Guest Book

Hey Libby...add Pa. to those travelin' dates...we'll learn some tunes through the mail then you can come out and do a gig or two with us! Now THAT would be a treat. 🙂 ABB 8/1 is Montage Mt. 20 minutes from the Nutt Hutt...could be a party/jam in the works...fire up that bass, E. Michael. :guitarist:

That policy of phish may be fine if you just wan't a show or two but for those of us who can't get enuff we would have to take out a house loan to get the thousand shows the allmans have played on CD. The digital audio out there today is just is almost on par with soundboard and I prefer them to here some crowd noise with the show. I for one hope they never adopt that policy, restrict taping and force you to pay ten dollares for a show.

rowland and GB- good evening from the mountains of beautiful NC! in reference to your (rowland's) last post about "taping"/trading- first let me state that i totally agree with the basics of what you wrote. second- phish is a band with a similar philosophy as the ABB, as far as "taping"/trading- but the band phish has taken it a step further. a fan can download, as of their last winter tour, ANY show of phish, direct from the band's website in MP3 or Shorten music file format. these downloads are direct soundboard unedited files. the cost of the recent phish greensboro nc show- well any show for that matter, in MP3 format is $9.95 and the money goes to the artists since it is phish the band selling the shows. as a fan of phish i am delighted with this service from the band as we all covet soundboard recordings and i know that my money goes to phish. anyone can check this out at "http://www.livephish.com/". as an even greater fan of the ABB- i wish that this service was offered to ABB fans. imagine paying $9.95 per show, with the money going to the ABB and receiving direct soundboard recordings of all the recent beacon shows!!! phish has "solved" the problem of letting fans have the best sound possible of their concerts and it also keeps the money in the circle of the band. just my two cents of thought! ps- anyone here on the GB that's going to the DTB show at the handlebar in greenville, sc and would like to meet pre-show pm me and we'll get together!!!

jdorman....nice interview with Dickey. Thanks for the heads up and the chance to read it....

I had the opportunity to speak with Dickey Betts last week for a local newspaper article. You can see the full text of the interview at my homepage. The actual article will appear in the Patriot Ledger on April 11 and you will be able to see then at southofboston.com

...out of lurk mode.. :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: THANK YOU ROWLAND THANK YOU LANA :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: THANK YOU ROWLAND THANK YOU LANA :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: ..back to lurk mode...

RE: The Irish Pub in Atlantic City: they rent rooms there for cheap...no AC, no TV, but a 24 hour bar Actually, the bar closes from 7:00 to 7:15 every morning. damn them! But, at least we can catch a 15 min nap! Anyone who needs a room please PM me and i will speak to my friend who is the manager of the hotel portion.

Regarding the online trading issue, frankly technology is moving fast enough to make this a confusing area for everyone in the music business. The ABB's original decision to allow tape trading was when cassettes were the norm. One to one trading of cassettes is not too threatening, since cassette copies degrade as multiple generations are made. Then along came DAT tapes, and suddenly many generations of trades could be made without loss of quality. But most people didn't own DAT recorders and players so that was not too threatening. Enter CD-R, and now the quality of DAT is coupled with widespread availability of burners and dirt cheap media. If you as an artist make your living from music, it is a bit scary to think that now almost anyone can get your music at a very low cost. I know, I know, we all will buy the CD's anyway, hard core fans want every show... believe me, I know all the arguments and support them, but for a minute imagine if what you did to feed your family became something that your employer or customers could get from someone other than you at a very low cost. If you can tell me that is not at all threatening, well, you're hard to scare! Enter downloading of files. Now, the one-to-one element of setting up a trade and mailing things to each other is eliminated, and it becomes even easier for someone to disseminate your music to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people at an even lower cost. And the gray areas get grayer, not clearer -- what if someone sets up a web site with downloads and accepts banner ads? What if they charge for downloading but "not for the music?" Is that OK? And who can police all that downloading? Anyway, that is where the line is currently drawn. The ABB is fine with allowing people to trade one-to-one with no money changing hands. They do not allow putting files on line and having many people download them. As a digital and Internet enthusiast, I certainly empathize with the desire to download music files. But I also empathize with someone who wants to protect their intellectual property. And I respect their right to make the call as to how that intellectual property changes hands. Hope this helps! Rowland

Hey Everybody, I haven’t had an opportunity to get back to the lists to let everyone know of how awesome my Beacon Run was this year. My schedule has been crazy. Deanna and I had basically stayed up all night after the show on Saturday the 22nd because we had to head out to the airport at 6:00am to catch a 9:00am flight. We arrived back in Chicago around noon only to wash clothes, hang out with my daughter for a couple of hours and then head back out to the airport for a flight to Dallas for a a couple of upcoming film projects film projects. By the time I checked into my hotel in Dallas, it was 2:00am and I had to be ready for a production meeting at 8:00am the next day. Everything was cool until I had to fire up my Powerbook computer to begin production only to find that my computer had suffered some sort of damage to many hardware components and it is now on it’s third trip back to Apple, in the same week for repairs. In addition to that, I have worked twelve to fourteen hour days straight through the following weekend and continuing on through the week. I’m totally trashed and my life line to my laptop computer is out of commission. Needless to say, I have had limited connection to the community of the lists and it’s killing me. Unfortunately, I haven’t had an opportunity to grovel with you all for recordings of the Beacon Run. Hopefully, when I return home and I have my computer back up and running, some of you will be so kind to help me gather up the shows. I may have to purchase a whole new computer system, so who knows how long I will be out of the box. At this point, I really don’t need to tell you how great of an experience I had at the Beacon Run because so many of you had shared with all of us how awesome it really was. Deanna and I had such a good time and most of all for me, is the opportunity for me to see friends from past ABB shows and to have the opportunity to meet new friends. And as you all know, the shows were great and the new CD is incredible. I am very grateful to all of you I had meet and spent time with with over this past Beacon Run and I want you to know that I feel a genuine sense of friendship and love with all of you. You all know who you are, and the fear of forgetting someone special to me would be a bummer, so please know that if you were here right now, I would be giving you a big Sweet River hug of gratitude and love. You have all made the experience for Deanna and I, one that we will always hold close to our hearts. I am however, sorry for not having an opportunity to meet those of you that I had made previous plans on meeting while in New York City for the Beacon Run. The road goes on forever, and somewhere down the line, I’m sure we will eventually meet. I will be away from the lists until I return home and my computer situation gets straightened out. I will however, have access to receiving my e-mail so please feel free to correspond and reply. If I have anything outstanding, I will tend to it next week when I’m back home in Chicago. Peace Billy Hollems thesweetriver@earthlink.net

Hi folks, Summer tour fever is starting! We recovered the server disk that died Monday morning and have had the extra server back on line all day... I also set things up so this site has two dedicated machines. Things seem a bit snappier performance-wise. More improvements are in the works. Thanks for your patience and I'm glad y'all are here! It's a great time to be an Allman Brothers Band fan! Rowland