How the Allman Brothers made Jimmy Carter president, according to new rock history

Review Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s By Alan Paul St. Martin’s: 352 pages, $32 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. In his engaging new book, “Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album that Defined the ’70s,” Paul depicts the band barreling through substance abuse, death and despair to make their biggest selling record and become America’s most popular band — before it all finally comes crashing down. Gregg Allman, pictured in 1976, is the key subject of Alan Paul’s new Allman Brothers history, “Brothers and Sisters.” “The Allman Brothers Band elevated above their rock and roll peers to become an American institution. a group that birthed a genre, had immense impact on country music, helped elect an American president, and stood at the center of the nation’s culture,” writes Paul, also the author of the best-selling “One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band.” In Paul’s telling, the process of making “Brothers and Sisters” was anything but smooth. For all its strengths, “Brothers and Sisters” drags at times, notably Paul’s description of Gregg Allman’s relationship with Cher, which seems better suited for the pages of the National Enquirer.