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The 20 Greatest Allman Brothers Band Songs: Critic’s Picks

Here are the 20 best Allman Brothers Band songs, from "Ramblin Man" to "Jessica."

An early rip-roaring blues, “Black Hearted Woman” was a sign of what the band would eventually prove so skillful at pulling off: complex, emotional yet badass guitar work supplemented by a once-in-a-generation voice, delivered with stunning exactitude. From the band’s final album, Hittin’ The Note, the song is a great example of what Gregg Allman was able to do throughout his extensive career, with gritty vocals about the underside of life that managed to both inspire and lament simultaneously, accompanied by guitar work that was unmatched, this time by Haynes and a young Derek Trucks. Its lyrics are some of the most poetic that Allman ever penned, and heartbreaking to both read and hear: “Now all the things that used to mean so much to me/ Have made me old before my time.” But it may be the song’s final line that, alongside “Midnight Rider” all those years before, ties his whole career together: “There is a long, hard road/ That lies so far behind me…”

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