Gregg Allman life and biography

Gregory Lenoir Allman, known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006. His distinctive voice placed him in 70th place in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

At the beginning of the 1970’s, The Allman Brothers Band enjoyed huge success and a number of their most characteristic songs were written by Gregg. Unusually for the time, the band was based in the Southeastern United States and their music, which has been called ‘Southern Rock’, a term derided by Gregg, incorporates an innovative fusion of rock and jazz.

Following the death of his older brother, the guitarist Duane Allman in 1971 and bass guitarist Berry Oakley around a year later, in motorbike accidents, the band struggled on and continued to perform and record. In addition, Gregg developed a solo career and a band under his own name. Gregg’s solo music has perhaps a greater resonance of soul music than his work with ABB, possibly because of the influence of artists such as Bobby Bland and Little Milton, singers who he has long admired.
Despite recent health issues, Gregg still tours.

For Gregg Allman, all roads lead back to Ray Charles: "When I heard him, I was like, 'That's my goal in life,' " says Allman, who grew up mimicking the R&B records he heard in his segregated childhood hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida. "Ray Charles is the one who taught me to just relax and let it ooze out. If it's in your soul, it'll come out." Allman's mournful wail comes out on Allman Brothers standards like "It's Not My Cross to Bear" and "Whipping Post." Dwight Yoakam says Allman's white-blues tradition goes back to Hank Williams. "It's not just the African-American influence but the country side of his voice," says Yoakam. "You could take 'Midnight Rider' and do it to 'Lovesick Blues.' " Even in his earliest recordings, says Sheryl Crow, "He sounded like he'd already lived a thousand lifetimes."

Gregg's memoirs of his life in music are scheduled to be published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, in Spring 2012 .

Albums:
1973 Laid Back
1974 The Gregg Allman Tour (live)
1977 Playin' Up a Storm - The Gregg Allman Band
1977 Two the Hard Way - Allman and Woman (Cher)
1986 I'm No Angel - The Gregg Allman Band
1988 Just Before The Bullets Fly - The Gregg Allman Band
1997 Searching for Simplicity
1997 One More Try: An Anthology
2002 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection (compilation)
2002 No Stranger to the Dark: The Best of Gregg Allman (different compilation, with three new tracks)
2011 Low Country Blues

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