From Rounder comes the final studio album from rock ‘n’ roll legend Gregg Allman. Allman, who died from terminal liver cancer at age 69 on May 27, 2017, bids an aching farewell to his fans on Southern Blood, the culmination of one of the most prolific careers in classic rock history.

Says producer Don Was, “He was telling you the key to his life, because he wanted to tie up the loose ends for the people who had stuck with him for decades and also for himself. He was making sense of the totality of his life.”

Southern Blood was recorded with Allman’s touring band at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., where Allman’s brother Duane first made his name as a session musician with Wilson Pickett, Boz Scaggs and others. The band played live with Greg Allman singing along, and most of the performances on the album were captured ni the first or second takes.

Allman had planned to do vocal overdubs, to add his voice to two more completed musical tracks and to finish some tunes he was working on with guitarist Scott Sharrard and keyboardist Peter Levin. There were also plans to write with Bonnie Raitt, Jason Isbell and others. The plans never materialized due to Allman’s health struggles, so aside from “My Only True Friend,” and one other Allman/Sharrard song, “Southern Blood” leans heavily on covers. An autumnal feel arises from such songs as Bob Dyland’s “Going, Going, Gone” and the Grateful Dead’s “Black Muddy River.”