Sounding like a good career - Gregg Allman on his bands, old records and a lucky friendship -

Gregg Allman was relaxing at his Savannah, Ga., home, discussing various stages of his career when something triggered a memory that was simply too disturbing to ignore. He recalled the discovery of folks paying to smash precious records. "A friend found a whole rack of this," he said of the old 78s. "There was Billie Holiday, Ink Spots, and they were getting ready to throw baseballs at them, three shots for a quarter. I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I'll give you a thousand quarters!" Allman, 59, has earned that cache of change -- and respect for his predecessors --

It's been nearly 40 years since the release of the Allman Brothers Band's self-titled debut album, which introduced a confident young band and its powerful mix of rock, blues and even jazz elements. There was no single source for that sound, though Allman is quick to credit old friend Floyd Miles. Now a percussionist and vocalist with Gregg Allman and Friends, Miles befriended Allman when he was around 12and had started playing music in Daytona Beach, Fla. "It wasn't cool back in the early'60s for a black and white guy hanging out together, but I don't know," Allman said. "He might have seen something in me, some potential. He knew I was . . . interested in [blues music], and he took me over to his part of town." Miles took Allman to a store and steered him to a bin filled with $2 albums. "He said, 'All right, man. This is Jimmy Smith. He's pretty easy just to get the groove with. Now, this is B.B. King. He's a little bit more up.' "And he said, 'This is a killer here. You're going to dig this. This is 'B.B. King, Live At The Regal.' And man, I wore out about 12 copies. "One by one, I'd get into them. Every $2 I'd get, I'd be over there buying me one of them records."

Gregg and his brother Duane Allman began playing in bands together around the mid-1960s, with Duane on guitar and Gregg eventually settling behind the keyboards. On the strength of Duane's session work with artists such as Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin, he was urged to form a band for the newly formed Capricorn Records. In March 1969, Gregg joined his brother in forming the Allman Brothers Band. While neither their debut album nor 1970's "Idlewild South" were big sellers, the Brothers built a following with nearly constant touring. The effort paid off with the band's commercial breakthrough, 1971's "The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East." The record was a perfect showcase for Gregg's nearly peerless blues vocals, the twin-guitar interplay of Duane and Dickie Betts, the dual drumming of Jaimoe and Butch Trucks, and the Brothers' now-legendary improvisational talents.

Allman has enjoyed a separate solo career for years, and he's excited about his current band that includes Floyd Miles along with Steve Potts from Booker T and The MGs and bassist Jerry Jemmott, an old friend and colleague of Duane's from their session work at the famed Muscle Shoals, Ala., studio.

Floyd Miles Rocks the Bandshell - 08.26.06

Recently Floyd Miles brought his personal brand of blues, funk, boogie, and R&B back to Daytona's oceanfront Bandshell. Floyd and his band brought their A-game to the Bandshell, and the souled-out audience knew it.

Floyd Miles showed a packed Bandshell audience Saturday night that it doesn’t matter how many races a horse has run, just so long as that horse has heart. “I’m sixty-three,” Miles told the audience, “and I thank the Lord every day that I can still do what I was put here to do…and that is to play the blues.” Then Miles looked around the stage at his band, and joked to the audience, “That’s what we do…you know? Would you like to hear some blues?” Like the starting gun at the Kentucky Derby, the audience roared back their approval, and with that, Floyd Miles and his band was off to the races. Blues, soul, and boogie, all played with heart, is what the audience came for, and it did not appear as if any of the enthusiastic crowd left disappointed.

Miles and his consummate eight-piece band (including full horn section) charged out of the starting gate with “I Must Be Crazy.” An upbeat shuffle, “Crazy” is an on-the-money, number designed to catch the attention of any crowd, and draw-in stragglers that might still be finding their way to Daytona’s beautiful oceanfront Bandshell, just as the sun was slipping away. Miles was clearly feeling strong, and hitting his stride right out of the gate. “Sick and Tired,” and, "All the Love I Can,” were up next, defining Miles as a bluesman with a story to tell, and a gritty axe to grind. As Miles rounded the first turn, he edged close to the rail, pulling the horn driven, funk-groove, “Sampson and Delilah” out next, and then Miles settled into his stride with the silky smooth, rhythm and blues, Sam Cooke-ish, “Oh Mary,” another song with a personal story to tell.

