DISC ONE:

Lulu – Mr. Bojangles

Lulu – Sweep Around My Back Door

Ronnie Hawkins – One More Night

Ronnie Hawkins – Who Do You Love

Johnny Jenkins – Bad News

Johnny Jenkins – Dimples

Delaney & Bonnie – Soulshake

John Hammond – Cryin’ For My Baby

John Hammond – I’m Leaving You

John Hammond – You’ll Be Mine

Aretha Franklin – When This Battle Is Over

Wilson Picket – Toe Hold

Wilson Pickett – My Own Style Of Loving

Arthur Conley – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Arthur Conley – Speak Her Name

Arthur Conley – That Can’t Be My Baby

King Curtis – Hey Joe

King Curtis – Foot Pattin’

Boz Scaggs – I’m Easy

Boz Scaggs – Now You’re Gone

Boz Scaggs – Finding Her

Boz Scaggs – Look What I Got

DISC TWO:

Duane Allman – No Money Down

Duane Allman – Steal Away

Duane Allman – Living Room Jam (1971)

Ronnie Hawkins – Sick & Tired

Ronnie Hawkins – Drinkin’ Wine

Ronnie Hawkins – Red Rooster

Ronnie Hawkins – Ooby Dooby

Ronnie Hawkins – Patricia

Ronnie Hawkins – Odessa

Herbie Mann – Spirit In The Dark

Delaney & Bonnie + King Curtis – 12 Bar Blues

Duane Allman WABC Interview 1970

The title is self-explanatory – and a Volume IV is forthcoming, too – since  pretty much any Allman Bros. fan knows of the first two, officially-issued Duane anthologies. Those, issued by Polydor in 1972 and 1974, were not so much to cash-in on the slide wizard’s death as they were thoughtful overviews of his studio work. In that regard, while there were some Allmans songs included (not to mention Derek & the Dominos), the most interesting material was culled from Duane’s late ‘60s/early ‘70s session work for other artists, in particular those who recorded at Alabama’s Muscle Shoals studios circa 1969-70. Most of the tunes on the two volumes had been previously released, but to have it all compiled together was revelatory, particularly if you were like me, a kid in love with the Allmans’ free-form psychedelic blues jams but not necessarily schooled in Southern soul.

   So Volume III is a continuation, this time focusing exclusively on the non-Allman Brothers Band stuff, all recorded (I believe) at Muscle Shoals; the tracklisting above is also self-explanatory.  The cuts from Ronnie Hawkins and Boz Scaggs in particular have aged well if you’re a rock fan, while the soul-oriented tracks from Arthur Conley and Johnny Jenkins are just plain killer. (Conley’s version of the Beatles tune is pretty bizarre, however!) Even the odd-gal-out, English pop singer Lulu, pulls off a credible roots move or two. The brace of Allman solo demos that open Disc 2 aren’t bad either, the “Living Room Jam” a loose, good-time blues workout that includes Robert Johnson’s “Come On In My Kitchen.” And the last track on Disc 2 is a 23-minute interview with Duane broadcast over WABC in 1970 (interviewer unknown).

   There is a down side here, however: Organ Grinders, to date a pretty bare-bones operation in terms of artwork and packaging (no booklets, just a one-page color insert plus tray panel with tracklistings), has include no track annotations whatsoever. To a fan and a collector, that’s criminal. Oh sure, a little research, via the online version of the All Music Guide reveals, for example, the source of the two Lulu tracks, 1970’s New Routes, on Atlantic. Then there’s Boz Scaggs (1969’s Boz Scaggs, Atlantic); Johnny Jenkins (1970’s Ton-Ton Macoute, Capricorn); and Ronnie Hawkins (1970’s Ronnie Hawkins and 1971’s The Hawk, both on Cotillion). I wasn’t able to track down the source of all the Duane material; “No Money Down” was issued on 1979’s The Best Of Duane Allman, while the “Living Room Jam” appears to be Duane with Delaney & Bonnie, and the Robert Johnson portion of the track was issued on Anthology Volume II. But honestly, how much trouble would it have been for Organ Grinders to include this info, given that the label obviously had copies (pretty clean vinyl, I might add) of the respective albums when it was putting together this package. Omissions such as this neither endear a consumer to a bootleg label nor do they encourage one to seek out subsequent product.

   A compromised effort, then, one that plays and sounds terrific just the same. -- OSWALD