I checked an item off my bucket list recently when I went down to Macon, Georgia to visit the Allman Brothers legendary home known as “The Big House.” Located a little over an hour past Atlanta, the stately home, located at 2321 Vineville Ave., was home base for the band from 1970 to 1973. Several of the songs that they are most remembered for were written within the walls of the Big House and you can feel the band’s strong presence there to this day.
I arrived with my wife Rhonda three days after Halloween and five days after the 45th anniversary of the tragic death of guitarist Duane Allman. To understand the Allman brothers, you must first understand Duane. Known as “Skydog” to friends, peers and a legion of undying fans, Duane was the guitarist’s guitarist long before the Allman Brothers Band was formed. As a coveted session musician, Duane Allman performed with established stars like King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie and Herbie Mann. Duane Allman’s skill as a guitarist was accentuated by his personal intensity, drive and uncanny ability to draw the best out of all others he performed with.
True music aficionados recognize Skydog’s contribution to the 1970 album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominos. When Eric Clapton needed help, he called Duane Allman. In an interview, Duane told listeners how to tell who played what: Eric played the Fender parts and Duane played the Gibson parts. Duane explained that the Fender had a sparklier sound, while the Gibson produced more of a “full-tilt screech.” Clapton wrote later in his autobiography that he and Allman were inseparable during the Layla sessions, calling Allman the “musical brother I’d never had but wished I did.”
However, the limits of full-time session playing could never stifle a natural talent like Duane Allman. It was during these session jams when Allman first met R&B and jazz drummer Jaimoe Johanson (a.k.a. Jai Johanny Johanson). Allman and Jaimoe formed an ad-hoc trio with Chicago-born bassist Berry Oakley. But Oakley was committed to another rock band, the Second Coming, with guitarist Dickey Betts, and the experiment lasted only a short time. Duane Allman and Johanson soon moved in with drummer Butch Trucks in Jacksonville, Florida. Together, the two drummers developed a rhythmic drive that, combined with Duane and Dickey’s guitar skills and Gregg’s keyboard mastery and pure vocals, would come to define this band of brothers.
By 1969, The Allman Brothers Band line-up was formed: Duane Allman (guitar), Gregg Allman (vocals and organ), Dickey Betts (guitar), Berry Oakley (bass), and drummer Jai Johanny Johanson. Although born in Nashville, Tennessee, Gregg and Duane are more closely associated with Daytona Beach. The family had moved there after the murder of their Korean War vet father by a hitchhiker while home on leave the day after Christmas of 1949. The loss of their father would come to define Duane and Gregg during those early years.
The band landed in Macon, Georgia, home of their buddy Phil Walden, manager of the late Otis Redding and several other R&B acts, and his Capricorn Records label who was looking to expand into rock acts. The Allman Brothers Band would go on to become one of the most influential rock groups of the 1970s.
Now that you know (or your memory has been refreshed) about the Allman Brothers band, you need to know why visiting the Big House in Macon should be on your own personal bucket list. On my visit, it was my good fortune to meet a quartet of people connected to the Big House who all went out of their way to make us feel at home. Any one of these folks could speak on the history of the house and it’s former occupants in terms that were precise, clear and informative. My first contact was Richard Brent, Director of Collections and Merchandise at the Big House.
Brent is a giant of a man who looks every bit the part of what a rock ‘n roll curator should be. Richard sports a salt and pepper beard that flows mid-sternum between a pair of shoulders that would put a Georgia Bulldog linebacker to shame. He has the look of a master rock ‘n roll road manager who could single-handedly set up a stage, park an 18-wheeler, calibrate a Harley, tune every instrument, test every mic, and tame every roadie without missing a beat. He speaks with an easy Virginia accent that yokes the Big House like RC Cola and Moon Pies.
Richard Brent welcomed us to the museum and told us to “have a look around and holler if you need me.” I came to the Big House armed with a brace of questions, but after touring the exhibits, nearly every query I had formulated had been answered. I’ve been in a lot of house museums over the years and while many are meticulous and comprehensive in their presentation, I have never been in a house museum that tells a story and connects the visitor to the subject matter better than the Big House museum does.
Some museums draw the visitor in by entirely replicating each room scene as if the subject had just stepped out and would be returning momentarily. That works great but often leaves little to the imagination and in the case of the Big House, it would not tell the whole story. So much of the Allman Brothers legacy includes the outside coming in and the Big House tells that part of the story immediately. After all, in 1970 alone, the ABB performed over 300 dates on the road so the Big House Museum devotes considerable time and space to telling that part of the story. We were welcomed into this room by a beautiful young lady (who bears a shocking resemblance to Cher) named Beth Cain. That uncanny likeness is made all the more ironic when you consider that Gregg Allman was married to Cher from 1975 to 1979. Her nametag reads: “Not Cher.”
