duane's death. They named their next album Eat a Peach for Duane's response to an interviewer's question: "How are you helping the revolution?" Allman replied: "There ain't no revolution, only evolution, but every time I'm in Georgia I 'eat a peach' for peace." Released in February, 1972, this double album contains a side of live and studio tracks with Allman, two sides of "Mountain Jam", recorded with Duane at the same At Fillmore East stand in March, and a side of tracks by the surviving five member band.

Bass guitarist Berry Oakley died less than 13 months later in a similar motorcycle crash with a city bus, three blocks from the site of Duane Allman's fatal accident. Oakley's remains were laid to rest beside Duane Allman's in Macon, Georgia's Rose Hill Cemetery.

The variety of Allman's session work and Allman Brothers Band bandleading can be heard to good effect on two posthumous Capricorn releases, An Anthology (1972) and An Anthology Volume II (1974). There are also several archival releases of live Allman Brothers Band performances from what the band calls "Duane's Era".

Shortly after Duane's death, Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd dedicated the song "Free Bird", to the memory of Duane Allman. Van Zant would sometimes allude to this in concert; in the "Free Bird" performance at Skynyrd's famed 1976 appearance at Knebworth, England, Van Zant says to pianist Billy Powell, "Play it for Duane Allman." Many people assume the song was written about Duane. However, it had actually been written well before Duane died. (Allen Collins wrote the song after his then girlfriend asked him the question "if I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?")

In 1973, fans carved the very large letters "REMEMBER DUANE ALLMAN" in a dirt embankment along Interstate Highway 20 near Vicksburg, Mississippi.^[15][16] A photograph was published in Rolling Stone magazine and in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll; the carving itself lasted for over ten years.^[17]

In 1998 the Georgia State Legislature passed a resolution designating a stretch of State Highway 19, US 41, within Macon as the "Duane Allman Boulevard" in his honor.^[18]

Country singer Travis Tritt, in the song "Put Some Drive In Your Country" on his debut album, sings "Now I still love old country/I ain't tryin' to put it down/But damn I miss Duane Allman/I wish he was still around."

Equipment[link]

Allman Joys, Hour Glass[link]

• Fender Telecaster, modified with a Stratocaster neck.^[19]
• Marshall amplifier, with six 10-inch speakers and two horns.^[19]

Early session work[link]

• 1954 Fender Stratocaster, used on the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio studio sessions, now at the Hard Rock Cafe in London at the Vault.^[20]
• Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, which used old 9V batteries because "they make a special sound."
• Fender Twin Reverb with JBL speakers.^[19]
• Maestro Echoplex.^[19]
• 1959 Fender Bassman.^[19]

Allman Brothers Band, "Layla", later session work[link]

• 1961 Fender Stratocaster (for early session work overlapping with formation of the Band).^[19]
• 1958-1962 Gibson ES-345 Semi-hollow body (first album)^[20]
• 1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard goldtop, serial no. 7 3312. Traded on September 16, 1970 for a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard cherry sunburst, except for the pickups.
• 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard cherry sunburst, acquired on September 16, 1970, except for the pickups.
• 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard tobacco sunburst,^[20] acquired in June 1971.
• 1961 Gibson SG,^[20] used for slide,^[19] given by Dickey Betts.
• Marshall 50-watt^[3] head, two Marshall 4x12 cabinets with JBL speakers.^[19]
• Fender Champ combo amplifier ("Layla")

Other[link]

• Gibson L-00 acoustic guitar^[19]
• Fender Rock N' Roll 150 strings (Hour Glass)
• Coricidin medicine bottle (slide)

Discography[link]

Biography portal

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

• Duane Allman.com
• Duane Allman on allmanbrothersband.com
• Duane Allman.info
• In memory of Duane Allman: 35 years after his death, Skydog still among rock's very best guitarists, on MSNBC
• The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
• Georgia House of Representatives SR653, designating Duane Allman Boulevard and Raymond Berry Oakley Bridge
• "Duane Allman". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1189. Retrieved September 2, 2010. 
• Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 1995

Leo Kottke
Kottke at the Clearwater Festival, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Leo Kottke
Born	(1945-09-11) September 11, 1945 (age 66) Athens, Georgia
Genres	Folk
Occupations	Guitarist
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1966–present
Labels	Capitol, Private Music, Oblivion Records
Associated acts	Mike Gordon, John Fahey
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Gibson, Taylor, Bozo

Leo Kottke (born 11 September 1945, Athens, Georgia, U.S.) is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies. Kottke has overcome a series of personal obstacles including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his right hand to emerge as a widely-recognized master of his instrument.

Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke also sings sporadically, in an unconventional yet expressive baritone famously self-described as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day".^[1] In concert, Kottke intersperses humorous and often bizarre monologues with vocal and instrumental selections from throughout his career, played solo on his signature 6- and 12-string guitars.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Born in Athens, Georgia, Kottke moved with his parents so frequently that he was raised in twelve different states.^[2] As a youth living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Kottke was influenced by folk and delta blues music, notably that of Mississippi John Hurt.^[2] Kottke learned to play trombone and violin before trying the guitar and developing his own unconventional picking style. A mishap with a firecracker permanently damaged the hearing in his left ear,^[2] a condition that would be exacerbated due to exposure to loud noise during firing practice while serving in the United States Navy Reserve, when his other ear also was damaged.^[3]

After being discharged from the Naval Reserve due to his partial loss of hearing, Kottke attended St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota but left before completing his studies, choosing instead to hitchhike around the country, busking for a living, before finally settling in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. He arrived at the Scholar Coffeehouse in the Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis area in the autumn of 1966 and soon was a regular performer. There, he recorded his debut album, 12-String Blues, which was released on the independent Oblivion record label in 1969. He recorded 6- and 12-String Guitar (also known as the "Armadillo album" after the animal pictured on its cover) for John Fahey's Takoma Records later the same year. It remains one of the works most associated with Kottke and has been re-released many times on various record labels.

