Rose Hill Cemetery, where they would write songs. Their first performances outside the South came on May 30 and 31 in Boston, opening for the Velvet Underground. In need of more material, the group remade old blues numbers like "Trouble No More" and "One Way Out", in addition to improvised jams such as "Mountain Jam." Gregg, who had struggled to write in the past, became the band's sole songwriter, composing songs such as "Whipping Post" and "Black-Hearted Woman." Much of the material collected on The Allman Brothers Band was written between the period of May to August 1969 and premiered live. According to Johanson, the group gauged crowd reaction to the numbers and adjusted the songs accordingly. "Before we went into the studio, we had a very clear idea of what we were all trying to do musically and that it was unique, totally different from anything else that anyone was playing," said Betts. "From the earliest rehearsals, we all had the same mind-set." Recording and production The band set off from Macon for New York City in August 1969, and faced setbacks along the way, such as their equipment truck breaking down in South Carolina. In addition, they had arranged to work with Cream producer Tom Dowd, who was unavailable; Atlantic Records house engineer Adrian Barber recorded the sessions instead, and was credited as producer. Recalled Dowd, "I was supposed to have done the first album with the band up in New York, but some way or other I got detoured. Jerry Wexler made a deal to keep them in the studio for three or four days when they were supposed to be with me." The band had no commercial success in mind, having had troublesome experiences individually in the past with producers and labels that pushed for radio hits. The band felt that with time they would develop a small, devoted following and be strong enough to collect $3–4,000 dollars per night. The Allman Brothers Band was recorded and mixed in two weeks, and according to biographer Alan Paul, "virtually no outtakes exist from the sessions." The band had performed their songs countless times in the preceding months and "[had] them down cold." Numerous artists, including Ray Charles, had recorded on the studio's house Hammond organ, but Gregg Allman set up his own instead, feeling unable to play on the same instrument as Charles. A red light on