Victory lap for Gregg Allman

“I want to get in as much playing as I can,” said Allman, 61, who battles hepatitis C. “Now I have to give myself so much time to rest up [between shows]. You don’t want to go out and do a show on automatic pilot. I want to give it all I can.”

Indeed, the man who is credited with creating southern rock and blues rock may have slowed physically but still has the enthusiasm, musical chops and whiskey-heavy drawl of his youth.

This time out, listen for Allman to have a mix of new songs he’s recently written with some of the classics, including several almost sure bets such as “Midnight Rider.”

“I can’t play everything, but we mix it up,” he said. “Things slow down when you get older.”

Not that Allman has slowed that much by contemporary standards. True, he can’t play the 300-plus shows each year that once filled his date book, but he still puts on high-energy shows that exceed two hours.

Fan reviews — including those from fans who attended the Allman Brothers Band show in September at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia — report that Allman’s sound is as clear and magical as ever.

“Anyone wondering if Gregg was up to touring had all their fears put to rest as his voice sounded good and every note out of his keyboarding was loud and crystal clear,” Roland Ray wrote on the band’s site.

That’s no one-time fluke, as evidenced by the bounty of critical accolades heaped on the man and his band by numerous critics including David Singer of The (Schenectady, N.Y.) Daily Gazette: “Gregg Allman sounded strong and healthy through classics like ‘Midnight Rider,’ ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ and the coolest ‘Come and Go.’ They’re as good as they ever were which, at one time, was as good as it gets.”

You don’t get many second chances to see a legend in action. Don’t miss out.