Michael Allman – Blues Travels Fast
Vinyl strictly limited to 500 copies
Michael Allman – Blues Travels Fast
Format: CD – LP
Label: Juke Joint 500
Release: 2022
Release date: March 25, 2022
“As a child of a famous parent, you generally have two options: you decide on your own career – or use the tailwind. he case of Michael Allman is a little different, though, because he didn’t know about his famous biological father for a long time. The relationship between Gregg Allman and Michael’s mother, Mary Lynn Sutton, did not last long and Michael’s birthname – Hendrick – came from a man his mother married to provide for herself. But this relationship soon fell apart and Mary married Daniel Green, the man Michael knew as his father.
But even this family constellation did not bring Michael Allman the desired stability – Daniel Green died in a plane crash when Michael was 6 years old. Only now his mother admit to him who his real father was – and it would be another 13 years before his biological father publicly acknowledged that fact and somthing like a relationship could developed between the two. Nevertheless, Gregg was largely absent from Michael’s life later on.
Perhaps it was also due to this fact that Michael Allman found his own musical voice late, which is also not that far removed from his father’s work. Although he had always sung in various formations since his youth, his debut album “Hard Labor Creek” was actually not released until 2009.
After the difficult start, it was not an easy life that Michael can look back on. First he had to witness how his beloved mother defeated several serious cancer diseases, then the cancer struck him too. Two marriages broke up and since music seldom paid off enough, he mostly had to make a living as a carpenter.
And only now, 13 years after his debut, not only the proverbial bad news, but the whole blues is scorching towards an expected goal on his new album and you get an idea of a really hard life that it is based on.
‘Blues Travels Fast’ is a mature southern rock album that draws on the usual influences of the genre – blues, country, gospel – but Michael Allman has managed to create a varied and independent album. Rich guitar work supporting the song, a rock-solid bass/drums foundation, a Hammond B3 for the classic flavor and pitchblack gospel singers provide the southern gospel background.
Crunchy rockers like the title track or Going Back To Daytona alternate with ballads like Rosehill. The latter pays homage to The Allman Brothers Band, who had their picture taken at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, and it was there that Dickey Betts found the inspiration for “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed”.
The Midnight Blues is bluesy, the Brown Liquor Blues surprises with a honky tonk piano and with Don Nix’s Black Cat Moan they skillfully cover a forgotten jewel. Feeling So Bad – a duet with Schascle Yochim – is classic Southern Soul that could have appeared on Stax in the 70s.
There is also a bonus track for the European JukeJoint500 version with A Mule Named Whiskey. Finally, the classic LP-length album ends with the bluesyacoustic Sun Don’t Shine.
Michael Allman pulls out all the stops on Blues Travels Fast without copying either his father or other Southern rock greats.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/michael.allman
A-Side
01. Blues Travels Fast
02. Goin’ Back To Daytona
03. New Minglewood Blues
04. Midnight Blues
05. Brown Liqour Blues
B-Side
01. Rose Hill
02. Black Cat Moan
03. Feeling So Bad
04. Mule Named Whiskey
05. Sun Don’t Shine