Frank Hannon is known for his ’80s rock stylings with Tesla, but he’s not leaning into those sounds on Reflections, his new instrumental album, which has more of a Western tinge to it. “I started taking my guitar playing to another level of simplicity – slowing down and trying to express myself,” he explains.

He was influenced by a series of personal losses, including that of his father-in-law, Dickey Betts. “I was feeling that,” he says. “and also, a few friends had passed away, along with the pain my wife and I were going through.”

That’s when he recalled what Betts had taught him. “He obsessively and intently put 100 percent into everything he did. One of his quotes to me was: ‘Keep on swinging.’”

That matched one of Hannon’s own: “Play guitar like you’ll never play again.” He reflects: “If you leave the planet before you expected, leave something behind that you feel genuinely represents your heart.”

Reflections showcases a different style than you’re known for.

“Western-sounding guitar, country influences and simple chord changes have always been a part of my input to Tesla, as seen in songs like What You Give. But since this is an instrumental album, I was tapping into the guitar being a lead voice.”

How did the loss of Dickey Betts, impact your process?

“Coming from the West Coast in the ’80s, I wasn’t really influenced by Dickey until I met him 24 years ago, and we became family. His influence really wasn’t through the guitar – it was as a person, a survivor, and his stories.

“When we went golfing, we’d be laughing in the truck, talking about scenarios he’d gone through and survived, the integrity that he put into his music, and how he made every note count in his playing.

“Now that I’ve studied it more – even compared to Duane Allman, who always said he was the famous guitar player – Dickey was the great one. Even if he played a lot of notes, you could hear every single one. They all had a purpose.”

How did you apply that to Reflections?

“I stopped noodling the intention into my notes. With instrumental music, I’ve learned to slow down and play with the intent of expressing myself.”

What’s the story behind the Gretsch on the cover?

“It’s a Hot Rod model, and it’s blue or purple, depending on the light. The body is a little smaller than the Falcon, and it resonates really cool. It actually belonged to Brian Setzer, who donated it to the Hard Rock Cafe then one of my good friends, Don, who passed away, had it.

“I was telling him how much I love Brian Setzer’s playing. Don said, ‘Let me give you this guitar, rather than having it hang on the wall at the Hard Rock.’ It’s one of my favorite guitars – it has a really distinctive tone.”

You also used one of Dickey’s Gibson SGs.

“I was going to a jam at a bar in Florida and I grabbed the SG that was sitting in the living room. Dickey was on the couch and I said, ‘Do you mind if I borrow this guitar?’

“Dickey was funny, man – he had such a serious look. I thought he wanted to kick my ass! He could look at you like he was pissed, then in a split-second smile and make you feel like a million bucks!

“He was looking at the SG then looking at me for a couple of minutes straight. Then he goes, ‘No.’ I go, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘That’s not the good one. Go in the bedroom and grab the good one!’

“I went into the bedroom, grabbed the other one and he goes, ‘Yeah, take that one. But cherish it – don’t let nothing happen to it because it’s a great one.’”

What makes that SG so great?

“It was his Dickey Betts From One Brother to Another prototype; number one, the first prototype Gibson made. It weighs like six pounds. It’s light as a feather, the neck is super-slim, and it stays in tune really great. It’s got nylon saddles on the bridge so it has a warmer tone.

“So I used it at that jam. Fast forward a couple of years, and I was going on the road with Devon Allman and Duane Betts for the Allman Family Reunion Revival, and I borrowed the same SG for that.

“Dickey came to one of the shows – his 80th birthday in Sarasota, Florida. He whispers, ‘Hey, is that the guitar I loaned you?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He goes, ‘Good,’ and he gave me the thumbs up, and a hug. He said, ‘You can use it for as long as you want.’ So I’m still borrowing it. It means a lot to me and to my heart.”

Is there a song from Reflections that best represents what you wanted to communicate?

“There’s two. One is called Our Father’s Love. The main theme has a spiritual vibe that I was feeling when my wife and I were looking up at the stars, thinking about our pain and grief. She was really close to her dad. The melody is about being grateful for being alive.

“This Is Goodbye is the last song on the record – it's probably going to be the single. The melody is very contemplative and simple, where you take a simple chord, and then pick the notes in between, like I did on What You Give by Tesla. People said This Is Goodbye could be in a soundtrack for a Western movie.”

What’s next for you?

Tesla is still very busy, and then there’s my solo shows. I want to keep using guitar as my singing voice. I’ve tried to sing; playing guitar is a lot more fun!”

• Reflections is on sale now.

Despite being best known for his ’80s hard rock sensibilities with Tesla (not that Tesla), Frank Hannon's upcoming instrumental guitar album – Reflections – features more Western-tinged and soulful bottleneck slide guitar musings that were recorded in the wake of life upheaval and personal loss, including that of his late father-in-law, Dickey Betts.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that one of the guitars Hannon wields on this record is one of Betts' own: the prototype of the Dickey Betts “From One Brother to Another” Gibson SG, released in 2011 – which, in turn, was a replica of the ’61 SG that Dickey would hand over to Duane [Allman] during live shows.

