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Allman Neville Pitchell Band Ready To Rock Danbury's Palace November 29

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DANBURY — Two “brothers from other mothers” and one of the hottest Texas Blues guitarists in the nation will converge in a super group configuration November 29 on the stage of Danbury’s Palace Theater.

Michael Allman, Charles Neville and Jeff Pitchell will be coming together performing a night of rock and blues that is sure to include popular favorites from across those two genres and beyond.

Michael Allman, eldest son of Gregg Allman, not only sounds like his father, he looks like him as well. His distinctly original songwriting and playing style mixes rock, roots and the blues.

He told The Newtown Bee during a pre-tour interview that attendees to the November 29 showcase will hear samples of his best original songs as well as a good dose of Allman Brothers numbers.

Charles Neville — the sax, flute and vocal backbone of the New Orleans-based, world famous Neville brothers (a/k/a The First Family of Funk) — will lend his Grammy Award winning talent to the ensemble.

His ethereal performances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival earned him an open annual invitation to the festival where he and his family members are revered.

Charles Neville has performed on The Today Show, Oprah, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, and for David Letterman to name a few.

He cut his teeth as a teenager in the late 1950s and throughout most of the ‘60s touring with R&B and pioneering rock & roll groups like Johnny Ace, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Big Maybelle, James Brown, B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Ray Charles.

Not ignoring his hometown, Neville also played saxophone behind Allen Toussaint, James Booker, Ernie K-Doe and Huey “Piano” Smith, and jammed with classic rock pioneers Santana and The Grateful Dead.

More recently, he told The Bee that he formed a touring band to perform and promote the Native American music of southern Louisiana.

Jeff Pitchell has become well-known to Connecticut audiences over his 26-year career as a blues-rock guitarist and vocalist.

Known on the local club and theater circuit for his Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute band Texas Flood, the masterful axman plans to flavor the Danbury show with styles influenced by guitar giants from B.B. King to Jimi Hendrix to his Texas Blues spirit guide, Vaughn. And his award-winning tune, “Eye for an Eye” was recently recorded by British Blues veteran John Mayall.

Pitchell will be in familiar territory with his two new bandmates, having performed with just about everyone on the circuit, from The Allman Brothers and King, to J. Geils and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead.

When The Bee caught up with Allman, he was driving from his home in the Tampa, Fla. area to the opposite coast of Florida, at one point dodging an errant driver who nearly ended the interview abruptly.

“Hang on, let me grab my heart here,” the artist exclaimed as he veered away from a near collision.

Coincidentally, Allman said he first ran into Charles Neville in Connecticut, when both were playing separate sets around New London’s Sailfest.

“That’s when the fuse was lit,” Allman said. “It was awesome.”

Surprisingly, Michael Allman and Charles Neville never played together previously, although various Allmans and Nevilles have been known to overlap in various musical configurations over the years.

Allman said he was most excited to see what kind of chemistry resulted when he, Pitchell and his band, and Neville dig into their first gig of this northeastern tour, which lands at Norfolk’s Infinity Hall on December 26.

Billed as The Allman Neville Pitchell Band, its frontman said he was looking at the tour as a chance to give audiences something unique, as well as familiar.

With the high cheekbones and handsome, dirty blond long-haired looks of his dad, Michael Allman also adopts a naturally gravelly, blues timbre behind the microphone when inspired.

But Allman also likes to showcase his writing talents, which he will have a chance to do before his Danbury audience — with Pitchell and Neville along for the ride.

“I really write my material in a way that anybody could just sit in,” Allman said, making it the perfect situation for some blistering improvisational soul-flavored rock and blues to ignite.

“We’ll do some Allman Brothers songs, and I’ll be singing with some of their songs,” Allman said. “I consider it a chance for people to see a couple of the artists they like at one time. It makes it more of an interesting evening with an audience drawing from all of our fan bases.”

Allman’s new album, Hard Labor Creek, features his songwriting talents on more than half the mate-rial. And his touring bandmates — Dennis Toerpe, Ronnie Ray and Rafaello “Tazz” Siacca — are now collaborating as Allman’s songwriting finds new energy in front of more intimate theater crowds.

“It represents my style and the best of the styles that I like, what I like to sing, it’s the things I feel,” Allman said. “It’s mine, it’s my record company, I own it and I’m very proud of it.”

Deferring to his bandmates, Allman gave credit where credit was due.

“My guys have really picked up the ball with this material. I’ve finally found the band I’m going to be working with for a long time into the future,” he added.

Neville said he was equally excited to parachute in to this exclusive northeast tour ready to blaze some new musical trails with Allman, although he’s already developed some great chemistry with guitar-slinging Pitchell.

“We’ve been playing shows in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire. He has his band, Texas Flood and when he’s free I play with him,” Neville said. “This tour with Michael was something his manager got the idea for. We were on a festival and we met with him, and his manager thought it would be a good collaboration.”

With Pitchell recovering from a respiratory issue, Neville shrugged off the necessity of rehearsal in favor of giving his colleague more time to recover.

“We’ll get in there and see what magic happens,” Neville said. “What we’ll do is improvise. We’ll have a form and we’ll see what happens.”

Switching gears, Neville mentioned that while being associated with the First Family of New Orleans, he recently decided to form a band to promote Native Americans and their distant familial ties to the Neville clan.

“We put together a group called The Songcatchers. We had members from several of the tribes from the Northeast, some of the Hope People,” Neville said. “We did some opening for The Neville Brother, and some really great music came out of that.

“We were combining traditional Native American songs with elements of jazz, funk and blues. We weren’t changing the Native American spirit or anything — we were just melding all those grooves together,” he added.

Tickets for the Allman, Neville, Pitchell Band are available now at The Palace at 165 Main Street in downtown Danbury. The show starts at 8 pm.

Reserved seating is $30 or $35, and tickets may be purchased online at www.thepalacedanbury.com, by phone at 203 794-9944, or at the box office starting at 7 pm the night of the show.

Free parking for patrons is readily available in the Palace Theatre parking lot located on Keeler Street.

Michael Allman (above, son of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Greg Allman), Charles Neville (below) of the legendary Neville Brothers, along with incendiary Texas blues guitarist Jeff Pitchell (bottom) will be performing in a supergroup configuration November 29 at Danbury's Palace Theater. Allman and Neville both chatted with The Newtown Bee ahead of the show, hoping to see a packed house of rock and blues fans from town at their Saturday night showcase.
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