Duane Allman once said that the term “Southern rock”was redundant: “Rock was born in the South, so saying’Southern rock’ is like saying ‘rockrock.'” But in the early 1970s, when (mostly white)down-home hippies fused soul, country, and jam blues whileaggressively embracing their knotty heritage, they invented a newmusic that forced the rest of the country to take notice. Over theyears, it’s influenced everything from heavy metal to newwave, indie rock to hip-hop.
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND EAT A PEACH (Polydor, 1972)The Allmans were cosmic longhairs whose spiraling jams spun blues rockinto far-out redneck jazz. This half-live, half-studio double albumpays epic tribute to guitarist Duane Allman, who died in a motorcyclewreck the previous year. On the 33-minute “Mountain Jam,” Duane &Co. take it to the bridge by way of Valhalla; countless neo-hippiebands still camp in this song’s foothills.
