The Allman Brothers Band – S.U.N.Y. At Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71

Fur those desiring a crystal-clear time capsule of a document, as disc 1 starts you may be shocked, even appalled at the poor fidelity of this recording. It gets better, but this is by no means a pristine archival release. As well, for the purists out there, listeners should note this is a compilation of two performances from the same day, not a complete recording of either of the ABB's sets on 9/19/71. None the less, this needs to be in every serious ABB fan's collection. It's a rowdy, spirited run through the band's by-then typical repertoire, and, perhaps most importantly, it contains one of the only readily available live versions of "Blue Sky" when Duane Allman was still alive (the liner notes tell us the band had only started playing the song live in August of '71). Duane Allman died only five weeks after this performance. Perhaps it's because the band had finally, after recording numerous nights' sets at Fillmore East --and finally capturing lightning in a bottle at various moments of that run, released a live recording that truly represented the power and majesty of the band on wax (and had already sold 500,000 copies), the ABB were relaxed, loose, and fired up on 9/19/71. Perhaps it was the venue, SUNY Stoneybrook on NY's Long Island, a place where the band had performed four previous times and clearly enjoyed coming to. Whatever the reasons, the ABB kick out the jams, displaying a piss-and-vinegar filled swagger through the first five songs of this release, exhibiting a level of muscularity and grit that makes these takes a nice contrast to the performances on At Fillmore East. "Blue Sky" follows, and forces Duane and Dickey to work their magic into a much more restrictive song structure, but they still put together some amazing twin-lead guitar interplay. From there, the listener is left with three songs that take up about an hour of these two discs, the band stretching out and slowing down, exploring and jamming. For this fan, the magic of this archival release is in the fiery first five songs of this package, and the joy of the release lies in the beauty of Duane and Dickey playing for keeps on "Blue Sky."

The original version/release of this set has the white cds as shown in these pictures. The reissues have different looking discs