The Road Goes On Forever
Coming of age during the late-'60s supergroup boom, the Allman Brothers  Band initially found fame by dosing their deceptively authentic taste for  American blues and jazz with some U.K.-bred guitar heroics, then taking to the  road with ferocious abandon. As originally released in 1975, this anthology  charted the high points of the Allman Brothers' initial five albums, highlighted  by the fiery live recordings ofAt Fillmore EastandEat a Peach. Now doubled in  both size and scope, it effectively documents the full arc of the band's career  during the '70s. GuitaristDickey Betts's creative emergence neatly coincided with  the decade's musical mellowing and country-rock affectations. Just asEric Claptonseemed to  become a SaxonizedDon  Williamsas the '70s wore on, the Allmans became something more akin toLittle Feat-lite in the wake of Betts's "Rambling Man" andGregg  Allman's solo successes--and unlikely also-rans toLynyrd Skynyrdin the rebel  rock sweepstakes. This is a compelling overview of a band often shortchanged by  classic rock's inherent myopia.--Jerry McCulley