“I was going to a jam at a bar in Florida one night, and I grabbed an SG that was just sitting in the living room on a stand,” he tells Guitar World. “And Dickey was sitting on the couch, just looking at me, and I was looking at him while holding the SG, and I said, ‘Dickey, do you mind if I borrow this guitar for this jam tonight?’

“And Dickey was funny, man,” he reminisces. “He had such a serious look, and I thought that this guy wanted to kick my ass!

“Anyway, I was holding this SG, wanting to borrow it, and he was staring at it, man. He was looking at it, and looking at me for a couple of minutes straight, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, shit, I’m in trouble now…’ And then, he stopped, and goes, ‘No.’ I go, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘That’s not the good one. Go in the bedroom and grab the good one.’

“‘There’s a much better SG in there that sounds way better.’ I was like, ‘Cool… alright.’ And he was right because the one that I was holding was a hunk of a log that really felt like a dog.

“I put it down, went into the bedroom, grabbed the other one, opened the case, and he goes, ‘Yeah, that’s it. Take that one.’ But then he said, ‘Cherish it. Be careful. Don’t let nothing happen to it because it’s a great one.’”

However, that wasn't the end of Hannon's involvement with Betts' prized SG. Fast forward a couple of years, and the Tesla guitarist was on the road with Devon Allman and Duane Betts for the Allman Family Reunion Revival, with the SG prototype in hand.

“Dickey came to one of the shows, and it was his 80th birthday in Sarasota, Florida,” he relates.

“I was playing that SG, and he whispers to me, ‘Hey, is that the guitar I loaned you?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He goes, ‘Good,’ and he gave me the thumbs up, and a hug. So, I’m still borrowing it. I got his blessing to use it, where he said, ‘You can use it for as long as you want.’ It means a lot to me and to my heart.”

After his passing last year, Betts was celebrated earlier this year with a tribute concert, In Memory of Dickey Betts, which was hosted and curated by his son, Duane Betts.

An all-star lineup, featuring members of the extended Allman Brothers Band family, will perform at a Dickey Betts tribute concert, In Memory of Dickey Betts, scheduled for February 28 at the Macon City Auditorium in the group's stronghold of Macon, Georgia. The event will be hosted and curated by Betts' son, Duane Betts.

Alongside former Allman Brothers Band members Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Jaimoe, Chuck Leavell, and Oteil Burbridge, the concert will feature Susan Tedeschi, Duane Betts, Gregg Allman's son Devon Allman, Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr, Wet Willie's Jimmy Hall, and Lamar Williams Jr., the son of ABB's bassist during the '70s, Lamar Williams. More musicians are expected to be added and announced soon.

“For so many of us, Dad's gift to the world was music,” reflects Duane. “I'm so happy to come together with some very special friends to honor the depth and beauty of his life and, of course, to share that sweet, melodic sound he is so well known for.”

A portion of the proceeds from the star-studded concert will go toward furthering music education in honor of Dickey Betts, including the new Dickey Betts Scholarship at Berklee College of Music.

Tickets for the show will go on sale on January 13 at 10 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster. A limited number of VIP ticket packages will also be available, including an artist meet-and-greet, a T-shirt, a signed poster, and a commemorative laminate.

Dickey Betts passed away on April 18, 2024, at the age of 80. As a tribute to Betts' legacy, Guitar World’s Andy Aledort, Betts' right-hand man who played over 250 shows around the globe with him, reflected on his experience touring with Betts, asserting that he “laid the foundation for what was at the time a new style of music to be known as Southern rock.”

The Allman Betts Band have managed to round up some stellar guests for their ongoing Allman Betts Family Revival. However, on Monday night, at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, it reached new heights with Slash joining the bill.

The Guns N' Roses guitarist's special appearance came late in the second set, as he delivered blues-heavy shredding on the Muddy Waters-penned-turned-Allman-Brothers-classic, Trouble No More.

The highlight of his performance, however, was his solo on Dreams, which included an impressive blues-rock run on his goldtop Les Paul, propped on his knees, and trading solos with pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph. Slash closed the set with his own take on 1969's Whipping Post, from The Allman Brothers Band's self-titled debut album.

The star guitarist joined a lineup of marquee-worthy names, which, apart from Randolph, also included Larry McCray, Maggie Rose, Luther Dickinson, Jimmy Hall, Lamar Williams Jr., Sierra Hull, Sierra Green, Lindsay Lou, Grace Bowers, Jackie Greene, Jake Shimabukuro, and Donavon Frankenreiter.

Led by Devon Allman and Duane Betts – the respective sons of Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts – the Allman Family Revival started in 2017 as a star-studded celebration of the legendary catalog of The Allman Brothers Band and has since become an annual live event.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Allman said, “We never would’ve thought that this is what it would become, ever. It’s a kind of family reunion. We get to see everyone and celebrate one of the best songbooks in rock & roll.”

And as for Slash's involvement in this year's event? “I think he’s wanting to jump into some circles that are a little more blues-oriented,” he commented. “We’re just happy to have him.”

The name Les Dudek may not ring a bell, but he's the textbook definition of one of those 'been there, done that' guitar players.

He recorded and toured with (not to mention dated) Cher, jammed with Journey just as they were coming together, and guested onstage with Mike Bloomfield (without him knowing).

Oh, and have you ever heard the song Ramblin' Man? That's Dudek harmonizing his electric guitar lines with Dickey Betts at the end.

During a time when the Allman Brothers Band were in limbo following the tragic death of lead guitarist Duane Allman, Betts was exploring his options, as it was unclear if the band would go on following Duane's death.

“We were invited to go hang out on the farm with Dickey for a weekend,” Dudek related to Guitar World in a recent interview. “Me and and Peter [Sches, then a bandmate of Dudek's] went up to Macon and hung out and jammed on the back porch with Dickey. That went pretty well, but you know, things were kind of solemn... Duane had died not too long before then, so it knocked the wind out of everybody’s balloon.”

It was in that context that Betts called Dudek back for further jams, even after the Allman Brothers Band had slowly re-assembled. One of these calls came on an evening when they were cutting a song called Ramblin' Man.

“I was hanging out in the control room, and Dickey got the idea of putting some guitar parts at the end; he was thinking about harmony guitars, like what he did with Duane,” Dudek recounted to GW.

“I had my goldtop Les Paul Standard. Berry Oakley played bass on it. I think it was the last song he cut before he died. I helped Dickey with all the guitar harmonies and the arrangements on the end of it. I pretty much played half of the lead guitars, but people don’t realize it.

“We stacked the guitars at the end – the low and high octaves,” the guitarist continued. “We had a blast doing that. It was a lot of fun.”

Dudek also worked with Betts on, and made significant contributions to, another Allman Brothers classic, Jessica.

“[Dickey] already had the verse of Jessica, but he needed a bridge. He was very frustrated,” Dudek said. “Anyway, he went to the kitchen – and that’s when I came up with the bridge. The song needed a release, and it needed a part when it comes back to the original section. Dickey was pretty pleased about it.”

This past April, we received the sad news of the passing of Dickey Betts, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band and one of the greatest and most lyrical and melodic guitarists of all time. Dickey became a primary inspiration for me from a very early age and has remained one of my biggest influences.

In 1983, my father was able to talk the owner of Coleman’s Night Club in Rome NY, into letting his six-year-old son (me) sit in the back and watch Dickey perform with his band BHLT, an acronym for Betts, Jimmy Hall, Chuck Leavell and Butch Trucks.

They were sharing the bill with the Gregg Allman Band, which included the great Dan Toler on guitar and his brother Frankie Toler on drums. That experience changed my life! It was the first professional, legendary and mind-blowing live show I ever saw. Dickey came out and killed it; his singing and guitar playing were just phenomenal.

All of the greatest players of all time have a couple of things in common: 1) they all possess a very distinct signature tone, or “voice”; and 2) you can identify who it is from hearing just a couple of notes. This can be said for B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Dickey Betts… the list goes on and on.

Dickey had a truly great and unique style and mostly played a Gibson Les Paul; either a goldtop, which he seemed to prefer in the late ’60s, or a sunburst Les Paul, which he is often seen playing throughout the ’70s.

Additionally, he used 100-watt Marshall amplifiers equipped with either JBL, Altec or Lansing speakers, all of which yield a very clean and bright tone. He most often played with his guitar set on the front (neck) pickup or with both pickups engaged. Rarely will you hear Dickey on the bridge pickup only, and so he set his tone for the optimal sound with the front pickup.

Dickey had a unique way of phrasing his improvised solos; Figure 1 is played in his style, with lines based on the D major hexatonic scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B), which some players refer to as the “country scale.”

This example is played in long streams of 16th notes; Dickey would often punctuate his solos by accenting and briefly holding quarter and eighth notes, often with finger vibrato, which creates a stinging effect.

Notice in particular the “rolling” type of sound that results from using an abundance of hammer-ons and pull-offs and hanging out in a particular position for several beats.

If you think of these lines as being based on D major pentatonic (D, E, F#, A, B), that’s the very same set of notes that make up B minor pentatonic (B, D, E, F#, A), so one can think of them that way too.

Figure 2 offers a long 10-bar phrase that can be thought of as being based on B minor pentatonic, but you’ll hear Dickey play lines like this over D, resulting in the sound of D major pentatonic and its six-note variant, D major hexatonic.

What is rock ’n’ roll without the Allman Brothers Band? Blue Sky, Jessica, Ramblin’ Man… Dickey used the guitar as the ultimate tool to service songs that changed the world, and the music will live on forever.

Dickey Betts was one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, along with brothers Duane and Gregg, Berry Oakley, Jai Johanson and Butch Trucks. Along with Duane Allman, Betts helped to forge the sound not only of The Allmans, but of blues-influenced Southern rock as well.

Duane Allman began recording as a hired gun in the renowned FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, but after growing weary of the scene relocated to Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 and formed the band that bore his name. As well as Allman and Betts on guitar, the band was also unusual for employing two drummers in Trucks and Johanson.

The Allman Brothers began to record and tour to a wider audience than just their Florida compatriots, and among others supported unlikely artists such as The Velvet Underground. They often wrote songs based around extended jam sessions, as well as drawing on jazz, blues and country.

Dickey was influenced by rock and roll artists like Chuck Berry, while Duane was a fan of James Brown and B.B. King. The rest of the band drew from the likes of The Rolling Stones and other classic acts of the 1960s.

Betts in particular was known for his melodic style of lead guitar, while Allman famously added the slide work to Derek and the Dominos’ classic track, Layla.

The British TV show Top Gear featured the Betts-penned track Jessica as its theme tune for many years, and it’s likely that listeners will recognise that song, even if they’re unfamiliar with who recorded it.

The Allman Brothers band earned many awards and accolades, including four platinum selling albums and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With Dickey Betts’ death, none of the original members remain, but their legacy will surely live on.

Our track in this lesson is in the key of A major (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#), but as there are many blues and country influences the melody and harmony also includes C natural and G natural. The A major chord that forms the bulk of the 12-bar format is actually an A7, owing to the b7 interval that’s played in the guitar part.

The same is true of the D and E chords, which also add the b7 to make them D7 and E7. As far as the rhythm guitar part goes it’s a straightforward blues. The solo largely uses the A minor pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G) for a blues influenced feel over the familiar 12-bar progression.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 5, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 4

There is a light amount of gain here, and it’s more power amp breakup as opposed to preamp saturation. Aim for a classic Marshall or Fender amp tone, with a guitar preferably powered by humbucker pickups. The key is to keep the tone true, and not swamped in overdrive. Effects are minimal, so a little reverb and vintage-style delay is all you need.

Playing notes 

Example 1. Rhythm
You’ll need quite a light touch on both the rhythm and lead guitar parts, and timing is of utmost importance bearing in mind the amount of space in the rhythm track. From bar 13 onwards the rhythm guitar part is lightly palm muted with the edge of the picking hand.

Example 2. Solo
The solo again needs to be addressed with a deft touch. There’s nothing untoward about the note choices; it’s straightforward minor pentatonic blues fare. It’s the subtlety and nuance you need to watch out for, including string slides, accurate bends, relaxed timing, and not too wide heavy rock vibrato.

Since brothers Howard and Ron Albert transformed their Criteria Studios in Miami from a one-room recording booth into a premier destination for big artists, they’ve accumulated 40 gold and 30 platinum records.

Or so Howard reckons. Their resume includes Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa and more, which means he's probably right.

While their innovative multi-mic recording technique built their reputation, Ron says that’s not the only thing that made Criteria Studios special.

“What made it great was that we had several rooms,” he tells Guitar World. “We had a lot of camaraderie between acts.

“Someone was in one room and they’d come into the next studio, sit in on something, maybe help to do a guitar part. It would happen on so many records. Because of that, I couldn’t begin to tell you who played on what!”

While the Albert Brothers rubbed elbows with Eric Clapton and Joe Walsh, the best of their work probably came via Dickey Betts and Duane Allman, resulting in records like Eat a Peach – which Ron holds dear.

“That was finished after Duane died,” he says. “Though he played on some of the tracks, Dickey went and learned the slide part for Melissa. Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, this is Duane.’ But Duane wasn’t there; it’s Dickey Betts.”

The Albert Brothers sold Criteria Studios in 1983 and retired; but in 1987 they formed Vision Studios and Audio Vision Studios, which today focus on hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Lil John and Ludacris – a far cry from the guitar-drenched days of the ‘70s.

“We were sort of cheating the world because there were two of us,” Howard says.

“We had one standing in the control room while the other was moving mics. We could hear the change from location to location. We could get guitar sounds that no one else was getting then because we had two sets of ears.”

How did Criteria Studios form?

Howard: “It was originally started by Mack Emerman. He was recording jazz records at his house in Coconut Grove. His father had a piece of land nearby on which he was going to build a candy store. Mack convinced him to let him have the property, and we built the recording studio.”

Ron: “It was a one-room facility.”

Howard: “It kind of grew from there. When Ron and I started at Criteria, we started in that one room. It grew to a larger room called Studio A, and then there was Studio B, Studio C, Studio D and so on.”

You were innovators in how you recorded sound.

Ron: “As technology improved, we’d work on our skills. We’d come in late – everybody else would go home at six o’clock. We came up with our multi-mic technique for recording drums: we’d go overhead, have one mic on the kick and mics on every cymbal.

“Part of getting a good guitar sound was knowing the instrument. People will still behave like they’re on stage, and put a microphone straight on a guitar – but if you move the mic six inches to the left, or right, or down, suddenly the sound is so much different.”

Early on, you worked with Jimi Hendrix, who’s primarily known for working with Eddie Kramer. What was that like?

Ron: “Eddie was the chief engineer at Electric Lady, and I was the chief engineer at Criteria. We became friends. Eddie would stay at my house in Miami, and I would stay at his house if I was in New York.

“We were the Miami Pop Festival, which came before Woodstock – kind of a dry run. We had all our equipment in the truck, along with our custom console.

“Eddie came with Jimi; Jimi was on stage and Eddie came in the truck with us. Eddie says, ‘You tape it,’ because he didn’t know our setup.

“We recorded him there, and that became part of our resume, due to Eddie. He’s a good friend.”

How did you become involved with Derek and the Dominos?

Howard: “We were doing a lot of Atlantic Records acts, and they were one of the acts that came through. It was amazing to work with them because they were such amazing players and musicians. It was like a big jam session – which was good because we had a lot of good pieces to put together.”

What was it like working with Eric Clapton and Duane Allman?

Ron: “Eric was in England when they started rehearsing, then he decided to come to Miami. When we started the sessions they didn’t have a name, but it was a real band. I remember we set up Eric and Duane in the studio, so they were face-to-face about two feet apart.

“They could literally touch each other’s guitars if they wanted to; and, like Howard said, it was a good jam session. Eric’s playing was unbelievable because he was held up by Duane’s playing, and Duane was held up by Eric. The rest is history.”

Another big piece of your history is your relationship with the Allman Brothers Band.

Ron: “Duane, of course, gets all the credit – but there’s no Allman Brothers without Dickey Betts. Dickey came up with all the harmonies, and Duane played ‘em. Not unlike Eric and Duane, Dickey and Duane were on such a plane together.

“Dickey’s style was so unique in his harmony parts. We’d sit in the studio for hours, rewinding the tape to play it back for him.

“We knew we already had the track, but he’d work for hours getting those harmony parts together. He would show them to Duane, he’d play them, and what came out was Jessica or In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. That stuff doesn’t happen without Dickey.”

Howard: “Dickey had this way of playing; he matched what Duane did on slide, but he’d do it pretty much without a slide. It was pretty amazing what he’d come up with.”

Ron: “Duane died when he was 24 years old; but the thing was that, without people knowing it, Dickey had stepped into the leadership role.”

You also worked with Joe Walsh on The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get.

Howard: “That was an awe-inspiring guitar moment for us. We did that record with Joe in Studio C, and we kind of had him set up in the hallway. We went through the intro; he was playing and he had no idea we were actually recording it.

“As he was getting ready to say, ‘Okay, I’m ready,’ we called him in and said, ‘Now you’re done.’ Rocky Mountain Way was done in one take, so that was pretty good!”

What was it like working with the Rolling Stones on Goat's Head Soup?

Ron: “They were really great. They drove themselves to the studio in rented station wagons – they didn’t come in limousines. When they arrived, they took their guitars out of the cases and tuned up themselves. They were just like regular people.

“Keith Richards is a character, alright! But I think the one thing that stands out was when we came in one day, and they were hopping around like bunnies for the whole session!”

You also worked with Frank Zappa in the ‘70s.

Howard: “All these players come in with their own sound. Our job is to capture that sound. All these guys use Fender or Gibson guitars and whatever brand of amp, but Frank was a player with his own approach.

“I think that’s what gave him the sound, along with the ideas. And our job was to capture that sound; and again, that comes down to knowing where to place a mic. We really needed to listen to what Frank was playing and then figure out how to get it all to tape.”

You’re renowned for your drum sounds, but you greatly impacted the guitar landscape too. What are you most proud of at that end?

Howard: “Well, I’m proud we lived through it! But I don't know… we were in the right place at the right time. We had some talent and knew what we were doing, and that came out in the records. But we had an extremely high caliber of people that we worked with, and that certainly helped make something that lasts.”

Sure, Duane Betts is the son of legendary Allman Brothers six-stringer Dickey Betts and he’s spent plenty of time celebrating his late father’s legacy. But having been a member of Whitestarr and Dawes, and having dropped a solo debut Wild & Precious Life last year, the 46-year-old has long proven than he can stand on his own two feet, artistically.

Following Dickey’s passing in April, Betts is in line to become, in the eyes of some fans, a custodian of that legacy – an idea that is much a burden as a blessing. Still, as Betts points out, he has experience in treading that line already and he has learned how to carry the lessons of his father with him.

“There’s little things I remember him saying,” Betts tells Guitar World. “Like, ‘Playing guitar is like telling a story.’ He was a very melodic player; he wasn’t always just pulling things out of his bag of licks. He had such a beautiful way of phrasing and intertwining, even though it was made up on the spot.”

Betts has taken those examples to heart for songs like Colors Fade, (the acoustic version of which was recently issued as a standalone single), Cold Dark World (featuring Marcus King) and Stare at the Sun (featuring Derek Trucks), all of which demonstrate his chops as both a guitarist and songwriter.

“I think there’s always a place to celebrate the Allman Brothers legacy,” he says. “But as long as I’m making records, I don’t want to get too into that.”

He’s working on new music, though he’s unsure what form it will take. But that’s just fine, he says, referring to another lesson he picked up from Dickey:

“His playing was very much about being in a zone. When I was really young, I asked him how he got the guitar to sound like that; and he said, ‘Go play to nature, and it can never be wrong.’ So If it fits with what’s happening in your surroundings, then it’s right.”

You’ve got a new single out, the acoustic version of Colors Fade. What’s the story behind it?

“It’s the duo version Johnny Stachela and I did before we did the record. It was done down at my dad’s house, in the study where we wrote a lot of the record. We wanted to get some demos that were pretty far along, and with that one, when we went back and listened, it really sounded good.”

Your solo debut, Wild & Precious Life, has been a success. What does that mean to you?

“I’m just so grateful for everybody’s support. It just makes me feel really good when people are affected in a positive way by the songs I’ve written or co-written. I’m really proud of that record.”

You've spent a lot of time celebrating the Allman Brothers and played in bands – but what’s your process as a solo artist?

“I just try to play for the song, regardless of whether it’s a solo record or an Allman Brothers Band thing. The main difference is my singing voice. I’ve been a guitar player for a long time, and I only started singing in my late ’30s, so it was a big step. But the process of doing the record was basically sticking with my normal instruments then adding things to the periphery to kind of spice it up.”

You’re moving into a next chapter of your life after your dad’s passing. Do you see it as a point where you start focusing on just your music?

“There’s plenty of people out there who are gonna pay tribute to the Allman Brothers – as they should – and if I’m one of them, it’s a special occasion. I hold that music in a sacred place.

“But I think it needs to be kept in its place and not become what you’re known for. I want to make my records; I’m gonna write my songs. As long as there’s a balance, I’m totally okay with doing both.”

Inevitably, comparisons are made between you and your dad. Has that been a tough load to shoulder?

“Not lately. Maybe when I was younger – you know, unconsciously, I’m sure. But it really depends on your perception of how you want to look at things. It’s really a blessing in a lot of ways. I’m really proud to be a part of a rich musical legacy. But I don’t want everything to be about that.

“I want to remain true to who I am – I don't really want to do a record that sounds like Interpol or something! I love that music, but I don’t think that’s who I am.”

When you pick up the guitar these days, where do your instincts take you?

“When I’m doing it for an audience, I’m always trying to focus on melody. And in jams, if it’s a longer jam, I always try to tell a story and play something interesting. There’s a lot of great guitar players who can play circles around people, but none of that really matters.”

What does matter?

“It’s really about having a unique voice, trying to take the listener on a journey, and making them feel like they have no idea what’s going to happen, but they still feel safe.

“There was an edge-of-your-seat quality about the way my father played. If I have a little bit of that, it’s a great thing. To channel that and go for it is one of the most enjoyable and freeing parts of playing music and guitar. It’s an endless expression.”

You have a lot of shows coming up. Will your setlist be mostly solo material, or will there be room for some Allmans jams?

“There will probably be something of my dad’s in there. And we do other covers, but it just depends. The guys in my band have all sorts of stuff up their sleeves – every now and then, we even do a Peter Tosh tune. I might do a Rolling Stones tune; there’s a bunch of stuff to throw in there, like a Grateful Dead tune.”

You've been jamming with a lot of fellow guitarists lately, like Lukas Nelson, Derek Trucks and Marcus King. Do you anticipate more of that once you hit the road?

“Most of that stuff is really spontaneous. Sometimes you're just in the same town as somebody. I think I sat in with Lukas and Marcus three days apart at the same venue.

“I didn’t even know Marcus was in town until my wife told me that afternoon. I hit him up and he said, ‘Yeah, come on down. Bring your guitar.’ I always love sitting in with people who I admire. But obviously, I would go see him anyway, regardless of whether I was playing.”

Are you planning on taking any of your dad’s gear on the road?

“I’ve used some of the family guitars in the past. There’s a really nice ’61 Gibson ES-335 that sounds amazing – it’s on the last record. I’ll continue to use that on certain things. And there’s a really nice hardtail ‘50s Fender Strat that I’ve used in the past. I wouldn’t bring it on tour without a designated guitar tech; and if it’s a fly-in date, I wouldn’t bring any of those. But I definitely look forward to recording with them.”

What are the key elements of your live rig?

“It’s kind of boring, really – I pretty much play straight into the amp. I have a ’65 or ’66 Fender Super Reverb. George Alessandro [of Alessandro Products] recently went through my amps, and they just sound amazing. I always have a couple of them on the road, and they both sound great.

“Lately, I’ve been using my Gold Top, the number one prototype of the Dickey Betts signature model, which I’ve had for years. If I’m doing fly-ins it’s pretty much my go-to; it’s a really nice guitar, but it’s not a vintage instrument.

“Sometimes I’ll use a DanDrive fuzz which J.D. Simo gave me – it’s a designer pedal. I used that on Cold Dark World. I pretty much always have an Analog Man King of Tone overdrive and a tuner in line.

“The King of Tone is just for a boost; I use just the right side of that. I don’t really mess with the left side. It’s just a little extra bit of sustain. It’s really transparent and minimal.”

• Duane Betts’ tour continues on July 12. Wild & Precious Life is on sale now.

Derek Trucks and Duane Betts have shared a stage for the first time since the passing of Dickey Betts last month, swaying through a soulful rendition of the Allman Brothers' Dreams.

Joining his former bandmate and the Tedeschi Trucks Band on stage at Miami's Sun, Sand, and Soul festival, Duane Betts helped pay tribute to his late father in the best way possible, and the lick trade-offs across the 15-minute track are a sight to behold. 

The pair grew up together side of stage at Allman Brother shows, a band they would play in alongside each other at the turn of the century, so it’s fitting that the band would unite them once more – as they have done their entire lives.  

During the jam, there appears to be a hint of apprehension from Betts, perhaps feeling the weight of the moment. But their rapport is plain to see, with Trucks encouraging his lifelong friend, coaxing him out of his shell.

Pride and joy then pours from Trucks, wielding a Gibson SG for the performance, as Betts and his Les Paul, flicked onto the neck pickup, starts to let go, unfurling a stream of single-note bends that draw roars from the crowd.  

It’s something viewers of fan-shot footage have also noticed. One commented: “[I] love how Derek looks so proud during Duane’s solo, like a brother would.”  

Betts’ tenure alongside Trucks in the Allman Brothers was short-lived, lasting about a year, and has since focused much of his efforts on his solo material. 

The pair collaborated on a song, Stare at the Sun last year, as a tribute to Dickey, which has become more far poignant in recent weeks. 

Speaking to Guitar World, Duane Betts recalled a conversation he’d had with Derek Trucks about the legacy of his father’s playing and how he’s “one of those players who’s not afraid to stare directly into the sun,” a line he said he loved. 

“I was already working on a new song,” he explained, “and Derek’s sentiment gave the song a center.”

The song effortlessly succeeds in achieving an “old school Florida vibe” with the song, and its parent record. But Guitar World's Matt Parker extends that it pulled off much more, saying it “also entwines some beautiful, fleeting nods to Betts Sr.’s playful major pentatonic runs and chiming tones.” 

Earlier in the day at the same festival, Trucks joined Duane Betts & the Palmetto Motel for a live rendition of the song, which you can check out via the above video. 

Betts Sr. passed aged 80, having suffered from cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was one of the more influential rock guitarists of his generation and leaves behind a legacy of work that includes Jessica – named after his daughter – and the Allman Brothers' biggest hit, Ramblin' Man.

Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers' Warren Haynes is a master of nuanced guitar tones and dynamics. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he puts a lot of emphasis on getting his sound right, however long that takes.

“If my sound isn't right, I feel like I'm wearing ankle weights,” he notes in a recent interview with Rick Beato.

“I can play you know, you can go through the motions and play stuff that you know works. But that's not fulfilling. That's not gratifying. To me, playing to a good sound is the most inspiring part about playing guitar.”

Part of what makes his sound distinctive is his preference for guitars that aren't easy to play. “I call my action, 'Too high for lead, not high enough for slide.' It's a compromise where I can do both.

“So I just keep it. And it works for me. And it also makes me slow down and fight the instrument a little bit more. I think there's something to be said for having to fight your instrument, you know.

“And I love Les Paul's for that, too. Because they put up a fight. They're not the easiest guitar to play. No, they're very gratifying and give you an amazing sound. But life could be easier. There are a lot of choices that are much easier to play, but it just doesn't feel right to me.”

He also reveals that he's currently working with Gibson on another signature guitar – one that features two P-90 pickups. 

“The sound that P-90s have is pretty amazing,” Haynes observes. “And I've been kind of getting back into it. It's gonna take me a while to get as comfortable with the P-90s as I am with humbuckers, but I'm ready for the challenge because I love the sound.”

As a longtime collaborator of the late Dickey Betts, Haynes also talks about how influential Dickey was in shaping his guitar playing and career. “It's a sad day. Losing Dickey, you know, I was a huge Allman Brothers fan from the time I was nine years old. Before I ever started playing guitar.

“It was such a thrill to be invited to be in his band and be the other guitar player and slide guitar player. Really, at that time, I was playing some slide, but not a ton. And he kind of forced me to step up my game. Because if I was gonna play slide standing next to Dickey Betts, I better get better at it.”

During their performance on April 19, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit paid tribute to guitarist Dickey Betts – who passed away April 18 – with a performance of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed featuring Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars.

The centerpiece instrumental of the Allman Brothers Band’s 1970 album Idlewild South has appeared in the 400 Unit’s set in the past – and featured on their 2021 covers record Georgia Blue – but Friday night’s performance of the song held special significance for the group.

“When you start playing guitar, you’re immediately drawn to Duane Allman playing slide, but then you realize there’s this other guitar player in the band,” said Sadler Vaden, Isbell’s guitar foil in the 400 Unit, after the performance. 

“He was a big driver of the band and was very creative, and he played with such space and loved jazz music, so he brought that influence into the Allman Brothers,” he continued. “He was just so musical. I would consider him very underrated, too, as a guitar player.”

At the Sound Amphitheater in Gautier, Mississippi, Isbell, Vaden and Dickinson traded solos over a 16-minute version of Betts' composition during the encore, following a main set heavy on tunes from 2023’s Weathervanes, which won a Grammy for Best Americana Album.

The following morning, Dickinson recalled his experience sharing the stage with Betts at Tipitina’s in New Orleans, when he was booked to play with the North Mississippi Allstars during the 2003 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. 

The pair hung out all day, he said, rehearsing and telling stories. But just before showtime, Betts’ former Allman Brothers bandmate Derek Trucks surprised them by walking onto the bus where he was sitting with Dickinson.

