Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture with historian Bob Beatty

I am very proud to present   “You got something you wanna say? Walk out on that stage and do it” Fillmore East, Bill Graham, & the Allman Brothers Band , a video essay I’ve long in the works in collaboration with my daughter, Ryan. Thank you to paid members of Long Live the ABB for your support of this project. Upgrade to a paid membership. Here’s a quick note in preface to the video essay: “You g...

Episode overview Jeff Kollath and I go back nearly twenty years—two museum professionals, two Allman Brothers obsessives, two guys who follow liner notes wherever they lead. Jeff reached out wanting to talk. I said let’s record it. Part music history seminar, part genuine friendship, all nerd joy. Our Crossroads Jeff and I met in the museum field but bonded over the music. We share the same method...

Lessons from Mad Dogs & Englishmen on International Women’s Day Commemoration is an important tool in my historian toolbox, particularly my work with museums and historic sites. We memorialize to remember—whether through archives or museum collections, historic sites, historical markers, books, programs, memorials to Duane ( https://www.longlivetheabb.com/p/remembering-duane-allman-part-2 ), you n...

I visited The Church Studio in September 2025 on my way to move my older daughter to Phoenix. That’s when I met Teresa Knox, the dogged historic preservationist and music lover who saved the studio Leon Russell founded in a church building in Tulsa. Tulsa, Oklahoma is a genuine crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture—and nowhere is that more evident than at The Church Studio, the centur...

Episode overview This episode of Conversations from the Crossroads of Southern music, history, & culture features Jason Earle ( Jason Earle ), host of The Marinade with Jason Earle podcast and emerging singer-songwriter—for a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation that explores creativity, Southern identity, community, and what it means to finally claim the artist within yourself. Jason’s podc...

It’s official. I’ve launched Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern Music, History, and Culture , a podcast that is really me talking with the fascinating people that I encounter in my life. Here is the inaugural episode, a live event with my longtime pal, historian Kevin M. Levin of Civil War Memory . Here’s something interesting… The whole genesis of this was the conversations that I have...

Episode overview Join me and historian Kevin Levin for a wide-ranging conversation about public memory, Confederate monuments, the Lost Cause narrative, and why controlling how people remember the past has always been a political act. Along the way, the Allman Brothers Band make an inevitable — and illuminating — appearance. Our crossroads Kevin and I are both non-traditional historians who arrive...

I was reminded of this adage when I opened my royalty statement from the University Press of Florida for Play All Night! Duane Allman & the Journey to Fillmore East. To say it didn’t sell well in 2025 is an understatement. But it really doesn’t matter because I am having so much fun here with Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture. I’ve got some exciting things on...

This past Sunday, I arrived home to Tennessee after a wonderful 7-night, 8-day trip to my home state of Florida to write/record some music, see some friends/family, and gather my thoughts after a pretty hectic 2025. I spent several hours in Lake Wales/Babson Park, Florida—where Dad grew up. I took a lot of photos, which I set to “Detlef Schrempf” by Band of Horses —a song that just felt right to m...

My Florida writing retreat included a Magical History Tour to a couple of places that mean as much to me as any place on earth: Bok Tower and Babson Park, Florida. At Bok Tower (video), I sat under the Spanish moss-draped oaks for more than an hour, writing song lyrics as they came to me, but mostly just reflecting on this beautiful place that towered over the part of Polk County where my family h...

I’m on a weeklong writing/recording trip in my home state of Florida. I left Nashville (aka Narnia ) Sunday. I took the long way around to see a dear friend in Birmingham for dinner and posted up in a very special spot in Macon for the night. I’m here in Davenport, Florida for the next couple of days. Upgrade to a monthly or yearly membership to keep the stories coming. Here’s a where my mind was...

A bonus for paid subscribers. Thanks for showing me the love in a way that encourages me to keep following my muse. This one is a clip from a much longer conversation. (Stay tuned.) I packed a lot of ideas into this 3-minute video along with some video and photo footage of Fillmore East, Bill Graham’s hallowed hall at 105 2nd Avenue in New York City’s East Village. Be well. Much more to come, incl...

