The Allman Brothers Band's 'Live At The Beacon Theatre' certified gold

NEW YORK (Sanctuary Records press release) - The Allman Brothers Band's new concert DVD "Live From The Beacon Theatre" (Sanctuary Records/Peach Records) has been certified gold. The two-disc set was filmed earlier this year during the venerable band's latest 13-night installment of sold-out string of shows at New York City's Beacon Theatre and captures the group performing classics from their deep catalog alongside new tracks from the critically acclaimed CD "Hittin' The Note", their first collection of new music in nine years. "Live From The Beacon Theatre" features two new tracks in the Allman Brothers' repertoire: live versions of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and Gov't Mule's "Worried Down With The Blues."

The Allman Brothers Band - Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Warren Haynes, Marc Quinones, Oteil Burbridge and Derek Trucks - recorded two of their Beacon shows for the DVD (3/25 & 3/26), as well as hours of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. The Beacon shows have become an annual spring event since the group began their "March Madness" string of shows there in 1989. Since then, the Almans have regularly called the Beacon home and performed over 140 sold-out shows there.

In a review of one of the shows on the DVD, Ben Ratliff of the New York Times said (3/28/03), "The shows are the thing�The septet is as sturdy as ever... He [Haynes] focuses high up on the neck, in a fiddle pitch's range, and works his way toward three-or-four-note patterns�the whole thing gaining volume intensity. It's a hardheaded, macho approach, done extremely well." In a Rolling Stone review (4/17/03) of another Beacon night, Tom Moon said, "The Allmans were busy roaring through, and often reinventing, the backroads boogaloo blues and shitkicking Southern shuffles they made famous�the Allman Brothers Band remains connected to the undiluted essence of its music."

The DVD features 23 Alman Brothers songs (eight from "Hittin' The Note" including a backstage rehearsal of "Old Friend"), over three hours of music, in-depth interviews with all the group members, backstage footage and a photo gallery. The audio is available in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital Stereo and 5.1 DTS Surround and was produced by Haynes and Michael Barbiero (who also produced "Hittin' The Note").