For the Nighthawks, the 'Blue Highway' never ends

The Nighthawks were in the news again last month after the death of Gregg Allman, the band's most famous, least reliable member.

Remember that whole thing? It was in the late '70s, not long after the Southern rock superstar broke up with Cher, when he decided to join the lesser-known Washington, D.C., blues-rock troupe - or at least that's what Allman told Rolling Stone back in the day. The members of the Nighthawks were so unsure whether their erratic new singer would actually post for their gigs during their six months together that they started peddling T-shirts that asked, "Where's Gregg?"

It's one of the more amusing subplots of "Nighthawks on the Blue Highway," a recent documentary which proves that, like Allman, the Nighthawks believed in the alchemical properties of American music. Upon forming in 1972, the band quickly began cultivating its devoted listenership by dissolving the borders that separated rock 'n' roll, Chicago blues and Memphis soul.

The Nighthawks eventually became part of the early-'80s "blue wave" that included George Thorogood and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but superstardom ultimately eluded the group. "I felt like I was on the sidelines at the big game," bandleader and mainstay Mark Wenner says deep in the film.

Although his grief feels palpable in that moment, the sports metaphor doesn't quite fit - not after the 45 years he's spent touring in the Nighthawks. Athletes retire. Wenner won't.