JAIMOE: Avery said, 'I ain't never heard nobody play guitar the way Duane does' and he had seen Guitar Slim and many other great ones, so that convinced me to go talk to Duane before going to New York and starving to death.ĪVERY: Jaimoe packed up his drums and he and I scraped together $28 for a bus ticket and put those drums on a bus and off he went. I went back to Georgia and Jai was playing at some roadhouse in the woods with Eddie Kirkwood and I told him that I thought he should get over to Muscle Shoals, that I thought this guy was going to be something. He listened to the whole thing, then spit in a cup-I think he had some snuff-and all he asked was, 'Who's the drummer?' I played him this demo, with Johnny Jenkins singing 'Voodoo in You' and two other songs. I was struck by how different he was he was a free spirit who just didn't give a damn. JACKIE AVERY JR., songwriter: I went to Muscle Shoals during a Wilson Pickett session and Duane was sitting in Studio B playing a dobro, with his legs crossed, one leg way up on the other kneecap, wearing big cowboy boots.

I had played on a songwriting demo of songs written by my friend Jackie Avery, and he got them to Duane to consider, having heard he had signed with Phil and was putting together a band. I decided that if I'm going to starve to death, at least I'm going to do it playing what I love: jazz music. The people who became stars treated their musicians just like they were treated-like dogs. JAIMOE: I had been playing with rhythm and blues artists like Clarence Carter, Percy Sledge, and Arthur Conley and I was done with that whole scene. The first member of his new band was the drummer born in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, as Johnie Lee Johnson, then calling himself Jai Johanny Johanson and soon to be known by a single name: Jaimoe.

Duane now had a record label and a manager wrapped up in one charismatic figure. He also signed Allman to a management contract. P HIL W ALDEN INTENDED Duane's new band to be the centerpiece artists on his new Atlantic-distributed label, Capricorn Records.

One Way Out by Alan Paul