Hittin’ the note – an expression of joy.  Duane Allman used this term to describe the quality that was special about the Allman Brothers Band; that moment when music, musicians and audience combined to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts.  This was a time when magic happened.  In the spring of 1992 four people, Ron Currens, Kirk West, Joe Bell and Bill Ector started a magazine by the same name, inspired by that magic.  This month, Atlanta-based Hittin’ the Note magazine (www.hittinthenote.com) celebrates the release of its 50^th issue, appropriately timed to coincide with the Allman Brothers Band’s appearance at Hifi Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta on August 20, 2006.  Originally begun as a fanzine for the band, this quarterly publication quietly began expanding its coverage a number of years ago, delving into the same mix of jazz, blues, country and rock that influenced the Allman’s groundbreaking sound.

            “This is rich, fertile material, born of the South” states Bill Ector, Publisher of HTN, “and it crosses over several generations.  We are constantly amazed at the appetite of the general public for coverage of this roots music as much as for the contemporary music it spawned.  Our readers want to get closer to the source of inspiration and so do we.  A great example of this would be our ‘Sessions with Tom Dowd’ column that ran for  several issues of the magazine.  Renowned Atlantic Records producer, Tom Dowd, gave us the inside-the-studio point of view on everyone from John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles to the Allman Brothers Band and Derek and the Dominos.  It was an amazing window into extraordinary events.  Getting to know Tom through these conversations that turned into noteworthy articles on how things got done in the music  business was so incredible, and his wit and wisdom were just as sharp at age 77 as they must have been when he was a much younger man,  We miss Tom dearly – he became a part of our HTN family.”

            Taking a personal approach has served the periodical well.  Perhaps just as important as the music and history it covers, the magazine counts among its friends the likes of original Allman Brothers Band members Gregg Allman, Jaimoe, and Butch Trucks, along with Chuck Leavell, Jimmy Herring, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes – a wonderful nucleus of artists who are very important in the historical and contemporary musical landscape.  Gregg Allman, writer and singer of some of the best-known songs of his generation, was, along with his older brother Duane Allman, a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band that bears their name.  Chuck Leavell is perhaps rock’s most famous keyboardist, playing with the Allman Bothers, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and, for the last 25 years, the Rolling Stones.  Jimmy Herring, after playing with the Aquarium Rescue Unit and the Dead, has just made thousands of Widespread Panic fans jump for joy at his joining their line-up, and Derek Trucks is performing incredible triple duty with the Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton and his own Atlanta-based group – which recently released a top ten music DVD on top of its critically acclaimed 6^th CD, Songlines.  Allman Brothers guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes’s other band – when he’s not sitting in with the likes of Dave Mathews, the Dead and Phil Lesh and Friends – is Gov’t Mule, once a side project, but now headlining prominent festivals like Bonnaroo and Wakarusa.  Gov’t Mule will grace the cover of HTN’s 50^th issue, which will also include a feature on pedal steel genius Robert Randolph, as well as an excerpt from Skydog: the Duane Allman Story, Randy Poe’s forthcoming biography about the slide guitar legend.   

            “We’ve been very lucky that some of our favorite musicians have taken the time to introduce us to their influences and the artists who mean so much to them,” reminisces John Lynskey, Editor of HTN.  “Coming into it from that point of view, we start out with the trust of the artist and are able to give them a voice in an in-depth, inside sort of way.  Whereas other outstanding music magazines like Paste, Relix or Honest Tune cover more territory with shorter pieces, our niche is somewhat the opposite.  We don’t write for the casual fans, but rather for the serious ones.  Our articles have real substance to them, and we cover music with a scope that is uniquely ours.  We’ve written about everything from Muscle Shoals to Macon to Stax in Memphis, from the country scene out of Nashville to many of the great R&B and jazz acts of Atlantic Records out of New York City, to the jam bands that are breaking new ground today.  Our cover stories – from Chris Robinson to Bob Weir, Bill Walton to Ben Harper – reflect the eclectic nature of Hittin’ the Note.  It’s hard to pinpoint a theme or pattern, we just cover what we like – great music will do that for you.”

            “Atlanta and Macon have been very good to us from the beginning,” states Joe Bell, Business Manager and one of the founders of the magazine.  “We basically  launched the magazine out of those two cities.  The Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon has been a big supporter, contributing historical articles and becoming one of our larger retail outlets.  Artist-friendly Tower Records in Atlanta gave us a shot on their shelves and we sold well, leading to regional then national distribution.  Borders, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and Joe Muggs soon followed, and what started as a small, passionate hobby became, over time, a very real international business.  Europe and Asia love the music of the South - from any decade.  We get phone calls, e-mails and internet orders every day from all over the world.

“While the advertising and distribution dollars of the magazine continue to grow at a very respectable pace, the merchandise side of the business has done even better” continues Joe.  “Baby boomers whose teenage years occurred in the sixties and seventies, and college students from the 90’s to the new millennium who grew up listening to classic rock and the jam band scene of today are examples of the fans who buy the merchandise and come to the concerts.  The Allman Brothers Band and their management were very smart to tap into this fan base by jumping on the internet bandwagon in its infancy, building up a website (www.allmanbrothersband.com) that has received millions of visitors.  It has become quite a community of like-minded individuals.  Hittin’ the Note linked in as the merchandise provider in the early days, and over time, has listened closely and responded to fan demand – turning that merchandise request into a very significant portion of the business.  When Instant Live and the ABB began recording live concerts and making them available to their fans through us, it put us over the top in terms of financial stability.”

            Although the magazine has expanded far beyond the original fanzine concept, it is the release of the Allman Brothers Band archival CDs that seem to bring the most pleasure to the staff and fans alike.  Inspired by the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks series, the ABB at the turn of the century started releasing historically spectacular shows from the early days of the band.  “The Allman Brothers Band has always been known as the best live performance band in the land,” says Kirk West, the “Tour Mystic” and official archival guru of the ABB.  “At Fillmore East has always been considered the best live concert recording ever, so we thought it made sense to seek out and find those rare soundboard tapes of the early days and offer them to our fans.  Because of the improvisational nature of the band, many of their greatest versions of their songs occurred during their live performances, not in the studio.”

            In his quest to find everything Allman, Mr. West has built up a complete museum of historical artifacts in the band’s original home in Macon, Georgia – affectionately called the Big House.  West and some devoted trustees have formed the Big House Foundation (www.thebighousemuseum.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit charity, which thus far has raised nearly one million dollars towards the opening of a permanent Allman Brothers Band museum at the house.

            As far as dreams turning into reality, all of the members of this organization count themselves lucky to be where they are.  “It’s amazing what passion can bring to a business situation,” reflects Georgia Tech grad, Joe Bell.  “I spent 20 years of my life in a corporate environment, wearing a suit and tie.  While those years did pay off in the end, it took 20 years to get that reward.  Here, you get the rewards every day.  You know, Mark Twain said, ‘If you do what you like, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’  Little did I know,” laughs Joe, “that when I was sneaking out as a teenager to go see the Allman Brothers Band back in the early ’70s, I was really preparing myself for my future job!”