Friday night was one of the best of my life. Yeah, yeah, my firm was sponsoring... whatever. This was never about business...this was about family. My brothers (who are 10 and 17 years older than me), and cousins Kevin and Greg CAUDILL tuned me in to the Allman Brothers at about 4 years old. While my friends were listening to whatever was on MTV, I was listening to Eat a Peach, and Brothers & Sisters, and Filmore East. I learned both Greg's and Willie's Midnight Rider. They turned a whole generation of Danville kids into peach heads, and friends into brothers and sisters. Like all kids, I dallied with pop for awhile, but I never left the Brothers, and eventually they led me to start the greatest journey of my life aboard a vessel named Soulshine. Little did I know it was destined for my hometown.
Danville, Kentucky... a sleepy town of 14,000 people (less than 8k back then), which that same year, 1978, saw Centre College build a world class performing arts center. I can't say how many ballets and operas, and a few shows I have seen there. The only real "concert" I remember as a kid was Ray Charles, and his orchestra. I couldn't go, so my brother Joey Kirk snuck me in to the loading dock so we could at least hear. By the time I was a student, they were working on Branford Marsallis, Harry Connick Jr. and with a little help from me and my friends, Willie Nelson.
But six months ago I got the call of a lifetime. Friday, the dream came true. Gregg friggin Allman played my little hometown, and I myself even got an ovation I will cherish as long as I live as I made my way to our seats at the "Centre" of it all, and the center of my family. I may have been a spectacle, but you know what, that's me. We brought them in from Raleigh to Denver. 17 brothers, uncles and cousins, and my dearest friends in this world put to bed the long untrue image of beautiful classical music and perfomance art in a sometimes sterile but acoustically perfect venue, and let our Souls shine all over that place. I danced with my oldest friends Bethany and Lisa. I shared long hugs with Clint and Catherine Fortney Moore. I stood in wonderment at the crowd we'd brought together.
By the time Gregg and that kick ass horn section, Marc Quinones and his relentless percussion, some fantastic guitar work from Scott Sharrard, led by an avalanche of keys from Peter Levin, launched into Aint Wastin Time No More, I looked at Jenny Sturgill McClure (Jenny Soulshine) and my brother Joey, and cried as I said, No we ain't man, no we ain't. You bet your ass I cried. Proudly. Happily. The Happiest Kind of Happy, as Sam Nelson said. My smile was smiling, Big Al Allison Asher It happened. It was magical, it was peachy. It was family. Here is the set list.
Centre College, January 8, 2016, Danville (BY GOD) KY.
Don't Keep Me Wondering
Sweet Feeling
Come and Go Blues
These Days
Aint Wastin Time No More
Trouble No More
Stand Back
Melissa
(intros)
I'm No Angel
Black Hearted Woman
Hot 'Lanta
Midnight Rider
Love Like Kerosene
Whipping Post
Encore: Southbound (intoduced as "for my friend Dickie Betts")

[Edited on 1/10/2016 by kypeachcats]