An Evening with The Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set

Released in 1995, this outstanding live opus closes the Allman Brothers' New Testament in dramatic fashion. Old-timers might cry blasphemy, but the band's resurgence in the early 1990s came remarkably close to recapturing the glory of their seemingly insurmountable peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With five years in the band under his belt, slide guitarist Warren Haynes had truly come into his own, magically interacting with Dickey Betts and serving up scorching leads that might have made even Duane look twice. The standard blues covers like "You Don't Love Me" and "The Same Thing" receive wonderful treatments, and Haynes's own "Soul Shine" is a worthy addition to the Allman songbook, but the centerpiece is the acoustic "Liz Reed," which matches the band's greatest performances, New Testament or Old. --Marc Greilsamer