After rounding out the lineup with the addition of his brother, Gregg Allman, the band moved to Macon, Georgia, where they were to be one of the premiere acts on Capricorn.

It includes re-workings of "Trouble No More" and "Don't Want You No More," as well as notable originals such as "Dreams", which highlighted the band's jazz influence, and "Whipping Post", which became a crowd favorite.

Although the group was arranged to work with producer Tom Dowd (whose credits included Cream and John Coltrane), he was unavailable, and they instead recorded with house engineer Adrian Barber.

[2] Duane began to put together a new band, and invited bassist Berry Oakley to jam with the new group; the pair had met in a Jacksonville, Florida club some time earlier, and became quick friends.

[7] Dickey Betts had played in Oakley's previous band, the Second Coming, and became the group's second lead guitarist, while Butch Trucks, with whom Duane and Gregg had cut a demo less than a year prior, fulfilled the role of the second drummer.

[8] The unnamed group began to perform free shows in Willow Branch Park in Jacksonville, with an ever-changing, rotating cast of musicians.

[14] The band performed locally, as well as eighty miles north in Atlanta's Piedmont Park, and practiced at the newly minted Capricorn nearly every day.

[15] The group forged a strong brotherhood, spending countless hours rehearsing, consuming psychedelic drugs, and hanging out in Rose Hill Cemetery, where they would write songs.

[23] The two-week booking was initially designed for laying down basic tracks, with overdubs following later,[19] but the group ended up cutting the entire record in six non-consecutive days.

'"[24] "Dreams", which later gained regard among band members as the high point of the record, was the only song in which the group got stuck, due to Duane Allman's displeasure with his guitar solo.

The performance captured on record came when Duane instructed the other members to turn off all the lights in the studio after the day's session, and sat in a corner beside his amp and baffle.

[26] Allman played slide guitar (which was not employed in previous attempts) and improvised the overdubbed performance, bringing all the band members to tears.

"[26] During their tenure in New York, the group made their debut over three non-consecutive nights at Ungano's in Manhattan,[23] a club that would eventually become regarded within the ensemble as their "second home".

[28] The group's style evolved from a mix of jazz, country music, blues and rock, which was the result of each individual member turning the others onto their particular interests.

[30] The album opens with an instrumental, a cover of Spencer Davis' "Don't Want You No More," which had previously been employed on set lists of the Second Coming, Oakley and Betts' former band.

[31] Allman and Betts' guitars perform in unison on a five-note melody while Johanson concentrates on his hi-hat, and the song includes an organ solo.

[32] "Black Hearted Woman," also penned on the same subject, follows, and the album returns to a blues-based sound with a cover of "Trouble No More," featuring Duane's debut bottleneck guitar performance.

Oakley "played a huge role in the band’s arrangements," changing numbers such as "Whipping Post" from a ballad structure to a more hard-rocking song.

[34] "Dreams" developed from a jam in which the band toyed with the theme to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and has been referred to by Johanson as Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" with lyrics.

[32] The song came to him shortly before bed, but he was unable to acquire a pencil and paper to write down his ideas, as there was a child asleep in the room and he could not turn on the lights.

Turning to his next best alternative, he struck two kitchen matches (one for light and one, later blown out, as a charcoal writing utensil) and wrote down his lyrics on a bedside ironing board.

[34] Allman's inspiration came from his time in Los Angeles as a part of Hour Glass, "getting fucked by different land sharks in the business," experiencing great frustration among fierce competition.

[38] Alan later recalled, "The [inner sleeve] photo was taken in Round Oak, Georgia, down behind my log cabin there, which is also the back of Otis Redding's Big O Ranch".

[40] Trucks had sliced his leg open earlier that day, requiring thirteen stitches, and was unable to get in the water; he is standing behind Oakley in the shot.

"Everyone told us we’d fall by the wayside down there," said Gregg Allman,[47] but the collaboration between the band and Capricorn Records "transformed Macon from this sleepy little town into a very hip, wild, and crazy place filled with bikers and rockers".

[48] The band played shows along the East Coast in December 1969, attempting to kick-start the record onto Billboard's Top 200 Pop Albums chart.

[49] In January, the band performed at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia and the Fillmore West in San Francisco before debuting at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, representing the Allmans' first engagement there since their days in the Hour Glass.

[49] Capricorn issued "Black Hearted Woman" as the album's single, edited down to nearly two minutes shorter in an effort to place on top 40 radio.

[39] Rolling Stone's Lester Bangs called the album "consistently [...] subtle, and honest, and moving," describing the band as "a white group who've transcended their schooling to produce a volatile blues-rock sound of pure energy, inspiration and love".