“Idlewild South” is the second album release from The Allman Brothers, and it marked a broadening of the bluesy approach heard on the band’s debut.

As a stand-alone release, it is often forgotten, because it did not meet sales expectations and didn’t become well known until it was paired with the debut and re-released as “Beginnings”. In that form the record sold briskly as a catalog item, a killer pairing of a great band developing a style that would spawn an entire genre.

“Idlewild South” signifies growth and change, containing the band’s recording of two Dickey Betts compositions (“Revival” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”) and the first lead vocal from bassist Berry Oakley (“Hoochie Coochie Man”).  Clocking in at only 34 minutes, the entire album is shorter than “Mountain Jam” (from “Eat a Peach”), and would have benefited from including another track or two. Despite its brevity, “Idlewild South” contains songs that would be forever ingrained in the band’s repertoire, featuring great songwriting from Gregg and the expectedly stunning dual guitar interplay of Betts and Duane Allman.

These days, an expanded 3-CD version of the album is available, with a killer live set from 1970 fleshing out the original release.

Featured tracks include:

Revival

Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’

Midnight Rider

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Hoochie Coochie Man

Please Call Home

Leave My Blues at Home

Bonus -  I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (live)

September 1970 – Billboard Charted #38