For the longest time the recording of this almost 1 hour long Mountain Jam has often been wrongfully labled as having taken place at a High School Prom in Decatur, Georgia, but this was in fact was recorded Saturday November 22 1969 in Atlanta, at the Georgian Terrace Ballroom, after the event was moved from the Duke Tire Company.
This is from Ann Sandlin: ''Some time ago Johnny (Sandlin) was able to make a digital download of what’s known as the 60 minute mountain jam. It’s not quite 60 minutes, but it’s the longest one found so far. It came from a tape personally handed to Johnny by Duane (Allman) after an Atlanta show''. The tape was remastered by the late Wallace "Captain Skipper" Littlewood and this Mountain Jam was endearingly called ''Peach Cobbler Vol. 6''. Rest in peace, Cap. Thank you very much to Mrs. Renee Littlewood for providing this information.
While the Georgian Terrace Ballroom lacks the acoustics of the Fox Theater - right across the street, I am sure it was light years better than those of the Duke Tire Company, which was the place to go if you needed tires for your duke.
11/22/69 [aka 5/23/70 & 5/??/70] @ Georgian Terrace Hotel Ballroom – Atlanta (1 disc - partial)
Remastered by CaptSkipper ~ "Peach Cobbler 6"
Currently, there is only the final tune from the main set (Mountain Jam) and the encore (Don’t Want You No More / It’s Not My Cross To Bear) available. It was originally hoped that the rest of the show would also be transcribed from analogue tape to digital by Johnny Sandlin and then given to Skip to be remastered, however this did not happen before Skip sadly passed away.
This is a contender for the best version of “Mountain Jam” by the original band, played with such dynamic enthusiasm. It would be wonderful to be able to hear the rest of this show, the full track listing of which is given below, although with the passing of time and sadly with Johnny Sandlin having now passed away also this appears more and more unlikely.
- Intro
- Statesboro Blues > Jam
- Trouble No More
- Every Hungry Woman
- Dimples
- In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
- Outskirts of Town
- Whipping Post
- Mountain Jam
- Don’t Want You No More >
- It’s Not My Cross To Bear
(Tracks in gold are all that are currently available)
For those interested in the basic background behind this recording, the following are a few snippets of quotes by Ann Sandlin:
"The tape with the show was discovered in a trunk along with a number of other historically interesting tapes Johnny had long thought were stolen when our garage was cleaned out several years ago. It took a while before we even listened to the tapes and then a while longer before Johnny transferred the Mountain Jam to DAT.
It wasn't long after the music was transferred that a copy of the DAT was given to Kirk West with the caveat he had to promise to not try to do anything with it. Johnny didn't think it would be anything Polygram would be interested in, but he felt honor bound to offer it to them in hope that the band and Berry and Duane's heirs would benefit from any sales. Polygram wasn't interested and the tape sat in our safe for a few more years.
After the record company passed, Johnny was all for releasing it for trading, however the original quality of the tape wasn't very good. When Skip offered his mastering services if we ever needed them, we sent him the Mountain Jam. Skip worked on it for several weeks before he felt it was ready to go and now, it's finally out there for everyone to enjoy.
At the time Skip was working on the CD we were trying to figure out where (and when) it was recorded. The box had Atlanta written on it and after doing some research Skip came up with the date originally listed on the disc - 5/23/70. Since the CD has been released and listened to, Johnny remembered the tape had been recorded at Alex Cooley's Ballroom.
I talked more with Johnny and got some additional information he remembered .... sometimes he has no idea what he knows until I drag it out of him .... but the tape for certain was recorded in Atlanta at an event promoted by Alex Cooley. I don't know who recorded it, but Duane got it to Johnny to keep."
The date on the original “Peach Cobbler 6” release of 5/23/70 was subsequently proven to be wrong. The general consensus at the time however, due to the development level of the Mountain Jam, was that it probably was from the spring of 1970 and so it became referred to as 5/??/70. One thing that was verified was the venue, being the Ballroom at the Georgian Terrace Hotel in Atlanta.
Recently we have finally had the actual date of the gig confirmed. Bill Thames remembered attending the show and said that it had originally been scheduled to be at the Duke Tyre Warehouse, however following a legal injunction to move concerts closer to downtown Atlanta the gig was played at the Georgian Terrace Hotel (across from the Fox Theater). He recalled that it was on a weekend near Thanksgiving and the event was called the “Turkey Trip”. Further delving resulted in finding the poster for the show which listed the event as being on the weekend of Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd November, 1969. Ann Sandlin subsequently spoke with Bill Thames and confirmed that Johnny had been given the tape after the show on the Saturday 11/22/69.
Many thanks to Skip for his unending diligence in remastering this gem, to Ann for making sure this was available for us all to enjoy, to Johnny for keeping this treasure for us and of course to Duane who was absolutely on fire this night and surely must have realised what a wonderful recording it was that he was passing on to his friend.
