Chief Green Fulfills Lifelong Dream of Playing with Allman Brothers

by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer 

“In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” was the background music for writing the first lines of this article. The Allman Brothers legendary instrumental is one of David Green’s favorite songs and “At Fillmore East” is his go-to album. “I’ve run through two vinyl copies of it and a couple of CD copies. I just have it in my head,” he said.

Sewanee’s fire chief was happy to reminisce about a recent gig that was a dream come true for him. During the interview at his office in University Print Services, we sat in a hallway next to an offset printer. Deep black ink splotches dotted the floor as he talked about getting to play drums with Butch Trucks, one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band.

“If I could do anything musically, it would be to jam a little bit with the Allman Brothers,” he said.

Green, 57, picked up a pair of drumsticks when he was 13 and began a lifelong love for the Allman Brothers Band, whose complex blend of music features two drummers: Trucks, a straightforward rocker, and Jaimoe, whose style is more jazz fusion.

In January Green took a Caribbean cruise, part of which was a “Music Masters Camp at Sea.” It featured jam sessions and seminars with six music professionals, including Trucks. 

During the trip Green got to play drums alongside this man who was such an inspiration to him. At the end of the cruise, Trucks presented Green with the “Butch Trucks Award” for best drummer at the camp. “I thought I would never be able to do anything like that,” Green said. “And then at the end when he said a few nice things about me and handed me that award — that was — that was pretty cool,” he said smiling proudly.

Joe Canary, a dentist in Decherd by day and musician by night, first met Green in 1980 when he got a call to help out a band in need of a bass player at the NCO Club in Decherd.

“I walked in and the band was just horrible, but the drummer was awesome. That drummer was David,” Canary said recently. Canary and Green have played together many times since then; their most recent collaboration was in the band Fillmore South, which covered plenty of Allman Brothers songs.

“David is an extraordinary a and one of the best people I have ever met, too, which is rare in the music business,” Canary said.

Besides the most recent jams with Trucks, Green noted that his other big musical moment came in March of 1976. He was part of the band Up In The Air, which along with a chorus and orchestra, performed the entire rock opera “Tommy” at Guerry Hall. Both performances sold out in the effort to raise money for the University’s theatre department.

In addition to drumming, Green also builds and flies model helicopters. He is the vice president of Coffee Airfoilers in Tullahoma. He has worked at Print Services since 1981 and has spent 44 years with the Sewanee Fire Department, 39 of those as chief. Green’s father was also fire chief.