For the last 19 years, it's been constant as kudzu in the summertime: The one band you could always count on coming to Raleigh's Walnut Creek was the Allman Brothers, the only act to play there every season since the amphitheater opened in 1991. But barring a miracle of some sort, the streak will end this year. Gregg Allman is still recovering from last month's liver transplant, and the band is off the road until November at the earliest -- too late for Walnut Creek, which wraps in October.

"It appears we will not be playing Walnut Creek this year," says Allman Brothers manager Bert Holman. "That disappoints us, but Gregg's long-term health is more important to us. We have a lot of history at Walnut Creek and we hope to be able to come back for years to come. But he has to recover for that to happen."

I've read so many stories over the years about Gregg Allman being a "difficult" interview that I wasn't expecting much when I got him on the phone last week. To my surprise, however, the Southern rock icon could not have been chattier about a variety of subjects -- including one of his estranged former bandmates.

"The band has changed a lot since Derek and Warren joined, back to more like it was in the beginning," Allman said. "We don't have two guitar players fighting, then one dies and the other takes on this thing of, 'Oh God, I've gotta fill his shoes.' Then instead of the way some people turn wimpy and say they can't do it anymore, he turns bully.

"But hey," he concluded, "if you can't say anything nice, why say anything at all?"

For lots more on everything from presidential politics to Hepatitis C, check the interview in Friday's paper. Allman Brothers play Raleigh's big outdoor joint tonight, extending their run as the only act to play there every year the place has been open.