美国国家公共电台 NPR The Ramblin' Blues Of Gregg Allman

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Musician Gregg Allman, founding member of The Allman Brothers Band, has died at age 69. He passed away at his home in Savannah, Ga., after battling liver cancer and other health problems. He had a major role in defining the Southern rock of the 1970s. And in this appreciation 1, NPR's Felix Contreras says Gregg Allman was haunted by a loss that fueled some of the most memorable 2 music of that era.

FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE 3: Gregg Allman had one of the most recognizable voices of his generation.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIDNIGHT RIDER")

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: (Singing) I've got to run to keep from hiding. And I'm bound to keep on riding.

CONTRERAS: He and his older brother Duane were born in Nashville and raised in northern Florida. They were children of the South with its mix of country, blues 4, soul and gospel, which they heard on the radio and in the air. Gregg Allman's voice reflected all of those influences, says Alan Light, the co-author of Gregg Allman's autobiography 5 "My Cross To Bear."

ALAN LIGHT: Growing up in the South at that time, there was a, you know, there was a proximity 6 to a lot of different kinds of music. There were different influences that enabled you to draw on a spectrum 7 of different sounds and different emotions that, in other regions of the country, you know, you just wouldn't have been exposed to in the same way.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CONTRERAS: Gregg was just one year younger than Duane, and they formed a close-knit bond after their father was murdered when Gregg was just 2 years old. In his autobiography, Gregg says the brothers were inseparable and formed various bands as teenagers. But when Duane left behind a lucrative 8 gig as a session musician, he called his younger brother to join a band with two lead guitarists and two drummers. Then a collection of friends and former bandmates coalesced 9 into The Allman Brothers Band and a first album in 1969.

LIGHT: You know, he was always so careful, and it was such a priority to him to say that the vision for the music of The Allman Brothers came from his brother, that Duane had an idea for this band. He could see something that nobody - you know, that Gregg couldn't see. And it took sitting down in the room and seeing the caliber 10 of those players and the chemistry between them for him to see what it was that Duane was talking about.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND SONG, "HOT 'LANTA")

CONTRERAS: The band's music has been labeled southern rock given the band's home base in Macon, Ga., but it was much more than that. There were lengthy 11 musical explorations that reflected the discipline and dynamics 12 of classical music, the passion of soul and the improvisational 13 spirit of jazz. And Gregg Allman's contribution was his singing, his songwriting and his chops on the Hammond organ.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND SONG, "HOT 'LANTA")

CONTRERAS: The Allman Brothers Band history offstage was a bit of a rock 'n' roll soap opera. They experienced the deaths of both Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley within a year of each other. There was substance and alcohol abuse among band members. The pressures of constant touring strained relationships - banishments, illnesses, breakups, reunions. And Gregg Allman was self-admittedly no angel. But his biographer Alan Light says a sense of mortality and loss haunted him and fueled his most powerful writing.

LIGHT: In his house, there were framed notes from Duane, you know, hung on the walls. You know, he surrounded himself with reminders 15 of his family and of that loss. And yet, to get up every night and play in The Allman Brothers Band, when you're the Allman brother who's still there and the other Allman Brother isn't, is a perpetual reminder 14 of that loss.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAMS")

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: (Singing) Just one more morning I had to wake up with the blues.

CONTRERAS: While Gregg Allman's death closes a chapter on rock 'n' roll history, perhaps it also means that the Allman brothers are once again making music together. Felix Contreras, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAMS")

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: (Singing) Went up on the mountain to see what I could see. The whole world was falling right down in front of me.