The visitor first enters the parlor where the band rehearsed and jammed and where more than a few album instrumentals first took flight. Beth told us that this room was where guitarist Dicky Betts, who never lived in the Big House, slept on a foldout couch after rehearsing all night with his bandmates. The main wall is adorned with original framed posters from Allman Brothers concerts all over the country, including a special benefit concert for the Jimmy Carter for President campaign in 1976. The ABB was the very first rock band to play a benefit for a Presidential candidate. The Carter connection is made all the more plausible when you consider that Plains is located about an hour southwest of Macon.
The original corner stage area now houses memorabilia from the ABB’s famed “Fillmore East” album including stage worn/used memorabilia in showcases, contracts signed by Bill Graham and the boys along with souvenir promo photos from their earliest days. It is infinitely interesting to see the clean cut bandmates during stints in bands with names like the Allman Joys, the Escorts and the Roemans. In this room, visitors can gaze upon Duane Allman’s 1957 Gold Top Les Paul guitar that he played for the first 18 months with the ABB and on the band’s first two albums. Skydog played this axe on the original versions of “Whipping Post,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” “Midnight Rider,” and Derek and the Dominoes guitar masterpiece “Layla.” The Gold Top is displayed along with artifacts directly related to it, including a shirt given to Duane by Clapton during the Layla sessions and two amps Duane used with that guitar.
Richard Brent explained that the Gold Top went missing for years after Duane’s death in 1971. “Duane traded it for a 1959 Cherry Sunburst Les Paul guitar while the band was performing in Daytona Beach. The Cherryburst was considered to be the Holy Grail of electric guitars,” Brent said. “Duane kicked in some extra cash but insisted that he change out the pick-ups from his Gold Top to the Cherryburst first. He played both guitars on ‘Layla’ but you can’t tell the difference because the pickups were the same.”
According to Brent, the ‘57 Gold Top changed hands five times over the next seven years before ending up at a Coastal Music Store in Florida where it was purchased by Gainesville guitarist Scott LaMar for $475. LaMar had the instrument restored. “Except the frets, “ said Brent, “Frets are like fingerprints on a guitar. No two are exactly the same.” Thanks in large part to Brent’s personal influence, LaMar has graciously placed the guitar on extended loan to the Big House museum where it rests today. Easily overlooked in the case near the ‘57 Gold Top are a pair of brightly colored custom made leather shoes that immediately grab the visitor’s attention. Beth Cain called out from behind her ticket kiosk, “Those were Duane’s. We rescued them from the trash. They kept getting pitched out and picked up. Nobody really knew anything about them until we found a picture of Duane wearing them.”
Other stops on the first floor include the old dining room dominated by an ornate pool table once owned by Gregg Allman and Cher. The pool table has a huge collection of small items from the ABB including ticket stubs, paychecks, handwritten notes, backstage passes and assorted baubles by the score. Each item tells a story and one can easily spend half an hour trying to see everything on that glass covered felt billiards top before forcibly pulling away to see the rest of the house.
Next comes the living room dominated by a large fireplace and window seat bathed in natural light and offering a view of everyday Vineville Avenue. Richard Brent directed us to case containing stage amps once owned and used by Duane and bassist Berry Oakley resting side-by-side before informing us that it was in that window seat where Dickey Betts wrote “Blue Sky,” an Allman Brothers standard. The handwritten lyrics to “Please Call Home” are also hanging on the wall. Brent informed us that “Gregg wrote that song about this house in this room too.”
The last downstairs room we visited is the kitchen. The room’s most prominent feature is a bright blue upright piano occupying one wall. “This was one of the busiest rooms in the house.” Brent continued, “Dickey Betts wrote the lyrics to “Ramblin’ Man” (which references Vineville Avenue as Highway 41) in this room. We also have one of the original tables from the H&H soul food restaurant in here.” The H & H was run by the band’s second mama: “Mama Louise” who once described the Allman Brothers as “the skinniest white boys I’d ever seen.” A large picture of the band eating off that very table in the original H&H hangs on the wall above the table. One can’t help but notice that Berry and Duane are sharing the same plate of food. A prophetic image to be sure.
Next week-Part 2 of the Allman Brothers Big House.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night: Stories from the Weekly View.” and “Irvington Haunts: The Tour Guide.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
