GABBA unites Allman Brothers fans for 33rd year

The Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association (GABBA) Fest is underway for its 33rd year, bringing multitudes of faithful Allman Brothers Band fans to Macon for a weekend of music and camaraderie.

“It’s amazing having folks come from Australia, England, Norway, Sweden, Japan — from all over the world — as well as all over the U.S.,” said Kyler Mosley, GABBA president and co-founder. “The first one was a bunch of us in the old Hilton Hotel ballroom. 

“Fans wanted more and it’s just grown ever since with more bands in more venues and headline concerts at the Piedmont Grand Opera House. The music is great, of course, but what makes the weekend special is fans getting together, renewing friendships and making new friends year after year.”

On the bill this year are the Randall Bramblett Band with the MegaBlaster Horns, the Restless Natives, Macon Music Revue, Anthony Rosano and the Conqueroos, Bonnie Blue, the Garrett Collins Project, Willis Gore & Greg Kearney, and the Jesse Williams Band.

Besides concerts at the Grand, there are afternoon meet-and-greets at Fresh Produce Records, afterparties at Grant’s Lounge and free, outdoor concerts at The Big House Museum, including the annual GABBA members’ jam. There’s also a tree dedication at Rose Hill Cemetery, where several ABB members are buried.

Scheduling and ticket information are at gabbafest.net.

Bramblett, ABB and Capricorn

“We’re real excited about having Randall Bramblett this year,” Mosley said. “He was central to so many things that happened in the early days as a side man and then a solo artist. He’s an amazing writer and he and his band have such energy live. It’s always a great time.”

Multi-instrumentalist Bramblett was part of Gregg Allman’s first solo tour after he came to Capricorn as a session musician and worked extensively with Tommy Talton and Scott Boyer’s band, Cowboy. Sought for his musicianship and ability to arrange music and improvise, he worked on projects with ABB’s Dickey Betts and Jaimoe and others like Wet Willie and the Marshall Tucker Band.

When Chuck Leavell formed Sea Level in 1977, Bramblett was a founding member. When Sea Level ended, a near-endless list of studio, tour and songwriting credits began piling up. A brief list could include Steve Winwood, Traffic, Bonnie Raitt, Widespread Panic, Warren Haynes, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bettye LaVette, Deep Purple, Rick Nelson and more.

His first solo album, “That Other Mile,” came in 1975. After 12 other albums, he released “Paradise Breakdown” in 2024.

From Jesup to Athens with Macon thrown in

Jesup, Georgia, is about 150 miles from Macon as you head toward Jekyll Island. It was there that Bramblett started piano lessons at 4, played alto sax in middle and high school, and began playing in bands. It was there that the rudiments for playing other instruments were established: flute, guitar, mandolin, harmonica and so forth.

After high school, Bramblett headed to North Carolina for college and learned enough guitar to play folk music. Leaving there, he headed to Athens to play music with his good friend, guitarist and sometime co-writer, the late Davis Causey. For the most part, he’s lived in Athens since, aside from the short while he pitched his tent in Macon and New Orleans.

I sought the chance for a phone conversation with Bramblett while he was at home in Athens.

The week before, his band had played backup for his old friend Leavell at the Blind Willie McTell Festival in Thomson, Georgia. As we talked, he had to move around to find a quiet spot since they were grinding tree limbs in his neighborhood.

For all the acclaim Bramblett rightly gets as a musician, and as hard as he can rock out delivering his eclectic “modern roots music” repertoire, I find his craftsmanship as a songwriter and the artfulness of his lyrics and storytelling most striking. He creates memorable, poetic and literate lines that are clever without being self-conscious and heartfelt without being melodramatic. You know, the sort of thing that makes you nod and go, “Oh yeah, I feel ya, bro.”

And he ties it all together in arrangements where everything really does fit and work to serve the song.

Where did that come from?

I came to the conversation with a list of questions, topics and lines from songs, one being simply the phrase, “Hiding in a whisper tree,” from “Dead in the Water,” a swampy, funky tune off the 2015 “Devil Music” album. Right off the bat, I asked if there really was such a thing as a whisper tree?

“That idea came from reading a lot of the Beat Generation writers of the ‘50s, like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs,” he said. “Burroughs used to live near where I lived for a while in New Orleans and the story is, they would put Benzedrine swabs from inhalers into coffee and get crazy on speed. Anyway, his wife was hooked and once thought there were lizards in a tree and they were whispering, I guess talking to her. She tried to knock them out with a broom. A whisper tree became something I thought was a cool idea, some mystical tree with lizards.”

Because of his poetic turns of phrase, I was going to ask Bramblett if he was much of a reader. Obviously, though, if he’d been reading the Beats, that question was pretty well answered. It was further cemented when we were talking about something — I think it was Carl Jung’s autobiography — and he said, “Wait, I’m in my library now, let me find it.” When I mentioned a book even later on, he said, “Text me the name of it when we hang up.” 

That clinched it. And yes, he does journal and keep a notebook to tuck away bits and pieces of ideas, words and images, and yes, he does spend a lot of time on his writing when there’s writing to be done.

“The music part is easier than the lyrics to me,” Bramblett said. “A lot of times I hear things; I’ll hear a phrase or part of a story somebody’s telling. ‘Devil Music’ came from a story I read in Howlin’ Wolf’s biography about how his mother closed the door on him because of the music he played. ‘Throw My Cane Away’ off ‘Paradise Breakdown’ came from something somebody told me Dr. John said.”

The line in that bluesy, funkish, horn-laced song is, “I feel so good I’m going to throw my cane away,” and “I hope some day you get to throw that cane away.”

There are too many more lines and stories surrounding Bramblett’s music; it’s best you see a show or buy some tunes and discover your own.

GABBA Fest, ABB and Gregg 

With GABBA Fest in sight, I asked Bramblett about recollections from younger days. 

“First of all, the Allman Brothers were revolutionaries to me,” he said. “I used to hear them play for free in Piedmont Park and couldn’t believe the energy they had or what they were doing with blues and jazz — it was just revolutionary … two great guitar players, two drummers and Gregg’s voice and songwriting, just amazing. When Gregg asked me to head up the horn section on his first solo tour, that was the first time I’d been on a national tour, including a gig at Carnegie Hall. It was a lot of fun and there I was out in the big rock and roll world playing places I never dreamed I would.

“I loved hearing Gregg sing. When he’d do ‘Oncoming Traffic,’ which he did alone, I’d be off stage just listening to him. Man, he could deliver. What a voice. What a talent. And his organ playing — I’d go over and look at his settings and try to remember them.”

You can hear for yourself how all this plays out Saturday at the Grand — how reading all those books has informed hard-hitting, deeply felt songs — and maybe catch how those nights checking out Gregg Allman’s organ settings can still be heard today.

I imagine he’ll spin a pretty good story or two as well. Bramblett’s website is randallbramblett.com.

Contact Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram: michael_w_pannell.