Duane Allman's greatness was apparent on his recordings with
the Allman Brothers, yet there was another side to the superb guitarist. For many years, he was a highly respected session musician, playing on cuts by
Wilson Pickett,
Aretha Franklin,
King Curtis,
Boz Scaggs,
Delaney & Bonnie, and
Clarence Carter, among others. By including those session cuts, as well as a sampling of his brief sojourn in
Eric Clapton's
Derek and the Dominoes and a few rare solo tracks, along with a number of representative
Allman Brothers songs, the double-album
Anthology winds up drawing a complete portrait of
Allman. He may have recorded plenty of other material worth hearing, but this has the bare essentials for an excellent introduction and retrospective.~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine