The Allman Brothers Band and Friends - Tune In to Hep C Benefit, Beacon Theatre, New York City, 6-27-2011

When it comes to the Allman Brothers Band, I like all their music up to about the year 2000. That's when Dickey Betts was kicked out of the band. It very well could be the band has good reasons to kick him out, but in my opinion it just wasn't the same without him. However, this concert is an exception. I really like this one, even though it's from 2011, which was close to the end. (The band folded in 2014.) The reason is this had interesting guest stars for a majority of the concert, resulting in the band playing different songs than usual.

When I found this bootleg, it came with a file that contains the text of an article from Rolling Stone Magazine describing the concert in detail. I've left that in the download zip. I recommend you give it a read.

The short version is the band's main singer-songwriter at this point, Gregg Allman, got hepatitis C when he was younger. It gave him health problems, and in 2010, he had to get a liver transplant. So when a non-profit charity called Hep C asked him to perform a benefit concert to help them out, he readily agreed, and he brought some special guests. The guests weren't chosen by accident, since most of them also had hepatitis C. Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead, had to get a liver transplant. So did David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills and Nash. Natalie Cole also had the disease. I'm guessing Graham Nash didn't, but was there to assist Crosby, his longtime musical partner.

The concert started out as a typical Allman Brothers Band performance for its era, though even here the band did some nice covers of classic songs, like "I Want on Guilded Splinters," "Into the Mystic," and "Blind Willie McTell." Even one of their old originals, "Black Hearted Woman," ended with an instrumental jam based on "That's It for the Other One" by the Grateful Dead. 

Then came the guest vocalists, starting with Natalie Cole (who also came back later). The five songs with Crosby and Nash were all songs written by Crosby or Nash (with one song, "Find the Cost of Freedom," written by their longtime bandmate Stephen Stills). Phil Lesh joined them for the last two. Then three Grateful Dead classics followed, with Lesh still anchoring things with his bass playing. There were other guests too, including Bill Evans playing saxophone on a few songs, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top playing some lead guitar on the last song. 

The music here is unreleased. This concert was broadcast on the radio, which is why the sound quality is excellent. For some of the songs, like the Grateful Dead covers, the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I fixed that with the help of the MVSEP program.

This album is two hours and 56 minutes long. 

01 Don't Want You No More [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band)
02 It's Not My Cross to Bear (Allman Brothers Band)
03 I Walk on Guilded Splinters (Allman Brothers Band)
04 One Way Out (Allman Brothers Band)
05 Into the Mystic (Allman Brothers Band)
06 Statesboro Blues (Allman Brothers Band)
07 Blind Willie McTell (Allman Brothers Band)
08 Black Hearted Woman - That's It for the Other One (Allman Brothers Band)
09 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
10 A Change Is Gonna Come (Allman Brothers Band with Natalie Cole)
11 The Weight (Allman Brothers Band with Natalie Cole)
12 In Memory of Elizabeth Reed [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band with Bill Evans)
13 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
14 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
15 Teach Your Children (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
16 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
17 Guinnevere (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
18 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
19 Find the Cost of Freedom (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
20 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash)
21 Cowboy Movie (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Phil Lesh)
22 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Phil Lesh)
23 Almost Cut My Hair (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Phil Lesh)
24 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Phil Lesh)
25 Shakedown Street (Allman Brothers Band with Phil Lesh)
26 Sugaree (Allman Brothers Band with Phil Lesh)
27 Franklin's Tower (Allman Brothers Band with Phil Lesh & Bill Evans)
28 Whipping Post (Allman Brothers Band with Natalie Cole)
29 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Natalie Cole)
30 Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Natalie Cole)
31 talk (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, & Natalie Cole)
32 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Allman Brothers Band with Crosby & Nash, Natalie Cole, & Billy Gibbons)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rmicPn3A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/SPdkV6lPGFp9gxo/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. In the front row, from right to left, that's Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers Band, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Phil Lesh. I darkened the large video screen shown at the top of the image, so the writing on it wouldn't conflict with the writing of the band name I added in that area.