THE ALLMAN BROTHERS "RAMBLIN' MAN" . . . . ANOTHER 'SOUTHERN' BAND THAT OVERCAME ENORMOUS TRAGEDY TO BECOME CERTIFIED LIVING LEGENDS . . . . TALKING WITH MIKEEYRAT ON THE WEEKEND REMINDED ME JUST HOW EPIC THESE DUDES REALLY ARE . . . . DUANE ALLMAN DIED ON HIS SPORTY THEN A LITTLE OVER A YEAR LATER, BERRY OAKLEY WENT OUT IN THE SAME WAY . . . . OVERCOMING THE KIND OF LOSS VERY FEW BANDS EVER MANAGE TO ACHIEVE.

My second band once did an entire Queensland tour with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, fuck, it was brilliant, sitting sidestage watching Jimmy, Kim and co chew through song after song, just awesome. Got to hangout with Jimmy over the week and talked about tons of stuff, a really sweet, super cool guy with real Texas style and charm and fully down to earth . . . . the thing that has always stayed with me above all else was what he said about his virtuoso brother, Stevie Ray, he said SRV's greatest fear in life was dying on the road like so many Texan and Southern musos had done before him, I kid you not. Sure enough, about six to eight months later, there it was, a clean and sober Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in helicopter crash, fuck !!!

There is a tragic litany of bluesmen, country crooners and rock and rollers from the southern states who have fallen foul of this almost hoodoo jinx going back to Hank Williams, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, so many bands have been touched by this bizarre curse it is mind bogglingly sad, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, SRV, Ozzy Osbourne and the list of others that I can't recall right now . . . . despite their double dose of death the Allman Brothers are still around today in a pretty legit lineup and still cranking out the style of music they helped invent, I'm guilty of bagging them in all my post punk, anti hippie, shallow diatribe bullshit but the truth is patently clear . . . . I love em, the sound, the vibe, the look and the incredible desire to move forward in the way that their absent buddies would've wanted . . . . Southern Men, we need em around.