Correcting a few errors in Christmas jam review ....

I am writing regarding several errors in the story on Warren Haynes’ 25th Christmas Jam. I am only going to be commenting on the two paragraphs that pertain to Gregg Allman’s participation in the event, as those two small paragraphs are laden with errors. 

“Allman is the heart and soul of the still existent but dormant Allman Brothers Band. Although he is best known for his work on the B-3 Hammond organ, Allman played an acoustic guitar, accompanied by Haynes. The two had toured with the Allman Brothers in the late 1980s.

“Allman’s half-hour set included Jackson Browne’s “These Days,” Muddy Waters’ “Can’t Be Satisfied,” and Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done;” as well as Allman classics like “Midnight Rider” and “Melissa.” The latter was written by Allman in memory of his brother, guitarist extraordinaire Duane, who died in a motorcycle crash in 1970.”

Fact #1: The Allman Brothers Band is NOT dormant. They have played many dates in the recent past years, including their annual residency in March at the Beacon Theater in NYC, with at least 10 shows there this coming March. From the Beacon Theater’s own website: “The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and live music stalwarts have performed at the 2,800-seat Beacon over 220 times since they began the tradition in 1989.” They play many other dates aside from the Beacon run each year. Many of the band members have their own bands and tour with them as well. 

Fact #2: Warren Haynes did not just tour with the Allman Brothers Band, he was a bonafide member of the band from 1989, then quit in 1997 to concentrate on his own band, Government Mule, but rejoined the Allman Brothers Band in 2000. He just recently announced that he is leaving the band at the end of 2014 (along with another prominent band member since 2001, Derek Trucks, nephew of Butch Trucks, one of the original 6 ABB).

Fact #3:  Duane Allman passed away on Oct. 29, 1971.

Fact #4: “Melissa” was written in 1967, some four years before Duane passed away. Duane and Gregg recorded the song in one of the bands they were in together before the Allman Brothers Band. If the writer was referring to “Midnight Rider” — well, that was written in 1970, again before Duane passed away. 

So as not to dwell only on the errors, the writer did get some facts correct: Gregg does play the Hammond B3 organ and guitar, and Duane Allman was, indeed, a guitarist extraordinaire. 

 EDITOR’S NOTE: Corrections of the Christmas Jam review appears on Page A2. A story on the impending departures of Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks from the Allman Brothers Band, along with their separate statements, appears on Page B1.

Error in allowing America’s drift into police state? Unforgiveable

The books “Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security — An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State” (by Matthew Brzezinski) and “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State” provide irrefutable proof that America is in the final stage of transformation from a constitutional republic and free and open democratic society with representative government, into a Big Brother police state — and you people fiddle while Rome burns!

 And the books “Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill” and “Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry” offer uncontestable proof that America’s psychiatrists are mad doctors, practicing mad medicine conjured up by equally mad scientists, practicing mad science, who are in the pocket of money-mad drug companies.

 And what do you people do with this information?

 The same thing you did with the indisputable evidence that America is an emergent Big Brother police state: nothing!

 Some day you’ll answer for your inaction when you face eternity because as Dante (a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages) points out in his “Divine Comedy:”

 "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in time of great national or moral crisis, practice neutrality.”

 For sitting back and allowing your country, America, to become a Big Brother police state is an unforgiveable sin ... as is doing nothing while mad doctors practice mad medicine and prescribe mad medicines to naive psychiatric patients who are innocent and trusting because they have been brainwashed by drug company myths and drug commercials on television.