The Allman Brothers have had a long and tumultuous run since their formation in 1971 around a core group including Duane and Gregg Allman. The death of Duane in a motorcycle accident that very year could have broken up the band forever, but instead, it led to a highly creative period that produced epochal southern rock records like Eat A Peach—named after the type of truck that had killed their founding member—and Brothers and Sisters. The addition of pianist Chuck Leavell gives the single “Ramblin’ Man,” off the latter album, a rollicking spirit that perfectly complements the Allmans’s signature duo of lead guitars. “Ramblin’ Man” has since become an anthem for the restless and travel-worn and a signpost for the particular tributary of American Southern music that the group helped to develop.
