The Allman Brothers Band created the blues-based, southern rock style. Brothers Duane and Gregg Allman started playing guitar in their early teens but were more influenced by blues players like T-Bone Walker and B. B. King than Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. They played in a number of local garage bands before forming the Escorts Allman Joys; the band opened for the Beach Boys, cut a few demos, and even had a single released (a cover version of the blues song "Spoonful"), but white groups playing black music in the Deep South were not selling records. The brothers moved to Alabama and formed a new band called Hour Glass; they recorded several albums, but they were so blues-oriented that their record company released them only in England, where blues-based rock bands like Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and Cream were quite popular. They didn't sell well or get good reviews, and after the company refused to release a third album they broke up. Duane Allman ended up in Florida, jamming with a blues-country band called the Second Coming, which included bassist Berry Oakley and Dickey Betts and Larry Reinhardt (later of Captain Beefheart) playing twin lead guitar. Duane came to the attention of Rick Hall, owner of the Fame studios in Muscle Shoals. He hired Allman as a studio musician, and he played on records for soul acts like Wilson Pickett and Percy Sledge. Jerry Wexler, the head of Atlantic Records, was so impressed that he encouraged Duane to form his own band. He recruited Muscle Shoals drummer Jai Johanny Johansen, and then called the members of Second Coming, his brother Gregg, and his friend Butch Trucks. They assembled at Trucks's house and jammed; Duane Allman then proclaimed them a band and threatened to fight anyone who thought otherwise!
The Allman Brothers Band was still based in the blues and soul, but they incorporated country, psychedelic rock, and jazz. They also adopted the dual lead guitar format of Second Coming. Their records did not initially sell well, but they developed a reputation as an exciting live act; the 1971 album At Fillmore East reached the Top Ten and established them as a major band. Tragically, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident later that year, and Berry Oakley died in an eerily similar accident a little over a year later. The band split in 1976, but reunited periodically, eventually reforming in 1990 with guitarist Warren Haynes (of Gov't Mule) in the second guitar slot.
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B. B. King, T-Bone Walker, the Yardbirds, Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Must Haves:
 "Trouble No More (from Eat a Peach)"
"It's Not My Cross to Bear (from The Allman Brothers Band)"
"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (from Idelwind South)"
"Ramblin' Man"
Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 Special, Steve Miller Band, ZZ Top
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