Idlewild South

Sound DNA

• Rock
• Southern Rock

• swampy
• driving
• southern

About

Named for Dickey Betts’ farm outside Macon, Ga., <i>Idlewild South</i> was the Allmans’ second album. The 1970 release finds them plowing some jazzy ground akin to what Traffic was doing around the same time, but with a distinctly Southern touch. The eclectic tune stack introduced Betts’ instrumental “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” which would soon grow beyond its seven-minute length into one of the group’s true epics. “Revival” hooked into a tent-meeting groove, becoming an early airplay favorite, while this “Hootchie Cootchie Man” was a fine example of rowdy, focused sprawl. Of course, both Duane and Gregg Allman were hitting on all cylinders, on top of a powerhouse rhythm section verging on the polyrhythmic. Their next move – the double album recorded at New York’s Fillmore East – would make the Allman Brothers Band undeniable rock stars. But their power is already here to be heard.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits