Once again, it’s a decidedly collaborative effort that sees Allman’s core band augmented by big-time players like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Larry McCray, Jimmy Hall and Robert Randolph. Yet this time around, Allman displays an uncanny willingness to share the spotlight. He does more than feature his guests on this session. On roughly half of the album’s ten tracks, he lets them take center stage. And since most of his guests are big-time blues players, we wind up with one of the bluesiest albums of Allman’s career. As the title says: it’s a Blues Summit.
One of the stars of this musical gathering is Jimmy Hall, who some may know as lead singer and harmonica player of southern-rock group Wet Willie or for his collaborations with Jeff Beck. Hall puts his stamp on the record almost immediately, singing and blowing up a storm on its de facto theme song, “Blues Is A Feelin’.” The track is a big, brawny, propulsively rhythmic celebration delivered by eight musicians who share an obvious passion for the blues. Hall handles vocal duties again on the gospel-tinged “Peace To The World” (with Robert Randolph adding his trademark pedal steel guitar) and on a loose and spirited, hand-clapping, foot-stomping version of the Willie Dixon classic “Wang Dang Doodle.”
On “Hands And Knees,” Arkansas-born Larry McCray takes his turn at the mic and on lead guitar, his chiming licks and smooth tone showing an obvious debt to B.B. King. “Getting’ Greasy With It” is another McCray composition served up well by Allman and his cohorts. The funky quasi-instrumental is smothered in horns and has Memphis written all over it – no surprise since it features the celebrated Memphis Horns, guests on three songs in all. Though Blues Summit was recorded at the Sawhorse Studio in St. Louis, it often feels like Memphis, with “Real Love” being a further example; this slow and sultry soul ballad written by Allman showcases New Orleans singer Sierra Green on vocals.
Other song contributions from Allman include “After You,” album opener “Runners In The Night” (with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram adding lead guitar) and the closing number “Midnight Lake Erie,” a moody instrumental companion piece to “Midnight Lake Michigan” from his 2014 release Ragged & Dirty.
Yet more than any other track from Blues Summit, it’s a cover version that demonstrates how Allman is always looking forward rather than back. By now, Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” has been done to death. However, by taking liberties with the song’s familiar structure and adding thick layers of rhythm guitar where we least expect them (here, a nod must go to guitarist and co-producer Jackson Stokes), Allman breathes new life into the tune and makes it surprisingly his own.
Devon Allman knows his place as the torchbearer for the next generation of Allman music. Anyone who has witnessed him live in recent years will recall that his sets often include Allman Brothers classics. Yet once again, with Blues Summit, he proves that he is very much his own man, a team player capable of bringing together diverse talents to create a beautiful, bluesy noise.
