The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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This might be the best debut album ever delivered by an American blues band, a bold, powerful, hard-edged, soulful essay in electric blues with a native Southern ambience. Some lingering elements of the psychedelic era then drawing to a close can be found in "Dreams," along with the template for the group's on-stage workouts with "Whipping Post," and a solid cover of Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More." There isn't a bad song here, and only the fact that the group did even better the next time out keeps this from getting the highest possible rating.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The best studio album in the group's history, electric blues with an acoustic texture, virtuoso lead, slide, and organ playing, and a killer selection of songs, including "Midnight Rider," "Revival," "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'," and "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" in its embryonic studio version, which is pretty impressive even at a mere six minutes and change. They also do the best white cover of Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man" anyone's ever likely to hear.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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Whereas most great live rock albums are about energy, At Fillmore East is like a great live jazz session, where the pleasure comes from the musicians' interaction and playing. The great thing about that is, the original album that brought the Allmans so much acclaim is as notable for its clever studio editing as it is for its performances. Producer Tom Dowd skillfully trimmed some of the performances down to relatively concise running time (edits later restored on the double-disc set The Fillmore Concerts), at times condensing several performances into one track. Far from being a sacrilege, this tactic helps present the Allmans in their best light, since even if the music isn't necessarily concise (three tracks run over ten minutes, with two in the 20-minute range), it does showcase the group's terrific instrumental interplay, letting each member (but particularly guitarist Duane and keyboardist/vocalist Gregg) shine. Even after the release of the unedited concerts, this original double album (single CD) remains the pinnacle of the Allmans and Southern rock at its most elastic, bluesy, and jazzy.

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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A tribute to the dearly departed Duane, Eat a Peach rambles through two albums, running through a side of new songs, recorded post-Duane, spending a full album on live cuts from the Fillmore East sessions, then offering a round of studio tracks Duane completed before his death. On the first side, they do suggest the mellowness of the Dickey Betts-led Brothers and Sisters, particularly on the lovely "Melissa," and this stands in direct contrast with the monumental live cuts that dominate the album. They're at the best on the punchier covers of "One Way Out" and "Trouble No More," both proof of the group's exceptional talents as a roadhouse blues-rock band, but Duane does get his needed showcase on "Mountain Jam," a sprawling 33-minute jam that may feature a lot of great playing, but is certainly a little hard for anyone outside of diehards to sit through. Apart from that cut, the record showcases the Allmans at their peak, and it's hard not to feel sad as the acoustic guitars of "Little Martha" conclude the record, since this tribute isn't just heartfelt, it offers proof of Duane Allman's immense talents and contribution to the band.

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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This is where the group's CD release history gets complicated. Beginnings was originally put together by Atco as a double LP to encourage new fans who'd missed them to buy the group's first two albums, and proved so successful that it was kept in print on CD by Polydor when it acquired the group's catalog. Polydor's single-CD version of this double LP, however, was substandard in audio quality, digitized from an LP production master, and their individual CDs of The Allman Brothers Band and Idlewild South were far superior. But when Capricorn got the library back in 1997, they remastered Beginnings along with the rest of the library.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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Brothers and Sisters, the Allman Brothers Band's first new studio album in two years, shows off a leaner brand of musicianship, which, coupled with a pair of serious crowd-pleasers, "Ramblin' Man" and "Jessica," helped drive it to the top of the charts for a month and a half and to platinum record sales. This was the first album to feature the group's new lineup, with Chuck Leavell on keyboards and Lamar Williams on bass, as well as Dickey Betts' emergence as a singer alongside Gregg Allman. The tracks appear on the album in the order in which they were recorded, and the first three, up through "Ramblin' Man," feature Berry Oakley – their sound is rock-hard and crisp. The subsequent songs with Williams have the bass buried in the mix, and an overall muddier sound. The interplay between Leavell and Betts is beautiful on some songs, and Betts' slide on "Pony Boy" is a dazzling showcase that surprised everybody. Despite its sales, Brothers and Sisters is not quite a classic album (although it was their best for the next 17 years), especially in the wake of the four that had appeared previously, but it served as a template for some killer stage performances, and it proved that the band could survive the deaths of two key members.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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An unexpectedly poor showing from the group, considering the two-year lag between albums and what had come before. Despite a good cover of Muddy Waters' "Can't Lose What You Never Had" – highlighted by a great Dickey Betts solo – as an opener, there's not much here that's first-rate. The band sounds lethargic, although they still play decently. The title track and Dickey Betts' instrumental "High Falls" are among the few highlights, decent but unexceptional performances sparked by Betts' playing (which is engaging even on the loser tracks like "Louisiana Lou"). The album's main fault lies not with what it is, but what it could have been, and who it's from – as a debut album from a new band, it would be excusable and acceptable.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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This live album was released by Capricorn Records largely as a way of raising money in a hurry, but it fares surprisingly well musically. The 1973-1974 Allman Brothers Band featured here is the one that most fans actually saw, since most listeners didn't discover them or get to their concerts until after the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. Wipe the Windows isn't a landmark release like the Fillmore tapes – a collection of rock's greatest guitar albums could be complete without it. But no Allman Brothers Band fan should pass up Wipe the Windows, which is a most solid live album, and, in particular, a better representation of the songs off of Brothers and Sisters and Win, Lose or Draw than the original studio versions. "Southbound," "Ramblin' Man," "Jessica," and, to a lesser degree, "Wasted Words" come off exceptionally well. This second-generation band, with Dickey Betts as the sole lead guitar and Gregg Allman and Chuck Leavell sharing the keyboards, also performs a preconceived version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" – they could never spark more fire than the version from the Fillmore, so they transform it into a moodier piece with more space for the keyboards to open up. Compiled from shows in New Orleans, San Francisco, Bakersfield, Oakland, and Watkins Glen (New York).

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East Promo Box: 9 Albums 1969-1979 (1998) Japanese 9 CD Box Set [Re-Up]

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The Allman Brothers Band's best studio album since Brothers and Sisters is a loud, brash, hard-rocking collection of consistently solid if not first-rate songs. The singing is some of the best since Idlewild South, and although they would do better once they brought in Warren Haynes, the dual-guitar lineup of Dickey Betts and Dan Toler is a reminder of what the group had been missing since Duane Allman's death. The music isn't earth-shattering, but it is exciting through and through.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com