Very nice, Marley!!

The last few days I've been thinking a lot about what a survivor Gregg was and how remarkable it is that he was able to keep making music after everything he went through, and just how much of a gift that was to all of us. So I wanted to set down some thoughts about Gregg and what the ABB meant to my family. When I started seeing shows in 1997 I was just 15 and I thought I was doing the coolest thing with my dad. I had no idea what the band was going to mean to my own brother and what lay ahead for us, and how the ABB's endurance and tragedies were going to mirror our own.

http://marleyjay.com/blog/dedicated-to-a-brother//blockquote >

Beautiful story. Well done.

 

Very touched by this, Marley. Wonderful reflections. That image of Tyler and Galadrielle dancing is just magical.

Marley,
First your dad touched me with his fun, warmth, and kind energy when I met him. Then I met both you and Tyler. And the quality of your family shone through. Raised well. Pureness of soul. And in a kind of similar way our paths paralleled. Tyler fought a medical fight, brave soul he was (is). I fought one. Your family lost a boy, Tyler. I lost boys. And somehow the music of the Allman's wove through it all. Our lives and troubles. And their lives and troubles. One big tapestry of the good and the bad and the joy and the living. And in the end, the leaving.

Bless you son.

That's a fantastic story. Thanks for sharing.

and now i'm crying at work.

beautful Marley. Thank you.

Beautiful!!!

Great writing Marley and nice note Bird72, also.

And you too, Bird. These guys were such survivors, all of them. They had been making music out of their suffering for so many years by the time I showed up that I just took it for granted that was what they did, but that's not a thing that just happens. Even when they screwed it all up they kept coming back to this band. It's a hell of a vision Duane and Berry established in those first couple of years that it lasted that long. I mean, partly because they didn't seem to know what else to do. At the end it was pretty obvious Gregg was choosing to perform instead of resting and recovering because it was what he needed to do: he loved making music and had so much pain in him that if he wasn't out making music he'd have been harming himself some other way. He endured a lot.

There's so much else I could've said, too. I've probably said just about all of it on this site at some point. The band helped make me a writer, too. One night in the spring of 2002 I decided I needed to write about everything I'd experienced in March, when my dad and I met Gregg, and that summer, when the B2P happened. It was a Friday night and I put on some music and sat down and started typing. The next thing I knew it must've been 6 a.m. and the sun was coming up. Lana said it was my Fillmore East moment - the time I played all night. Between whenever I started and maybe 8 a.m. I churned out 10,000 words. It could've used plenty of editing I'm sure, but it was close to an out of body experience and something I absolutely didn't know I could do until I did it. I've had lots of times I didn't know what to write or how to write about something, but I've never doubted I could write it once I figured out what I had to say. There have been a lot of steps between now and then and I've needed a lot of encouragement, but I managed to finish two books and I'm trying to get one of them out in the world now. That night helped make it possible.

Make that two at work

Thanks for sharing those very intimate family moments with the band that has obviously supplied the soundtrack to your life.......

Rock on Tyler

Beautiful Marley. I still have the picture of Tyler and Gregg backstage at the Beacon as my wallpaper. Two warriors. Minipeachnutt was a stud and a treasure, just like Gregg. Both will be in my heart forever.

And then there was the gift of all the people we met at the Beacon Hotel and all the other spots we've landed over the years. Johnny Fish Camp and Lana opened their homes to us during the B2P. I crashed with Brofan in Milwaukee when I was writing about the Derek Trucks Band. TopDroog picked me up at O'Hare and took me to a show in Rosemont when I was just out of college and didn't have a car, but the ABB wasn't coming any closer to Chicago. Touring through the South with Jeanne and skydog007, and seeing his first Mountain Jam and then seeing his family, mostly through Facebook, in the years since. LamDog and Eddie P and EasyMichael and a bunch of others at the LamJam.

I mentioned "a friend" who gave Tyler a drum kit. For those who don't know, that was Johnny. JFC opened his home to my family during a summer when they really needed to get away. That's when Tyler took up the drums. Johnny was Tyler's buddy to the end. I've been listening to Gregg's "One More Try" a bunch the last couple of days - one of his very best songs, and the demo is one of his greatest performances - and that's one of those songs that always makes me think of my brother in the most intense way. "Well I'm going/To Carolina/Tomorrow or today." Your friendship and your home meant the world to him. He very much wanted to see it one more time.

Simply beautiful!

Goosebumps....
That was great.
Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing brother Marley. Powerful stuff.

Peace.

Beautiful tribute, Marley. Thanks for sharing.

I love this website