“This next one is a song that I hope will make you guys think twice about what might happen if the tables get turned,” Miles teased, as the band slid into the comical, upbeat shuffle, “Rabbit’s Got The Gun.” About this time Miles was stretching out, pulling out all the stops, and flying across the backstretch with “Arthritis,” and the classically styled rhythm and blues, horn-driven, “Mountain to Climb.” As Miles neared the back turn, he breezed through “Why I’m Here,” the gritty blues shuffle, “I’ve Been Hurt,” and Otis Redding’s “Dock Of The Bay.” Rounding that last turn, and heading for the finish line, a strong Floyd Miles whipped-up the appreciative audience with “B-Flat Blues,” and “Another Man Will.”

Leaving other singers in the dust is Miles’ stock-and-trade, and as he approached the finish line during Saturday night’s race, in earshot of the Ocean Pier, the “Q”, the Surf Bar, and Main Street, Floyd and company treated the audience to a Daytona Beach music, history lesson with “Goin’ Back To Daytona.” As a salty breeze blew off the Atlantic, you could almost sense Floyd looking back to the 60s, to the bubbling music cauldron that was Daytona Beach, as he sang about his old friends, and haunts in “Goin’ Back To Daytona.” With another race under his belt, and clearly no photo-finish necessary, Floyd Miles crossed the finish line well ahead of the field, once again.

Floyd Miles will be touring with Gregg Allman and Friends this fall. Don’t miss the chance to see these two childhood chums on the same stage.

.. Bill Thames, posted on "Hittin' the Web with Gregg Allman"

Floyd's music is a blend of soul and blues which comes off with the same modesty which he expresses in everyday life, yet it comes off with power.

. . Pete Heimo - Daytona Beach musicians Guild

A Daytona Beach native and resident, once again plying his stock in trade: old-school soul, R&B and blues. And once again Miles gets it right, not only because he sings from the heart, but because he has the amazingly versatile pipes to do so.

. . RICK de YAMPERT - Entertainment Writer, The Scene

Floyd, Thanks for joining me on the air this morning. Great music! :) Nick Orlando - WSIA Staten Island radio

You were just a joy to listen to and speak to. My best to you and your family. God Bless

..... Michael Smith - Editor of Gritz Magazine

"Can't get enough of ya, man! Keep on truckin!"

.....David Mefferd

CD "Back to Daytona" Reviews >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In the beginning, there was the beach. They called it Daytona. It would become the "World's Most Famous Beach" because men raced cars there from the dawn of the automobile. Then came the sound: the music and beat of the beach. The music floated out from little bars and saloons up and down Main Street.

Floyd Miles made that sound. He was a part of its genesis, of that street, of that era - sweet soul music and blues. A touch of mellow keyboard, the sting and bite of a blues guitar lick, the pump of a steady, thudding bass line, the snap of a snare, and a vocal with grit, meaning and substance. No fluff. Real music. Music that grabbed you and shook you.

This was music that made the old beach town rock. Down at the Surf Bar, under the boardwalk, the Universals pumped it out, night after night. Floyd was there, popping his drums and singing in that Brook Benton-Otis Redding-Chuck Jackson voice of his that brought us back again and again. "Us" were other musicians around town, playing the Bikini Room, the Martinique (known as the "Q") , the Wedge, the Beachcomber. Somehow it all got mixed together and became a distinctive sound and rhythm that survives today still in the little clubs that dot the strip facing the Atlantic Ocean in a place called Daytona Beach.

