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closeDark clouds chased Skydog indoors on Sunday.
Rainy weather forced organizers to move the Skydog 63 music festival, held to celebrate what would have been the 63rd birthday of late rock guitarist Duane Allman, to the Macon City Auditorium from Central City Park, where it had been held since it was founded three years ago.
Despite the rain and the change of venue, several hundred people brought sacks of canned goods — the price of admission — and enjoyed an afternoon of Allman’s music played by local musicians well schooled in the art of Southern rock.
“I think it’s affected the attendance a little bit,” Skydog emcee Kyler Mosely said. “I feel we would have had a thousand, twelve hundred for sure down at the park.”
Mosely explained that “Skydog” was a nickname of Allman, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band who died in 1971 after a motorcycle wreck in Macon.
“The quote was he got that name because he was always up about playing and he always had a positive outlook,” Mosely said.
Sunday’s musical program included a set by bluegrass band Redline Express and an Allman Brothers instrumental by a teenage combo called the Young Brothers. A rotating group of local musicians known informally as Breau Jam and Friends played for several hours, covering songs Allman recorded with Aretha Franklin and Eric Clapton before settling in with a long set of Allman Brothers classics.
Derek Strawhorn of Macon said Sunday’s Skydog event was the fourth one he had been to.
“It would have been a lot better if it had been at the park, because of the atmosphere and the sunshine, but as far as the music, this is great,” he said.
The change of venue denied fans the option of bringing a picnic and a cooler full of drinks to the concert, as well as the option of smoking within sight of the stage. Alcoholic beverages were not available, but the snack bar was open for those who wanted to purchase soft drinks and hot dogs.
Judi Petty of Macon may have been the only one at the event who had actually met Duane Allman. Petty is a Bostonian who befriended the Allman Brothers Band when they played her hometown in the late 1960s.
She had a long-term relationship with Twiggs Lyndon, the band’s manager, and moved to Macon in 1972 to be with him. She later married Allman Brothers Band roadie Joe Dan Petty, who died in 2000.
“He was a nice, very sweet man,” Petty said of Allman. “Very personable. I don’t think he ever met a stranger. When you spoke to him he really listened to you. ... It would have been interesting if he had lived, to see how he would have reacted to the fame, because he was so genuine and kind. I can’t see him being a pushy rock star.”
Petty said Allman played his guitar constantly, often sitting on the edge of a hotel bed and practicing while the rest of the band was partying or relaxing.
“It was like an extension of him,” she said.
By mid afternoon several tables in the back of the auditorium were loaded with canned goods awaiting delivery to the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.
Concertgoer Karen Maybee, who moved to Macon last year from Flint, Mich., said she was impressed with the charitable aspect of Skydog 63. “Having an admission of canned goods, that’s fantastic,” she said. “You don’t see that kind of stuff in Michigan.”
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