It's been a couple months since the Allman Brothers graced this blog with their presence, so it was nice to see them dialed up this morning. Idlewild South is a more recent entry in my library, which I picked up as the second half of the Beginnings anthology, which is the first two albums packaged together. It makes sense to combine the two, as together they don't even add up to 70 minutes of music, and this one only barely cracks the half-hour mark. However, lumping the two albums together can be problematic as they are surprisingly different. Idlewild South marks the first appearance of Dickie Betts songs (although the Ramblin' Man isn't doing vocals yet). Also the production is considerably slicker thanks to Duane Allman bringing aboard the omnipresent, omnipotent Tom Dowd as producer. Berry Oakley contributes vocals on the "Hoochie Coochie Man" cover (I think I now have about 20 versions of this), sounding a lot like Johnny Winter. Finally, the whole album is considerably tamer than its predecessor, with fewer blazing guitar solos and more emphasis on harmonies. While this isn't necessarily my preference, this album marked a real breakthrough for the band. But it wouldn't be until At Fillmore East that people would realize that the band was a completely different kind of beast on the stage than in the studio.
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