THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND BEACON BOX

The Allman Brothers Band is about to kick off their latest March Madness string of NYC shows.  It will be hard to beat last year's run: they were joined, over the multi-night stand, by Eric Clapton, Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and many others.  The box set costs $500.  You got that right.  But it's 49 CDs! Not bad for that price! Although you can get the concerts individually for $27 each.  Find out more here. I have a recording of the March 19 show which featured Clapton.  I've often said that he can be pretty lazy (my opinion). When he joined the Allmans onstage, that was not the case. You should check out some of these shows. 

LYNYRD SKYNYRD TO KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

I was wondering if Lynyrd Skynyrd would finally retire following the death of original pianist Billy Powell earlier this year, but it seems like they're gonna keep on keepin' on. The band announced today that they have a new album coming out on Loud & Proud Records (owned by former CMC and Sanctuary Records guy Tom Lipsky, and distributed by metal label Roadrunner), and it features six tracks that Billy Powell played on. They are also going to tour again with Kid Rock this summer. I'm not the hugest Kid Rock fan - I saw him open for Aerosmith a few years ago, and after a while the songs were kind of same-y - but I love his unpretentiousness. And he does have a bunch of good songs. And he supports lots of cool artists - he recently did a tour that featured special guest appearances each night from Reverend Run from Run-D.M.C., Peter Wolf from The J. Geils Band and Dickey Betts formerly of The Allman Brothers Band.

In other Kid Rock/Skynyrd news, I hear that Kid Rock and Skynyrd's guitarist Gary Rossington are going to be the guests at one of The Allman Brothers Band March Madness shows at the Beacon Theater. The only other time I ever saw Kid perform was at that same venue, he joined Gov't Mule onstage (along with ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newstead) for an awesome version of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf."