Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1233225
4 4 MACONMAGAZINE.COM | D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 version of 'Whipping Post.' That's them at their best – actually, that's maybe the best live album ever. People who know music say that, not just casual fans." That album, "Live at Fillmore East," was released by Capricorn in 1971, and cemented the Allman Brothers' reputation as a must-see live act. Rolling Stone named them "the best damn rock and roll band this country has produced in the past five years" and went on to call the band "one of the nicest things that ever happened to any of us." In a tragic one-two punch, Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash in October 1971, and bassist Berry Oakley, devastated with grief, died in an eerily similar way one year later. Despite this turmoil, the band stayed together, wounded but bonded by tragedy. For a few years, they were the highest- paid rock act in America, and Capricorn became the South's most successful independent record label. By the mid- '70s, Capricorn's Macon empire included the recording studio, record label, management company, booking agency, travel agency and even a private jet. And in 1976, Phil Walden proved that no one should doubt a Southern man's ability to get things done. Phil Walden helped keep Jimmy Carter's floundering presidential campaign afloat with benefit concerts from Capricorn acts, a co-sign that helped land Carter the presidency. The beloved peanut farmer turned Georgia governor would often come onstage before a show, introduce himself, then announce, "These are my friends, the Allman Brothers!" Capricorn was also the label home for the Marshall Tucker Band, the Charlie Daniels Band, Delbert McClinton, Wet Willie and Elvin Bishop, among others. Sadly, financial difficulties took Capricorn out in 1979, but Phil Walden resuscitated the label in Nashville in 1990, releasing the first album from Athens jam-band heavyweights Widespread Panic and launching the careers of alternative-rock acts 311 and Cake. Phil Walden passed away in 2006 after a lengthy bout with cancer, but his work in spreading the gospel of the Southern music he believed in is indelible. A NEW SOUTHERN IDENTITY That early 1970s Capricorn alchemy permanently inked Macon's name on the list of iconic American rock 'n' roll cities. Southern rock's fusion of country, blues, bluegrass and R&B, spiced with a little West Coast psychedelia and filtered through the complex social history of that particular cultural moment, resulted in a new kind of Southern identity, one that not only accepted but appreciated the way that integration of cultures strengthened our bond as humans and made our culture undeniably rich. Capricorn's musicians – and Phil Walden's youthful work with R&B acts – proved that music was one of the great integrating forces. "Just like we like to know where our food comes from, it's important to know where our music comes from," says Jessica Walden, daughter of Capricorn co-founder Alan Walden, who, along with her husband, Jamie Weatherford, owns music history tour company Rock Candy Tours. "Capricorn was a label that existed in Macon when there were so many other cities it could've been in – but we're part