Post by MaisterK on Jul 30, 2014 15:46:33 GMT -5
Jul 29, 2014 18:29:48 GMT -5 @islandman2020 said:
In the summer of 1969 I was taking guitar lessons at Schroeder’s Music in my hometown of Savannah, GA from a guy named Larry Knight. Larry was from Macon about 2½ hours drive from Savannah. One day he asked me If I ever went to any of the clubs around there. I said, “No because I was too young to get in!” I asked him why he had asked? He said that some of his friends from back home in Macon had started a band and were playing some clubs around Savannah, and just wondered if I had ever heard of them or seen them? He said that in about 6 months or less they would have their first album out.About October he comes to the guitar lesson with an album in hand. It was that Allman Brothers album that he had been talking about. He let me take it home to listen to it. I was hooked at first needle drop! I had never heard anything like this. I brought the album back to the next guitar lesson, and raved about it to Larry. He smiled, and told me to just keep it as he had more. He said it was a pre-release album that it would not be in the stores for another month or so, and so to tell my friends they would just have to wait, lol.
Back in ’71 I had just gotten my driver’s license, and didn’t have my own car yet. I had talked about seeing the Allman Brothers so much that my mom did not want to loan me her car the night of the concert for fear that I would drive to Statesboro. She just felt that I did not have enough driving experience to drive that far yet. All my friends were depending on me to take them so I had to do something!!! It was a big deal to all of us! What to do?
Ahhh……the plan. Back then you could climb under your car and unscrew the odometer cable from the transmission, and this would stop the odometer altogether. (This is also how you rolled back the mileage on a car back then. You would attach a drill to it and spin it in reverse to “roll back” the mileage.) I finally convinced my mom to let me take the car by having her come out and write the mileage down on a piece of paper. I told her that she knew that Statesboro was over 100mi round trip, and that she could easily tell when I got back if I had been to Statesboro by looking at the odometer. She went for it thank God! So…..the scheme worked. I lied to my mom, and the rest is history, and I became a hero to my friends (who also lied to their parents, lol)
On January 7, 1971 I saw "all" the Allman Brothers with Duane, and Greg at the Hanner Field House in Statesboro, GA which is about 50 miles Savannah. I remember when they did this 30 minute version of Statesboro Blues that still gives me chills thinking about it to this day. Playing it in Statesboro just brought the whole friggin' house down!
I just wished I still had that pre-release album that Larry gave me. It might have been worth a small fortune. I have lost it somewhere over the years. As a kid I just never knew the importance of keeping up with it. But, I will always remember that night at the Hanner Field House!!! A night I will never forget.
