Celebrate Allman Brothers Band Member Jaimoe’s Birthday Here in New Jersey

Alan Paul is a three-time New York Times bestselling author who has written two definitive books on the Allman Brothers Band. Jai Johanny Johanson, known to Allmans fans as simply Jaimoe, is the last surviving original member of the Allman Brothers Band. Alan's band, Friends of the Brothers, will be joined by Jaimoe on a couple of their upcoming shows - July 24th at the Ridgefield playhouse in Ridgefield Connecticut, and August 9th at the Vogel Theater in Red Bank.

JIM MONAGHAN - Other than the guys who actually played in the Allman Brothers Band my guest probably knows more about the Allman Brothers than just about anybody on the planet , Alan Paul welcome back to WDHA.

ALAN PAUL - Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me.

JM - a not one, not two, but three-time New York Times best-selling author. That's a quite an accomplishment!

AP - Thank you. Yeah, I mean yes. Thank you. I'm very proud of that. Although I you know I try to focus on the work and nuts. It's it's it's like if you make a record and it's a hit or it's not it's you know whether you're happy with it.

But but it is a proud achievement, especially for writing about topics like the almond
Mississippi River on it's not what usually gets on the list, but I'm pretty dialed into my audience and
Into the subject matter I do super super deep dives into it and obviously it's gratifying that it gets
Or has been rewarded well.

JM - You've got a couple of shows coming up and they're honoring Jaimoe the legendary percussionist from the Allman Brothers Band. Tell our listeners about that, Alan.

AP - Yeah, so my band is called Friends of the Brothers and so it's it's basically a tribute to the Allman Brothers, but we don't like to call ourselves a tribute band because we really put ourselves into it and we I think put a lot of ourselves into it and play it like a live repertoire not not trying to recreate the exact solos and stuff and the band is featuring Junior Mac another New Jersey resident like me who played with Jaimoe and Jaimoe's jazz band for about 15 years and was a guest to the Allman Brother I think 12 or 13 times.

And Andy Aledort who played guitar with Dickie Betts for 10 years.

Then of course myself have all 25 years off reporting and hanging out with the band. So that's hence the name Friends of the Brothers.

So Jaimoe, you know, we were talking to him. He saw us at the Peach Fest in 2023 last summer and just loved us. Kept telling me how great we were which is of course extremely gratifying in and of itself.

But we kept asking him biting him to join us and he finally did it last April up in Connecticut, kind of close to his house happened to be the week after Dickie Betts died, which left Jaimoe as the sole surviving member of the original Allman Brothers.

So it was very emotional for all of us because of Dicky's passing but and also because of course, you now, we're playing the Allman Brothers music and we had the last surviving original Allman Brother on stage with us.

So it was really an intense night for for us and luckily Jaimoe had a great time. Musically, it was great. We've had three drummers. We decided to just add him to the mix rather than taking one of the drummers offstage and we weren't sure if he was gonna play all night or just a couple of songs, but he was feeling so good, he played the whole show.

So July 24th, we're celebrating Jaimoe's 80th birthday at the Ridgefield Playhouse. And then August 9th., we'll be back down our New Jersey way at the Vogel Theater at Red Bank in Red Bank at Count Basie.

And both of those shows are gonna be sold out. So if anyone wants to come please please grab a ticket. They're really really special shows.

JM - You know, we just passed the anniversary as I'm sure you know, the release of the Live at Fillmore East album by the Allman Brothers Band which to my mind, Alan, is still, if it's not the greatest live rock album ever, it's certainly in the conversation of the top three to five.

It's an amazing album and you think back at the technology at the time. We're talking March of 71 when they record it. 16 tracks which sounds like a lot especially for that time, except there are two drummers, and two lead guitar players and now you've got to cram all of that into 16 tracks.

And what I think a lot of listeners might not know or remember is at one point, horns came out on stage and the producer is wondering how he's going to handle all this.

AP - Well, and and it says a lot about the Allman Brothers and how much they were flying by the seat of their pants with great skill. Duane invited the horns to play while they were recording a live album without telling (producer) Tom Down who almost had a heart attack because he wasn't prepared for that in the truck and so they ended up not using any of the the horn tracks that did record a couple of nights, but there is an extended version of the kind of the Fillmore concerts where every song from the three nights they played was released and you could hear the horns and it's a cool idea, that doesn't totally work.

Just the fact that they were willing to do that I think shows a lot about how confident they were and how improvisational they were. And of course I agree that's the greatest live rock album ever that you know, people can can quibble of course. It's there's a matter of taste if you like another band more.

But one thing that also really stands out is that the approach to it is much more like a live jazz or blues record. It wasn't edited, um at all really there were no punch ins, you know where they were paired vocals or solos.

There was a little bit of editing. They took the harmonica off of one song, and and did a little bit of editing here and there but but everything that you hear was played live. There was absolutely no fixes.

JM - Again the Jaimoe 80th birthday celebration, two shows coming up July 24th at the Ridgefield playhouse in Ridgefield Connecticut, and August 9th at the Vogel Theater in Red Bank.

For WDHA listeners who want to get tickets or more information. Where can they go?

AP - The easiest way I guess is friendsofthebrothersband.com.

I'm playing again on my birthday in South Orange at the South Orange Performing Arts Center September 7th. That one will not have Jaimoe, although maybe I can needle him into coming for my birthday.

PARKING LOT PARTIES ARE BACK!

And the WDHA Parking Lot Party is quickly becoming one of New Jersey Rockers' favorite summer activities!

Simple, we get great bands to hang out, play a few tunes, and meet the fans, we serve fantastic food as part of a rock and roll tailgate courtesy of Tapt Event Services.

You MUST win your way in. We design it that way for the intimacy of the space and our audience. You can listen to win on the air or enter the contest to get in online. We will call the online winners chosen at random a few days before the performance and every winner (on air and online) is invited with a guest. But you don't need to bring one! feel free to attend alone if you'd like, after all, you are among friends.

I have LOVED every PLP we have ever done! They have all been incredible- And I chose 5 below at random to post below as we look back on some past performances.

P.O.D. brought the vibe, and they had a massive fanbase that entered!
They gave us their classic "Alive".

The incredible new band Plush broke out this Kiss cover when they rocked the lot on Gene Simmons Birthday! It was EPIC!

It was a blast when Asking Alexandria stopped by the lot to play and hang- Their acoustic performance of "Psycho" from their release 'Where Do We Go From Here"- was killer!

Gio and The Guns came to hang with us the week that their tune "Ramon Ayala" went number one on multiple Billboard Rock Charts and two days after they played Lollapalooza! How lucky were we? Such a fun band and raw, loud performance!

I love including new rockers that many discover on and at WDHA.
Des Rocs stopped by in the summer of 2023 and wowed winners with his flawless performance and storytelling.