I’m guessing most of you who follow me probably feel like I do right now: truly grieved by what’s going on these days and wondering what you can do to see yourself and those you love through. I strongly believe community is an answer. I have always found community in music. The first time I felt it was listening to music (probably the Beatles) with someone else (probably my cousin Brad) who GOT IT...

A couple of weeks ago, I visited my daughter in Phoenix and got a chance to tour the Musical Instrument Museum with my other daughter. The museum had an extensive collection of instruments, audio, and video and audio content from all over the world. THE WORLD. The place is expansive, even overwhelming at times. But their interpretation was top-notch in my book, enhancing the visual of thousands of...

This was BIG FUN y’all, hanging with Rick West primalbeet of the Southern Writers Guild . We talked writing, we talked about the South, and, of course, we talked music. A LOT OF IT. Rick took me down all kinds of Allman Brothers rabbit holes, and I got to do a real plug for Tedeschi Trucks Band as a quintessential Southern band, something few people ever seem to mention about them. I’ll be using t...

A bonus for paid subscribers. Thanks for showing me the love in a way that encourages me to keep following my muse. This one is a clip from a much longer conversation. (Stay tuned.) I packed a lot of ideas into this 3-minute video along with some video and photo footage of Fillmore East, Bill Graham’s hallowed hall at 105 2nd Avenue in New York City’s East Village. Be well. Much more to come, incl...

On September 30, 1970, a puzzling announcement appeared in the Macon Telegraph. Duane Allman will play at funeral jam for Hendrix It didn’t happen. But it did result in a gorgeous acoustic take on Little Walter’s version of “Mean Old World” with Duane and Eric that appeared on Duane Allman: An Anthology “Mean Old World.” The story in the video. Pony up $5 for the full story and a whole lot more co...

My reflections on Bob Weir 1/12/26 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.longlivetheabb.com/subscribe

Trying something new to gauge how Youtube treats my videos. This snippet is from a much longer conversation with historian and fellow music and record nerd Jeff Kollath. I’m hyping Scott Soriano ’s Record Time magazine at the beginning of this clip. That’s where my print piece will show up. Upgrade to support the Conversation from the Crossroads. Bob Weir I get into some Grateful Dead talk right a...

Some thoughts after a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame with my daughter Tyler. The museum had a new exhibit on Muscle Shoals that was outstanding. And there were quite a few Allman Brothers-related artifacts, photos, and stories. I’ll write more on both later. Today, I wanna share one of the coolest, new (to me) on display artifacts I encountered yesterday. Vassar’s fiddle Vassar Clements w...

“This year, I will be more thoughtful of my fellow man, exert more effort in each of my endeavors, professionally as well as personally. Take love wherever I find it and offer it to everyone who will take it. In this coming year, I will seek knowledge from those wiser than me and try to teach those who wish to learn from me. I love being alive, and I will be the best man I possibly can.” Duane All...

I call this newsletter Conversation from the Crossroads. Crossroads is an intentional turn of phrase, a nod to Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues.” Using the “Crossroads of Southern music, history, and culture” motif, gives me a lot of room to interpret the band’s influence and impact. This is my take on one particular crossroads: that the Southern counterculture and the Southern Gothic tradition....

Don’t forget to leave a little something for Jimi Claus. Lagniappes Here’s some holiday goodies: Hour-long Christmas mix of classic 70s r&b and soul. I don’t know where I got this amazing mix, but it has been a go-to for me for many years now. Derek Trucks podcast interview on his and Susan’s relationship to the Mad Dogs & Englishmen movie and album. This is a fantastic piece with a very empatheti...

Thirty+ years of fandom, thousands and thousands of hours of listening, hundreds of ABB & related shows, hours talking with friends, hundreds of thousands of words written: 85,000 in Play All Night , 144,000 in my Ph. D. dissertation, and tens of thousands more here on Substack and across the interwebs… And never. Not one time. Have I listened to Reach for the Sky or Brothers of the Road in their...

Had he lived, Duane Allman would’ve turned 79 on November 20, 2025. His was a truly remarkable, meteoric career. Here is the message I’ve sent out the last few years on Duane’s birthday. Duane Allman “Music is like a newspaper for people that can’t read. Rock & roll will tell you right where everything’s at. It’s just something to move your feet, man, and move your heart and make you feel good ins...