Biography
Outside of Gregg Allman, drummer Butch Trucks remains the sole constant in Georgia’s storied Allman Brothers Band, the only other original member still active and featured on every release. Amid a mid-’90s hiatus for the group, Trucks assembled a side project expressly to share stages with his nephew Derek Trucks, who would later join the Allman Brothers as guitarist. He named the ensemble Frogwings and filled out the roster with Aquarium Rescue Unit alumni Oteil Burbridge on bass and vocals, Jimmy Herring on guitar, and Count Mbutu on percussion, alongside Allman Brothers percussionist Marc Quinones, keyboardist John Herbert, and vocalist-guitarist Edwin McCain. The band played club dates through 1997; the following year Mbutu departed while Herbert gave way to another Aquarium Rescue Unit veteran, keyboardist and flutist Kofi Burbridge. Frogwings drew growing crowds at festivals and within the jam-band scene yet had yet to issue a recording. Once McCain stepped away to concentrate on his solo work and Trucks brought in Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, the drummer recognized he now possessed the personnel to document the project on his new Flying Frog Records imprint.
The resulting 2000 live album Croakin’ at Toad’s captured Frogwings at its most stylistically elusive. Lengthy instrumentals such as “Kick n Bach” evoke the Georgia jazz-fusion sound of the Aquarium Rescue Unit, while groove-driven pieces like “Pattern” echo the Allman Brothers’ approach and Popper’s singing and harmonica on “Ganja” recall Blues Traveler. Herring’s fiery lines mesh with the younger Trucks’ facility on both slide and fingerstyle guitar; Popper together with bassist Burbridge, now also an Allman Brothers member, supply extra drive, and keyboardist Kofi Burbridge, Quinones, and Trucks anchor an uncategorizable jam band suited to the new millennium.
The resulting 2000 live album Croakin’ at Toad’s captured Frogwings at its most stylistically elusive. Lengthy instrumentals such as “Kick n Bach” evoke the Georgia jazz-fusion sound of the Aquarium Rescue Unit, while groove-driven pieces like “Pattern” echo the Allman Brothers’ approach and Popper’s singing and harmonica on “Ganja” recall Blues Traveler. Herring’s fiery lines mesh with the younger Trucks’ facility on both slide and fingerstyle guitar; Popper together with bassist Burbridge, now also an Allman Brothers member, supply extra drive, and keyboardist Kofi Burbridge, Quinones, and Trucks anchor an uncategorizable jam band suited to the new millennium.
Albums