Gregg and Duane Allman studied at the edge of the stage where Floyd performed. Other talented musicians, such as Bob Greenlee, Pete Carr and Jim Shepley, studied and learned from Floyd. "Copped his sound" is the expression. Duane and Carr wound up as session players in Muscle Shoals. Shepley is still a guitar player extraordinaire and songwriter in Connecticut. And Greenlee? He owns a recording studio and record label. He is unique. He Is the only one with the ability to recapture that distinctive sound that characterizes the beat and blues of the beach.

Floyd? He's the thread that traces back to the beginning. With his protege, Gregg Allman, in the song "Goin' Back to Daytona", he has got it right - the beat, the sound, the rawness-then-smoothness which makes beach blues what it is. You have to hear it, you have to feel it. It isn't something you put down on paper. It comes fiom the gut, from the heart.

It was written in real life on the salt air in the beach town, with the passion and rawness of a mean Nor'easter, to the sweat and heat of summer rock, to the bitter coldness of blues and rejection. It is music. It is life. And these guys - Greenlee, Floyd, Gregg, Dickey Betts, Noble Watts, Warren King, Ace Moreland and Byrd Foster, got it right.

Amen!
They got it right! Enjoy and remember. This is a once-in-forever record album

.....Tom Tucker, New Journal

CD "Mountain to Climb" Reviews >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"When a man can lay claim to being the one who taught Gregg Allman to sing the blues, then that man must be one incredible singer himself. Floyd Miles is that man, and yes, he is a soul/blues vocalist of monumental stature. The problem is, it seems that only fans in the home state of Florida and followers of the Gregg Allman Band are aware of him.

Close friends for over forty years, Floyd has been prominently featured in Gregg's solo shows over the last several years, and as he's done on previous recordings, Gregg lends his extraordinary pipes and B-3 prowess to the Mountain to Climb, Floyd's new magnum opus on King Snake Records.

Perfectly timed for release in the middle of the steamy summer, the disc is brimming with down-home blues and contagious soul. The album bursts forth with "Canine Potential", one of two hunter songs in the program. A harmless set of lyrics are underlined by the ferocious playing of the King Snake house band. "Mountain to Climb" follows, and it's surely one of the album's high peaks. An insistent rhythm & blues pulse is maintained by the band while Floyd and Gregg trade verses about life's hurdles. Although co-written by Floyd with Bob Greenlee, the second verse, sung by Gregg, could be from a page torn directly out of an Allman biography.

On "Little Bit of You", Floyd sings with smooth sophistication over a sweeping, brass-supported bed of soul. Allman Brothers Band fans will especially embrace the hard blues of "Not Like I Been Hurt By You". Rendered here as a duet, and underscored with blistering slide maneuvers by Ace Morland, this grinding blues is superbly tailored to fit Gregg's patented growl. "Don't Need No Man", another mid tempo blues duet, is followed by "Swamp Rose", a bayou rocker on which Ace Morland once again steps to the forefront, whipping the slide up and down the frets.

"Going'Fishing" is the other tune written from an outdoorsman's perspective. It's about an obvious passion--albeit one that doesn't require a rod and a reel! This time, the mode of delivery is an assured hybrid of acoustic delta and Piedmont styles."Walked Out Slow" follows a similar path and both fit in comfortably, adding an extra degree of diversity to an already fully satisfying album. The final track, "Spending Christmas with the Blues", is also the final duet between Greg and Floyd, and it's a festive close to a dazzling showcase of talent.

Mountain to Climb should afford Floyd Miles the wide-ranging recognition he so richly deserves. Needless to say, it's a must have for Peach Heads!"

.....Tom Tucker, New Journal

"Like many great bluesmen and soul men, Floyd Miles is a liar. "I ain't got no feeling in my you-know-what," Miles sings on "Arthritis," a song on his new album, "Mountain to Climb." But Miles is fibbing big-time, whether he's speaking of his heart, soul, gut or some other part of his anatomy, because "Mountain to Climb" shows Miles has enough feeling to burst a few heart vessels.

As with his two previous albums, "Mountain to Climb" finds Miles, a Daytona Beach native and resident, once again plying his stock in trade: old-school soul, R&B and blues. And once again Miles gets it right, not only because he sings from the heart, but because he has the amazingly versatile pipes to do so.

