Let me try to address some stuff not emphasized in other reviews:

1) Yeah, it lives up to the hype. Unless you don't like jam songs or blues at all, you should love it. 90% of blues rock bores me silly and I still love this. It's exceptional music and is rightfully placed in Amazon's "Essential" camp.

2) Do you need the Fillmore Concerts over the shorter/cheaper Fillmore East? Maybe. It's chief advantage is it's longer. Also, the mix is more balanced, which bothers some because the guitars are less prominent. I prefer it. The rhythm section, especially Berry Oakley, is too often overlooked in reviews of this album and they are just as important as the guitar players to the music. More casual fans may prefer the shorter/cheaper "Fillmore East" album, which contains the choicest cuts.

3) Two tracks, "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "You Don't Love Me" are pieced together digitally from multiple takes. The result is very pleasing music indeed, but some may be bothered by this digital manipulation of a so called "live" song. It's still "live," in a certain sense, but manipulated to include the producer's best picks from both takes. I should point out MOST (literally) live albums contain some studio manipulation. The original Fillmore East contained whole tracks; not digitally pieced together. I'll let you decide if this bothers you or not. I cannot hear any splicing. They did a good job blending the takes but I would have preferred whole takes.

4) If you don't have any Allman Brother's Band (ABB) albums, start with this or Fillmore East (the shorter/cheaper version). If you don't like this, you won't like ABB at all. But, don't worry . . . you will like it.

There are enough detailed reviews here for you to be informed about the content. I'm just adding that I rank this as one of the best rock, blues-rock discs of all time. It also makes the list as one of the very best live performance recordings of all time. Even if you are hardcore fan of another style you will surely appreciate this for it's expression as art. I've been listening to the Fillmore shows since the original release in '71. I keep coming back for more. This expanded edition is the ESSENTIAL now.

Like many of my age (47), I have returned to some--not all!--of the music of my teenage years. Despite being a jazz fanatic, some rock still attracts and delights the aging sensorium. Somehow most of the old albums disappeared, but the memories did not. I owned and often played the original double-album in high school, and was amazed at the proficiency and creativity of this group: the tight double lead lines, precise double drumming, extended improvisations, and Duane Allman's inimitable slide guitar. About ten years ago, I purchased the cassette of the original album and played it off and on, still appreciative of this original and unique achievement.

This CD version, however, raises it all to a still higher level of excellence. I heard things in this mix I never heard before. It's not hype; it's true. There are new versions of songs on the original and few shorter pieces not on the original at all. The only unimpressive number is "Drunkin Hearted Boy"--a jam with Elvin Bishop (who sounds like a street urchin who accidently wondered on stage) around 6:00 AM. Elvin may be instantiating the lyrics. Duane evinces some good chops (of course), nonetheless, on this classic blues format. But it doesn't add much--especially considering the stellar hights of virtuosity exhibited elsewhere on these recordings.

While many lable this version of the Allman Brothers (when both Duane and Berry Oakley were alive--both would be die in motorcyle accidents within about two years) as blues/rock, the work is better understood as blues/jazz/rock. This judgment rests on the extended improvizations and the more jazz-like time-keeping of the two drummers. I remember Duane Allman being quoted somewhere (how's that for a precise attribution?) as saying he was influenced by Miles Davis and modal jazz. The improvisations make this clear. Perhaps he was the John Coltrane of slide guitar.

Lastly, the blues, at their best, approximate the biblical genre of lamentation (see The Book of Lamentations, many of the Psalms, etc.). The blues would not exist in an unfallen world. Think particularly of "Whipping Post." Cries go up to heaven for release: "Sometimes I feel like I've tied to the whipping post. Good Lord, I feel like I'm dying." Greg Allman's voice is the perfect vehicle for these wailing supplications. (How his voice has changed on the newest release, "Hitting the Note," over thirty years later! But it's still fitting for the genre.)

Doug Groothuis

This double CD set is almost literally a dream come true for me. Some sixteen years ago, I was rifling through some old LPs and came across the original "At the Fillmore East", which I had bought (if I recall correctly) in my last year of high school. I thought it would be great to have this on CD, and mused about an enhanced version including "Mountain Jam", culled from the same concerts and released as a side of the "Eat a Peach" 2LP set. That same night I drove to a convenience store for cigarettes and decided to buy a music magazine as well. Picking up Mojo right there in the store I flicked straight to the page containing a review of The Fillmore Concerts. Spooky. This was in the days before Amazon. I couldn't find a copy in Sydney and had a friend buy it London. Worth the effort? You bet. 'Mountain Jam' is there, plus other tracks previously released only in compilations. There is a version of every song that the Allmans played at the Fillmore in March 1971. The sound is significantly improved, having been lovingly remixed and remastered under the direction of original producer Tom Dowd. Purists may quibble with 'Elizabeth Reed' being assembled from two takes. It doesn't worry me in the least. It's still The Allman Brothers, still live performance, and it's a pleasing result. This dynamite band invented a genre. They've had scores of imitators, good and bad. They inspired some great bands, but none their equal. The Fillmore Concerts is ultimate Allman Brothers.

In the span of any conversation about music one can sometimes say only one word and everyone else knows of who you speak. In jazz lt`s Miles, Coltrane, the Duke. In country it would be Willie, Waylon, or the Hag. The same in rock and roll. Say simply Fillmore and ones thoughts go to the greatest testament of improvisational jamming ever. Fillmore and the Allmans are synonomous with each other. Every live album eventually gets compared to this one. And that`s really not fair, because nothing can. With Duane "Skydog" Allman soaring to unreachable heights, Dickie Betts laying his sweet tone to the mix, Gregg snarling out the blues with a hellhound on his trail, and the rhytyhm section of Barry, Butch, and Jaimoe thundering underneath this is musical ecstacy. This band crossed all boundries. In an age when we were still fighting for civil rights, they were integrated. When poseurs were trying to cop blues licks, Duane was inventing them. And when only old frail black men were believed to be the only ones that could sing the blues, along came Gregg with his world weary voice that could make you cry. This is one statement of their talent and one night of sheer perfection. Listen and understand.