Duane Allman

BIOGRAPHY

Known for his slide guitar and improvisational skills, Howard Duane Allman was born November 20, 1946 in Nashville, Tennessee. It was during his teenage years when Duane started to learn how to play guitar. One Christmas, he and his brother, Gregg, both received a gift. He got a Harley 165 motorcycle while his brother got a guitar. Gregg taught Duane how to play. After that, Duane sold his motorcycle parts by parts and bought his own guitar. And that's where it started. He became better than his brother and continued to teach himself by listening to different guitarist at that time. In 1961, the Allman brothers joined and formed groups to finally play publicly. Duane even stopped high school just to focused more on learning and improving his skills. The name of their band then was the Escorts which later became the Allman Joys. And in 1965, they went on the road and morphed into another band and was called The Hour Glass. The group was able to produced two albums but Duane later left unsatisfied.

After hearing Taj Mahal perform Statesboro Blues featuring Jesse Ed Davis on slide guitar, Duane became inspired and picked up the Coricidin medicine bottle which he got when he was sick and inserted it in his ring finger and used it as a slide. And this added slide electric guitar on his repertoire. In 1968, Rick Hall, owner of Fame Studio, was amazed of Duane's guitar playing and hired him to play guitar sessions for Wilson Picket and resulted in a hit album, Hey Jude. Because of his performance on Hey Jude, Duane got his break to be on sessions with all sorts of Atlantic R & B artists. He got an opportunity to play with Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie and jazz flautist Herbie Mann.

But being a full-time session frustrated Duane because of the limitations given to him as a session guitar player. This led him to form the Allman Brothers with Butch Trucks, Berry Oakley, Jaimoe, Dickey Betts and the addition of his brother Gregg who was at Los Angeles at that time. The band was able to have their first self-titled album. In 1970, it was followed by their second album, Idlewild South and quickly hitting the Billboard charts. Eric Clapton had wanted to meet Duane and let him join Clapton's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Despite being offered a permanent position with Clapton, Duane didn't leave the Allman Brothers Band.
The band went on to record At Fillmore East, a live rock and roll album. After a few months of the release of the album, exactly October 29, 1971, Duane died. He was killed in a motorcylce accident. Duane Allman, also known as Skydog, will be considered as one of rock's most innovative and influential guitarists particularly in slide guitar.