The title track finds Miles trading verses with Gregg Allman, one of the "friends" cited in the album's attribution. With Miles' voice dipping into four parts honey and one part vinegar, Allman's voice displaying his trademark bark, and lazy horns providing a casual but assured backdrop, the song conjures that ol' gospel-ish soul feel of Sam Cooke or Brooke Benton.

For "Not Like I Been Hurt By You," another duet by the two buddies, it sounds as if Miles downed a few shots of bleach, the better to blues-up his voice like Gregg. But then you see the liner notes where Allman confesses that Miles "taught me how to sing the blues, and he deeply influenced my phrasing and delivery," and you realize you have to rethink who has affected whom.

"Goin' Fishin' " and "Walked Out Slow" are both stark, utterly convincing delta blues. While Ace Moreland's dobro oozes high lonesome wails, Miles takes on the craggy caterwaul of a delta bluesman, sounding as if he had just munched a mouthful of live crickets (that's a compliment in this case). On "Swamp Rose" Miles pumps up the velvety bass in his voice, the better to praise a spellbinding woman.

Forgive Miles if he tells the occasional lie. The reward for letting him do so is the truth of the heart and of the soul that he brings to "Mountain to Climb."

Wednesday, October 06, 1999 _ Daytona Beach
Bluesman Floyd Miles Gets it Right Again
By RICK de YAMPERT, Entertainment Writer, Daytona Beach News Journal
FLOYD MILES and FRIENDS, "Mountain to Climb" ****

"Floyd Miles is a gifted vocalist who favors a soul/blues sound. His "friends" on this new CD include many familiar names involved with King Snake Records. There's Ace Moreland and Warren King on guitars along with label owner Bob Greenlee on bass and acoustic guitar. And as is usually the case with King Snake releases, there's a full horn section. However, what really makes this disc something special indeed is the inclusion of Floyd's very special friend Gregg Allman. The recording is all original material written by different combinations of Miles, Allman, and Greenlee. The opening track on the disc is called "Canine Potential," and with all the dog references it's clear that Miles is having a good time with this one. However, the mood changes with the inspirational title song which follows. This is the first of several tunes that Miles and Allman duet on. They sound fabulous together. Most of the songs that follow can best be described as horn driven, southern soul music. There are some exceptions such as the acoustic tunes "Goin Fishin'" and "Walked Out Slow." Both of these cuts feature the exquisite dobro of Ace Moreland. And when the horns are absent it's usually the lead guitar of Warren King filling the spaces. The final track on "Mountains To Climb" is also the best track. It is a Greenlee original called "Spending Christmas With The Blues." With the passionate vocals of Miles and Allman, the horns blasting, the guitars cranking, it all comes together on this outstanding song. This may be the best Greenlee song I've ever heard, and I've heard lots of Greenlee songs! He's one of the blues' most prolific writers. Floyd Miles didn't just come up the pike yesterday. He's been a recording artist for many, many years. He's long been associated with Allman and has recently been touring with Gregg's band. Hopefully this new disc will find its way not just to hard core blues fans but to the legends of Allman Brothers fans as well. "Mountains To Climb" is one of this year's best recordings."

....Bill Harriman
FLOYD MILES AND FRIENDS
"MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB" **** 1/2

"Daytona Beach, FL-based bluesman Floyd Miles first emerged as the singer/drummer with the Universals, a gritty soul band which enjoyed huge popularity on the oceanfront circuit during the early 1960s; among Miles' acolytes were the young Duane and Gregg Allman.

An early satellite member of the Allman Brothers Band, Miles later went on to back Clarence Carter but otherwise remained primarily a regional favorite until he finally made his headlining debut with the 1992 Ichiban release Crazy Man; Goin' Back to Daytona followed in 1994, and he also gained national exposure on tour as a member of the Gregg Allman and Friends group. The solo Mountain to Climb appeared in 1999. "

....Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide, Mountain to Climb