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Please Be with Me

A Song for My Father, Duane Allman

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
A deeply personal, revealing, and lyrical portrait of Duane Allman, founder of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, written by his daughter
 
“Duane Allman was my big brother, my partner, my best friend. I thought I knew everything there was to know about him, but Galadrielle’s deep and insightful book came as a revelation to me, as it will to everyone who reads it.”—Gregg Allman
 
Galadrielle Allman went to her first concert as an infant in diapers, held in her teenage mother’s arms. Playing was her father—Duane Allman, who would become one of the most influential and sought-after musicians of his time. Just a few short years into his remarkable career, he was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of twenty-four. His daughter was two years old.
 
Galadrielle was raised in the shadow of his loss and his fame. Her mother sought solace in a bohemian life. Friends and family found it too painful to talk about Duane. Galadrielle listened intently to his music, read articles about him, steeped herself in the mythic stories, and yet the spotlight rendered him too simple and too perfect to know. She felt a strange kinship to the fans who longed for him, but she needed to know more. It took her many years to accept that his life and his legacy were hers, and when she did, she began to ask for stories—from family, fellow musicians, friends—and they began to flow.
 
Galadrielle Allman’s memoir is at once a rapturous, riveting, and intimate account of one of the greatest guitar prodigies of all time, the story of the birth of a band that redefined the American musical landscape, and a tender inquiry of a daughter searching for her father in the memories of others.
Praise for Please Be with Me
“Poignant and illuminating . . . brings Duane Allman to life in a way that no other biography will ever be able to do.”BookPage
 
“Galadrielle Allman offers a moving and poetic portrait of her late father.”Rolling Stone
 
“[Allman’s] descriptions and scenes are vivid, even cinematic. . . . The pleasure of reading Please Be With Me lies as much in its lyrical prose as in its insider anecdotes.”Newsweek
 
“An elegantly written, heartfelt account.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
“Evokes a wistful, elegiac atmosphere; fans of the ’70s music scene may find it indispensable.”—San Jose Mercury News
“A compelling and intimate portrait of Duane.”The Hollywood Reporter
 
“Illuminating.”Kirkus Reviews
 
“Frequently touching . . . Readers will come away feeling more connected to the man and his music.”Publishers Weekly
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 3, 2014
      In her first book, Allman chronicles the life of her father Duane, the famous guitarist and founder of the Allman Brothers band. Duane, a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, named his daughter after a character in Lord of the Rings. Allman works to recast her father's story as "more than a tragedy; it is a true romance." He died in a motorcycle accident before she ever had the chance to get to know him. He was only 24-years-old and she was barely a toddler. In writing the narrative of her father's life, she pieces together a portrait from bits of memorabilia, letters, and interviews with musical collaborators. But it's not just about the band, Allman also tells the history of her grandparents and her mother, Donna. We see a young Duane and his brother Greg catch "the fever" for the guitar, follow the two brothers to Los Angeles in search of a record deal, and then track Duane back to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he begins putting together the band that made him famous. In this frequently touching book, Allman "make a feast of the scraps" in presenting the story of her father's short life and readers will come away feeling more connected to the the man and his music.

    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2014
      The author tries to connect with the famous father she never knew in an account that is most illuminating when she's telling her story and that of her mother. When Duane Allman (1946-1971) died in a motorcycle accident, "he was twenty-four years old and I was two," writes the author. "We never had the chance to know each other." In fact, the virtuosic guitarist and founder of the Allman Brothers Band had already separated from the author's mother, whom he had never legally wed, and was with another woman who initially claimed to be his common-law widow. The vast majority of this narrative covers decades when the author wasn't even alive, which doesn't prevent her from re-creating situations and dialogue and even asserting what her father was thinking long before he was her father. She had help, of course--access to her mother and other family, friends and members of the band, as well as interviews with those whose recordings Allman's guitar had graced (Boz Scaggs, Bonnie Bramlett, John Hammond and others). Her uncle Gregg, who has written his own best-selling musical memoir, was also generous in his memories, though, as the author admits, "I was in my thirties before I started reaching out to him." And there are dozens of letters, from her father to her mother and others. "I dreaded pursuing this story as a reporter would, by asking uncomfortable questions and following every lead," writes the daughter whose bond with her father runs deep and whose love is abiding but who had to face some uncomfortable truths about "his arrogance and dark moods....Duane could be so cold and crass," as a man who succumbed to drugs, groupies, and other temptations of the road and frequently risked death before his accident killed him at his musical peak. This is more of a love letter than "Daddy Dearest" but also more about a flawed human being than about a band that has persevered for decades after its founder's death.

      COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 28, 2014
      Allman narrates this poignant portrayal of Duane Allman, her rock-star father who died when she was just two years old. Although she’s not a professional actress, Allman delivers solid narration in this audio edition, and her low and melancholy voice is a fitting match for a story of deep loneliness. After decades of knowing little about her father, Allman reached out to colleagues, family members, and friends to piece together the story of his life, much of it gleaned from letters. Without visual cues to alert listeners to the use of primary sources, these letters can be slightly confusing. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the author’s prose and events related in letters, especially since Allman wisely elects not to attempt voices for each of the book’s characters. A Spiegel & Grau hardcover.

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