The most influential rock group in America during the early 1970s. The band's mix of blues, country, jazz and even classical influences, and their powerful, extended on-stage jamming altered the standards of concert performance. They gave it all a distinctly Southern voice and, in the process, opened the way for a wave of 1970s Southern rock bands, including the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot.

The group was founded in 1969 by Duane Allman (guitar), Gregg Allman (vocals and organ), Dickey Betts (guitar), Berry Oakley (bass) and Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanson on drums. Duane and Gregg loved soul and R&B, although they listened to their share of rock & roll, especially as it sounded coming out of England in the mid-1960s.

The band didn't record their first album until after they had worked their sound out on the road, playing heavily around Florida and Georgia. The self-titled debut album got good reviews: it was a solid blues-rock album and one of the better showcases for guitar pyrotechnics in a year with more than its share, amid albums by Cream, Blind Faith, the Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin.

Their second album, 1970's Idlewild South, was produced by Tom Dowd, who had previously recorded Cream. This was a magical combination - Dowd was completely attuned to the group's sound and goals, and the album broadened that sound, adding a softer acoustic texture to their music.

By this time, the band's concerts were becoming legendary for the extraordinarily complex yet coherent interplay between the two guitarists and Gregg Allman's keyboards, sometimes in jams of 40 minutes or more.

In March 1971, the band played a series of shows at the Fillmore East that were recorded for posterity and subsequently transformed into their third album, At Fillmore East. This double album, released in July 1971, became an instant classic, rivalling the previous blues-rock touchstone cut at the Fillmore, Cream's Wheels of Fire.

Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident 14 days later. The band had been midway through work on its next album, Eat a Peach, which they completed as a 5-piece, with Dickey Betts playing all of the lead and slide guitar parts. Their second double album in a row became another instant classic.

Rather than try to replace Duane Allman as a guitarist, the band added a second solo instrument in the form of a piano, played by Chuck Leavell.

The group had already begun work on a long-delayed follow-up to Eat a Peach, when Oakley was killed in a motorcycle accident only a few blocks from Allman's accident site. Lamar Williams was recruited on bass, and the new lineup continued the group's concert activities, as well as eventually finishing the band's next album, Brothers and Sisters, which was released in August 1973. The album had a more easygoing and freewheeling sound, less bluesy and more country-ish.

The band began showing cracks in 1974, as Gregg Allman and Betts both began solo careers. Allman married Cher (twice), an event that set him up in a Hollywood-based lifestyle that created a schism with the rest of the band. They might have survived all of this, but for the increasing strain of the members' other personal habits - drugs and alcohol had always been a significant part of the lives of each of the members, except perhaps for Jaimoe, but as the strain and exhaustion of touring continued, coupled with the need to produce new music, these indulgences began to get out of control, and Betts' leadership of the group created a further strain for him.

The band's difficulties were showcased by their next album, the highly uneven Win, Lose or Draw, which lacked the intensity and sharpness of their prior work. The whole band wasn't present for some of the album, and Gregg Allman's involvement with Cher, coupled with his serious drug problems, prevented him from participating with the rest of the group - his vocals were added separately, on the other side of the country.

The band finally came apart in 1976. They were all back together by 1978, however, and over the next four years the group issued a somewhat uneven series of albums. It also restored the two-guitar lineup, courtesy of Dan Toler (from Betts' solo band), who was brought in when Leavell (along with Williams) refused to return to the Allmans.

By that time, however, the Allmans were fighting against time and musical trends and arena rock acts were becoming outdated. Additionally, their business affairs were in a shambles, owing to the bankruptcy of Capricorn Records in late 1979. Their signing to Arista enabled the group to resume recording. What they released, however, was safe, unambitious, routinely commercial pop/rock, closer in spirit to the Doobie Brothers than their own classic work, and a shadow of that work, without any of the invention and daring upon which they'd built their reputations.

The group's fortunes hit a further downturn when Jaimoe was fired, breaking up one of the best rhythm sections in rock. For most of the 1980s, the group was on hiatus, while the individual members sorted out their personal and professional situations. During those years, only Betts seemed to be in a position to do much with his music and most of that wasn't selling.

In 1989, the band was reactivated again. They reunited and also restored the band's original double-lead-guitar configuration, adding Warren Haynes on lead guitar alongside Betts, with Allen Woody playing bass. Leavell was gone, however, having agreed to join the Rolling Stones on tour as their resident keyboard player, and Williams had succumbed to cancer in 1983.

The new lineup reinvigorated the band, which signed with Epic Records and released some steady-selling albums. The group has stayed together since 1989, overcoming continuing health and drug problems. They remain a top concert attraction 25-plus years after their last historically important album. Apart from their Arista releases, the Allman Brothers Band has remained remarkably consistent, altering their music only gradually over 30 years. They sound more country than they did in their early days, and they're a bit more varied in the vocal department, but they have still been soaring at their concerts and on most of their records over the last 10-plus years.