A backstage look at concert celebrating Allman Brothers Band’s 50th anniversary
Kirk West would like to show you photos from a “family reunion” he went to in March.
West is the world-famous, Macon-based rock and roll photographer who was also tour manager for the Allman Brothers Band for two decades beginning in 1989. The “reunion” was a musical one with family, friends and The Brothers – a band formed to celebrate the Allman Brothers Band’s 50th anniversary at a sold-out Madison Square Garden concert.
West filled a few of his old tour manager duties – technically he said he was “tour mystic” – but more importantly he was there as the family photographer for five days of rehearsals, sound checks and the concert.
“It really was a family reunion – old home week – and everybody felt it in a big way,” West said. “Everybody came ready to work and do justice to the songs, the musicians and the band. In the old days that could be a little different, especially with Greg (Allman) and Dickey (Betts) having a tendency to meander around some. But there was no slacking in New York this year.”
Join West for a look at his exclusive photographs today and Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. at Gallery West at 447 3rd St. Health safeguards will be in place meaning masks are required and they won’t allow the gallery to crowd out in order to allow serious social distancing. And if anyone is sick, West asks that they stay home and look at the photos in a couple of months when they’ll be online and for sale at www.gallerywestmacon.com.
West said during anniversary rehearsals there was no specific moment to remember Allman Brothers members who died years ago or in recent years but that their memory saturated every moment.
“It was tangible,” he said. “Though side conversations and at moments during songs you really felt them in the undercurrent of how everybody wanted to pay tribute to the people and music that changed so many of our lives.”
West said it was founding Allman Brothers drummer Jaimoe who helped pull things together. He said where one or two were hesitant to join in, a call from Jaimoe sealed participation.
“You tend to do what Jaimoe asks,” he said.
For the Friday and Saturday photo exhibit and sale, West said there will be 27 new photos from the 50th anniversary with most from rehearsals and sound checks. “That’s when you get the good stuff,” he said.
There will also be his older work featuring blues, rock and country greats from Muddy Waters, BB King and Junior Wells to the Rolling Stones, The Police and Bob Marley to Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris.
“We’re just going to let it be a natural thing,” West said. “There won’t be any food and really we have no idea of the number who may come. If it gets crowded we’ll have to have people wait. We’ve crammed people in before and had food but that won’t be the case this weekend.”
Gallery West has featured West’s work downtown for more than five years and is reopening on a limited basis on weekends following the exhibit. It has been closed since March due to COVID-19 – and that’s a tale in itself. West said the concert was the last big event before New York shut down.
Some 18,000 people filled the Garden and West and two band members contracted coronavirus.
“I did and Oteil and Derek got sick, but with pretty mild cases,” he said.
For West, who turns 70 this year, the last couple of years have been a wild health ride though he said he feels better now than he has in ages. He said he first had pneumonia, then a heart attack then got and licked COVID-19.
On Tuesday, he had cataract surgery.
Again, he is long over it all, is free and clear of the virus, and he jokes about the cataract surgery saying he thanks God for modern camera’s autofocus.
“I really do feel better than in a long, long time and I’m more grateful,” he said. “I’m especially grateful for Kirsten who’s really the brains and one who gets things done. I can sit around with creative ideas but she’s the one that makes things happen. The gallery is hers, I just take pictures and hang some of them up. I couldn’t be luckier or happier about us being married for 29 years now.”
As for the anniversary concert, The Brothers lineup included Jaimoe, guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, bassist Oteil Burbridge, percussionist Marc Quinones, drummer Duane Trucks and Reese Wynans playing Gregg Allman’s Hammond B3 organ parts.
Famed Middle Georgia keyboardist Chuck Leavell who played with the Allman Brothers, the Rolling Stones and many, many others, joined the show playing his classic piano solo from the Allman’s “Jessica” and singing lead for “Blue Sky,” West said.
After years with the band as tour manager and photographing so many famous people, what was West’s highlight?
“I was at the Garden when the band started rolling in,” he said. “Derek came walking by and stopped and told me he’d been pretty nervous all day. ‘But seeing you standing there,’ he told me, ‘seeing you there took care of all that and I knew it was going to go alright. It was going to be OK.’ I can’t tell you what that meant. That was pretty cool, really far out.”
West said his hope is that people seeing his pictures feel a sense of the Allman Brothers family vibe for themselves.
The last version of the Allman Brothers Band retired the group in 2014.
West’s show represents another step in Macon of events beginning to reopen. Many were watching the Macon Art Alliance’s “Fired Works” pottery show and sale which ended Thursday both live and online. Julie Wilkerson of the Alliance said all went very well. She said results and sales for potters and artists were below last year but well above what she was anticipating this year. She said participants behaved well according to current social distancing standards and seemed to feel safe and enjoy being out.
Searching for something else to do? Consider the Museum of Arts and Sciences as it begins reopening. There’s a Gallery Talk and Tour today at 3:30 p.m. featuring quilts and work of Wini McQueen, a planetarium show in the evening and family activities Saturday in the MAS orchard. Check www.masmacon.org.
Also, look for Juneteenth events like today’s Tubman Museum and Macon Coliseum’s drive-in showing of “Dream Girls” at 8 p.m. at the Coliseum at 200 Coliseum Drive. Donations to the Tubman are encouraged.
Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.
Event facts and sites to check:
Allman Brothers 50th Anniversary Photo Exhibit
Gallery West, 447 3rd St.
June 19 - Jun 20
4-9 p.m.
www.facebook.com/gallerywestmacon
www.tubmanmuseum.com/events_items/black-music-month
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 11:49 AM.