A special colored-vinyl version of the archival Allman Brothers Band live album Bear’s Sonic Journals: Allman Brothers Band Fillmore East February 1970 will be released on November 3.
The limited-edition two-LP set, which captures highlights from the famous jam band’s three-show February 1970 engagement at the long-closed New York City venue, is pressed on “orange sunshine” vinyl.
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The remastered collection, which originally was released on CD in 2018, was recorded by the late Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the legendary soundman of the Grateful Dead. The shows, which took place on February 11, 13, and 14, were the second series of gigs time that the Allman Brothers Band played at the Fillmore East, a venue that was booked by famed concert promoter Bill Graham.
The Allman Brothers, who had only been together for about 11 months at the time, were part of a triple bill that also featured the Grateful Dead and Love. Among the songs featured on the album are such Allman Brothers staples as “Statesboro Blues,” “Trouble No More,” and “Whipping Post,” as well as an epic 31-minute version of “Mountain Jam” that spreads across the entire two sides of the second LP.
Perhaps most interesting is the album’s lead track, one of the earliest known live recordings of guitarist Dickey Betts’ classic instrumental “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” which he’d written shortly before the Fillmore East shows. The audio on Bear’s Sonic Journals: Allman Brothers Band Fillmore East was sonically restored from the original tapes in Stanley’s archives.
“I had no prior experience with mixing their music, so I hope you don’t mind the rough edges in my mixes here,” Stanley wrote in the album’s original liner notes. “There was a wonderful feeling at these concerts that made the shows a lot of fun for us all…I had a good time working at these shows, and I hope you will have a good time listening to this historic early Allman Brothers Band.”
A little more than a year after the February 1970 shows, the Allman Brothers Band would return to the venue, where they would record their landmark At Fillmore East album during a March 12-13, 1971, stand.
Bear’s Sonic Journals: Allman Brothers Band Fillmore East February 1970 Track List:
LP Side 1:
“In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”
“Hoochie Coochie Man”
“Statesboro Blues”
LP Side 2:
“Trouble No More”
“Outskirts of Town”
“Whipping Post”
LP Side 3:
“Mountain Jam”
LP Side 4:
“Mountain Jam (continued)”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images