Gregg Allman Tribute Events Planned Around Final LP, ‘Southern Blood’
Gregg Allman‘s family, associates and musical collaborators will honor the late Allman Brothers Band singer with a trio of live celebrations timed around the September 8th release of his final LP, Southern Blood. The events, which Rounder Records dubbed “Southern Blood: Celebrating Gregg Allman,” will be staged in three of the rock legend’s favorite U.S. cities: Los Angeles, Nashville and the Allman Brothers’ adopted hometown of Macon, Georgia.
The L.A. event will be held September 7th at the Grammy Museum’s Clive Davis Theater. Allman’s son, singer-songwriter Devon Allman; longtime friend and manager Michael Lehman, Gregg Allman Band guitarist/musical director Scott Sharrard, Southern Blood producer Don Was and Grammy Museum executive director Scott Goldman will honor Allman onstage with music and stories. Public ticket sales begin Thursday, August 17th at noon.
On September 9th, Macon Mayor Robert Reichert will declare Allman’s birthday, December 8th, to be “Gregg Allman Day.” The musician will posthumously receive a key to the city at a commemorative celebration held at the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House, the iconic residence where the band lived during their classic run of 1970 to 1973. On that same evening, the Big House will host an event featuring Devon Allman, Lehman, Sharrard; Allman’s closest friend, Chank Middleton; and The Bitter Southerner Editor-in-Chief, Chuck Reece.
The final event will take place during the 18th annual Americanafest: The Americana Music Festival & Conference, scheduled for September 15th at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater in Nashville. Devon Allman and Leahman will perform alongside Buddy Miller, Joan Osborne, Pony Bradshaw and John Paul White.
Rounder previewed Southern Blood last week with new song “My Only True Friend,” on which Allman reflects on death and touring life.
In an expansive feature on the posthumous album, producer Don Was said Allman’s final material isn’t focused on death. “Gregg was explaining his life and making sense of it,” he said, “both for the fans who stood with him for decades, and for himself.”