Greg Allman

Richard Lutz gets the incense and Jack Daniels out for the Greg Allman  night at Symphony Hall in a month’s time.

There’s an old saying:  ‘If you remember the sixties…well, you must be about sixty.’

And not to put too fine a point on it, somehow the sixties dripped into the early seventies before glam and punk pushed it aside. And for a while The Allman Brothers, early in that decade, typified the hard rock bluesy sound that was a mainstay of late night parties or big heavy duty concerts.

They were southern and it was really the first big southern white rock group that made it big in both the States and the UK. No swaggering New York style a la Lou Reed or Dylan or easy West Coast sounds like The Beachboys or Jackson Browne. They played from their Georgia base and their voices and music were infused with jasmine, bourbon and heat.

Duane Allman died in 1971 and his brother Greg, yes the man who married Cher and had a liver transplant, is still with us and playing his Hammond organ with his own group.

Still playing, in other words, after all these years if not all these decades.

He lands with his band at Symphony Hall on July 2 with a much acclaimed new album called Low Country Blues  and if you want to take a peek at a real live rock and bluesman..now’s your chance.

His is the music of Muddy Waters, BB King and Buddy Guy and from the bits I’ve heard on the radio, it is worth the ticket price to see him, his Southern rawness and, importantly, his 35 years of playing live music.

It might be worth a trip…at least down memory lane

Box Office: Symphony Hall 0121 780 3333 www.thsh.co.uk