Fahey's agent Denny Bruce signed Kottke to Capitol Records and in 1971, Capitol released Kottke's first major label record, Mudlark.^[2]

Pressured in the early 1970s to be a folk singer-songwriter rather than an instrumentalist, he recorded with vocals and backing musicians on albums during this period. In 1972 he released Greenhouse, and in 1973, the live My Feet Are Smiling and Ice Water. These albums showed Kottke moving toward an eclectic mixture of musical genres, including folk, rock, jazz and bluegrass.

Kottke closed out his contract with Capitol with his seventh album, Chewing Pine, in 1975. By then he had also gained an international cult following thanks to his performances at folk festivals. With his 1976 eponymous release, he moved to Chrysalis Records.

Injury and new playing style[link]

In the early 1980s, Kottke began to suffer from painful tendonitis and related nerve damage caused by his vigorous and aggressive picking style (particularly on the 12-string guitar).^[3][4] As a result, he changed his picking style to a classical style, using the flesh of his fingertips and increasingly small amounts of fingernail rather than fingerpicks, and changing the positioning of the right hand to place less stress on the tendons. He also studied more classical and jazz-oriented compositional and playing techniques. He took a long break from recording and performing and simultaneously moved from his relationship with major labels to the smaller Private Music label. Private Music was considered a New Age music label in the Windham Hill style, and Kottke often found his music categorized as such during this period. After 1986's reflective A Shout Toward Noon, he took a brief break from recording before returning with Regards from Chuck Pink in 1988.

Later career[link]

Kottke released an album annually from 1989 to 1991, following My Father's Face with That's What and finally Great Big Boy, which featured a guest appearance from Lyle Lovett. Two years later, Kottke returned with Peculiaroso, which featured production by Rickie Lee Jones. The solo album One Guitar, No Vocals followed in 1999.

In 2002, Kottke and Mike Gordon (the bassist from the band Phish, which was on an extended hiatus) collaborated on Clone, an album featuring instrumental work and vocals from both musicians. A second album from the pair, Sixty Six Steps, followed in 2005. The duo has toured in support of both albums.^[5] In between these two duet albums, Kottke released a solo album, 2004's Try and Stop Me.

Leo Kottke received an honorary Doctorate in Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee on May 18, 2008, where he gave the commencement address.^[6]

Tunings[link]

Kottke's guitars are often tuned unconventionally; early in his career he heavily used open tuning, while in recent years he has used more traditional settings but often tunes his guitars as many as two full steps below standard tuning.

Orchestral works, re-recordings and other collaborations[link]

In 1976, Kottke collaborated with arranger Jack Nitzsche on the release Leo Kottke which featured Kottke backed by a small orchestral section on a number of the tracks.

In the later part of his career Kottke has begun reworking and re-recording tunes he wrote and recorded in the early 1970s.^[3] For example, 1999's One Guitar No Vocals offered a new instrumental version of 1974's "Morning Is The Long Way Home", with the countermelody opened up from behind the vocal line, stripped of its original trippy lyrics.^[7] Kottke has also combined previously-recorded tunes into new compositions, notably the mini-suite "Bigger Situation", also released on One Guitar No Vocals.

In 1990 Kottke and composer Stephen Paulus created Ice Fields, a work for amplified acoustic guitar and orchestra in a concerto format. Ice Fields featured five movements, each based on an existing Kottke composition, with orchestral backing and interlude sections.^[8] It was premiered by Paulus' Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and has been performed occasionally since but has not been released on record, partly due to the high cost of producing a recording with a full orchestra.^[9]

Kottke has also collaborated on his records with his mentor John Fahey, as well as with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Margo Timmins, Mike Gordon, and Rickie Lee Jones. He has recorded tunes by Tom T. Hall, Johnny Cash, Carla Bley, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, Jorma Kaukonen, Kris Kristofferson, Randall Hylton, and many others.

He has toured with other guitarists playing both solo and ensemble pieces; notably he toured as part of the "Guitar Summit" with jazz guitarist Joe Pass, flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, and classical guitarist Pepe Romero. He is also a frequent guest on the radio variety program A Prairie Home Companion.

Discography[link]

Videography[link]

1. Home & Away (1988)
2. Home & Away Revisited (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Leo Kottke website
• Unofficial Leo Kottke web site (fan site)
• All Music biography of Leo Kottke, by Jason Ankeny
• Latest Leo Kottke Concert Reviews and Photos on Concertology
• 1999 Leo Kottke interview by Anil Prasad
• "Kottke and Gordon: Calypso-Brushed Guitars" by David Dye, from NPR's World Cafe November 24, 2005
• The Leo Kottke/Procol Harum connection One of several Kottke mentions at www.procolharum.com
• Interview on Minnesota Public Radio November 9, 2007