Southern Blood

Southern Blood is the eighth and final studio album by American singer-songwriter Gregg Allman, released on September 8, 2017 by Rounder Records, four months after Allman's death. Following the release of his seventh album, Low Country Blues (2011), Allman continued to tour and released a memoir, My Cross to Bear, in 2012. However, that same year, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. His output and schedule in the intervening years gradually slowed, and Southern Blood, recorded in March 2016, became his final album. He and his backing band recorded the album with producer Don Was at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama over a period of nine days. The set is heavy on covers, including songs originally performed by Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Tim Buckley and Jackson Browne, who guests on the album's final song, "Song for Adam". The songs were picked as they each held meaning for Allman, and told a story. He had initially planned to include more original songs, but was too ill to complete them. The album's only original song, "My Only True Friend", was co-written by guitarist and bandleader Scott Sharrard, and was released as the album's lead single. Upon its release, Southern Blood attracted critical acclaim. Background Southern Blood is Allman's final album, and followed years of health setbacks. Following a liver transplant in 2010, he was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2012 but continued to play music. He had planned to record a sequel of sorts to Low Country Blues, using the backing musicians he recorded with on that album, that did not come to fruition. Southern Blood was initially planned to be Allman's first of all original material, and was tentatively titled All Compositions By Gregg Allman. However, his health problems and touring schedule impeded this, which led to him and manager Michael Lehman picking out songs to cover that held "deep meaning for [him]. When Gregg picked them, he knew where he was in his life's journey. He was already further along with the progression of his disease." The album was recorded over nine days in March 2016 with producer Don Was at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The album was recorded with his then-current backing band; he enjoyed being able to showcase the talents of his band, which he was enormously proud of. FAME held great history for Allman as one of his first groups, Hour Glass, recorded there, as did his brother Duane as a session musician in the late 1960s.