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We've driven up and down I-75 probably a hundred times and kept meaning to stop over in Macon to visit The Big House, where the Allman Bros. lived and rehearsed in their early years and that is now a museum. We finally stopped on our way back from Florida this past weekend. It was definitely worth it.

There's an amazing amount of memorabilia that tells the story of the Allman Bros. Band. The photos above are just a small sampling. The staff is wonderful, and the gift shop has some cool stuff including CDs of everything the band ever recorded.

Here's their website, and here's a page with history of the Big House.

I asked if they had any ticket stubs, posters, etc. from the Knoxville Coliseum show that I attended sometime in the early 70s when they opened for B. J. Thomas. The guy in the gift shop said no, but pulled out a notebook with a catalog of every date they played. He located the listing. It was Jan. 9, 1971. Duane died in October that year.

We got there when it opened, and expected we'd be the only ones there. By the time we left, the parking lot was full and there were people from all over the U.S. This is a must see venue for Allman Bros. fans.

Photo notes after the break...

(1) Music notation on stained glass front door is for "Please Call Home" (reversed from inside)

(5) Gregg Allman Hammond B3 organ

(6) Butch Trucks drums on left, Jaimoe drums/sticks on right

(7) Contract, Boston, May 1969, two nights, two shows per night, $750, signed by Duane Allman

(9) Duane Allman Marshall cabinet, acquired from the Grateful Dead, outfitted with burlap pinto bean sack

(10) Dickey Betts custom made Alembic guitar

(11) Receipt for Dickey Betts Fender Stratocaster, $250 plus tax

(12) Gregg Allman handwritten lyrics and notes for "My Only True Friend" from his last album

(13) Early Fender amps used by Berry Oakley (left) and Duane Allman (right) and later Ron Blair of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

(15) Dickey Betts handwritten lyrics for "Blue Sky," Sunday morning church bells across the street visible from the adjacent window

(16) Duane Allman Gold Top Les Paul, used on first two albums and Layla

(17) Duane Allman famously used Coricidin medicine bottles for playing slide guitar

(18) Duane Allman's first guitar, Les Paul Jr., traded in at a pawn shop, later bought by Delaney Bramlett (not knowing it was originally Duane's)

(19) Yellow dress worn by Berry and Linda Oakley's daughter Brittany on the back cover of Brothers and Sisters album

(22) Elizabeth Reed, Rose Hill Cemetery

(23) Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, Rose Hill Cemetery

(24) Gregg Allman, Rose Hill Cemetery