The Allman Brothers Band - Memorable Music Hall of Fame

The embodiment of '70s Southern rock, the Allman Brothers Band formed in 1969 when accomplished session guitarist Duane Allman returned home to Florida and began collaborating with his brother Gregg (vocals/organ) and local musicians Dickey
Betts (vocals/guitar), Berry Oakley (bass), Butch Trucks (drums) and "Jaimoe" (drums). The band released an eponymous debut in 1969 and Idlewild South in 1970 before their breakthrough 1971
double-live album, Live at the Fillmore East, established them as one of the top rock acts of the early '70s. Unfortunately, just days after the album went gold in late October 1971, Duane Allman
was killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Ga., crushed under his bike as he swerved to avoid a truck. Tragically, a year later, Berry Oakley also died in a motorcycle crash.
Determined to continue, the band released their fourth album Eat A Peach, recorded before the untimely deaths, further cementing their reputation as a skillful, improvisational blues-rock act. Lamar Williams was brought in to replace Oakley and pianist Chuck Leavall joined the band to fill in on organ. The first album with
the new lineup, 1973's Brothers and Sisters, was a huge success, spawning the No. 2 single "Ramblin' Man." Their 1975 follow-up Win, Lose, or Draw reached the Top Five and went gold, but the band began squabbling and soon broke up after the release of a 1976 live album called Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas. After Leavall and Williams were forced out of the band, the Allmans reunited with guitarist Dan Toler and a new bassist named David Goldflies. This incarnation's first album, Enlightened
Rogues, sold well, and was followed by Reach for the Sky (1980) and Brothers of the Road (1981), which featured a lighter, more accessible Allman Brothers Band. Unfortunately for the group,
conflicts resurfaced and the band broke up again in 1982.
After a box set entitled Dreams was released by their label in 1989, the Allmans re-formed, again with a new guitarist and bassist, and released an amazing comeback album, Seven Turns (1990). Shades of Two Worlds, released in 1991 and 1994's Where
It All Begins followed with more of the same, and the reformed band began touring annually in a profitable Grateful Dead style.
The Allman Brothers Band made the news again in 2000 after ousting lead guitarist, songwriter and founding member Dickey Betts from their ranks, citing creative differences. Though the split
originally took the form of Betts' suspension from the Allman's summer tour, when fall rolled around and Betts still wasn't reinstated -- and had announced plans to file a lawsuit against the band -- his continuing membership in the band became less and less certain. The Allman Brothers Band's latest, Peakin' at the
Beacon, was released in November 2000.