“I'm like, ‘Oh my God, this is so heavy,’ because this is literally right after the split,” Dickinson said, referring to Betts’ 2000 ouster from the Allman Brothers Band. “And here comes Derek on neutral territory – and they have the best, sweetest conversation.

“They didn't mention politics or band business. We just talked music and guitars and composition, and finding inspiration from different types of music. 

“I was just so impressed with the graciousness and the gentlemanly move by Derek to show up, and the graciousness and kindness of Dickey,” he adds. “He didn't hold that against Derek at all. That's like the most special moment I ever witnessed.”

Isbell and his band previously honored Betts’ bandmate Gregg Allman, who passed away in 2017, with performances of Whipping Post during shows following his death.

Tributes have been pouring in for Betts following the death of the Southern rock giant. Guitar World's Andy Aledort recently recounted how he became Betts' right-hand man, and shared his personal experience of working with the late guitar legend.

From 2005 to 2014, I had the honor and privilege of playing alongside Dickey Betts in his band, Great Southern. Sharing the stage with Dickey for a decade constitutes some of the greatest musical experiences of my life, and it was truly a blessing to get to know him and call him a friend.

Dickey was a giant, universally revered as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He possessed a purely distinct signature style and sound that was uniquely his own, distinguished by an ingenious blend of blues, rock, country, Western swing and Appalachian string music, delivered with the touch, tone and technique of a true virtuoso.

As one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band, Dickey, via his phenomenal playing and brilliant songwriting, laid the foundation for what was at the time a new style of music to be known as Southern rock.

He and his co-guitarist, Duane Allman, weaved intricate harmonized guitar parts unlike any ever heard before; prime examples of these beautifully intricate harmonized lines are at the heart of songs such as Blue Sky, Revival, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and many others. Betts’ impact on generations of guitarists, as well as all musicians and the broad spectrum of American music, is immeasurable. 

During my 10 years as Dickey’s guitarist, we played upwards of 250 shows across the globe. We traversed the U.S. many times and traveled to Japan and performed in Germany, Poland and Spain on numerous occasions. As one might imagine, there’s a flood of great memories from all of the shows and events shared over the years. My journeys with Dickey Betts taught me more about performing, and about life, than all of the years leading up to that point. 

Betts has long been one of my favorite guitarists. I fell in love with his playing from my initiation to the Allman Brothers Band’s music via their classic 1971 double live album, At Fillmore East. 

As an aspiring 15-year-old guitarist at the time, I remember hearing Statesboro Blues on a New York FM radio station, kicked off by the classic spoken introduction, “Ok, the Allman Brothers Band!” and Duane Allman’s laser-like slide guitar playing. 

I had just started to play slide, and when I heard Statesboro, it inspired me to sit down in earnest to get it together, doing my best to learn every one of Duane’s slide solos, along with every single Duane and Dickey solo on the entire album. 30 years later, this dedicated study would pay off in ways I never could’ve imagined. 

As a longtime writer for guitar magazines, I’d had the opportunity to interview, play with and become friends with many of my guitar heroes, including Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Albert King, John McLaughlin and others. As of 2001, Dickey Betts had not been one of them.

During the ’90s, Allman Brothers’ guitarist Warren Haynes had become a friend, and throughout that time I found myself backstage at many Allman Brothers shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

There were a handful of times when I was within a few feet of Dickey; he’d always be sitting in a chair off the side of the stage, apart from everyone else, most definitely “in his own space.” His vibe was that he wanted to be left alone, and I respected the impression he gave.  

In 2000, Dickey was unceremoniously “released” – fired – from the Allman Brothers Band. Stories abounded on both sides with a lot of negative statements made. Guitar World Editor-in-Chief Brad Tolinski thought it would be a good idea to offer Dickey a monthly column in the magazine, as it would afford him the opportunity to speak directly to his many fans around the world. I began working with Dickey on his column, called True Grit, which ultimately ran for more than a year and a half. 

The lessons were a big hit with the readers, as each month he’d use the space to teach and discuss his most beloved songs, such as In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Blue Sky, Jessica and Ramblin’ Man. Readers could see how deep-thinking and eloquent Betts was, as he spoke at length about the roots of his playing, which began at the age of five, when he played guitar alongside his violin-playing father and uncles. 

The family’s musical heritage originated from Prince Edward Sound in Nova Scotia, and this very distinct style can be found in indigenous Acadian recordings from more than 100 years ago. Elements of the unique melodic nature of this music served to lay the groundwork for Dickey’s original and beautifully melodic soloing style on the guitar.

“An important element in the formation of my style is that my dad was a fiddle player, and I grew up surrounded by all of those great bluegrass fiddle melodies,” Dickey said.

“My dad was very into precision; he was a cabinet maker, and every nail had to be driven just right. He was the same way about music: the fiddle had to be tuned perfectly, and he played with the same precise approach. 

“All of those beautiful Irish folk melodies of the fiddle had an impact on me early on, which I didn’t even realize until I started trying to find my own voice on the guitar. The strong sense of melody I inherited from him had been deeply instilled in me.

“That’s when I began to search for a strong sense of melody within the blues form, which I think is a good overall characterization of my style. One of the best examples of this influence coming to the fore is Jessica.”

In putting the articles together, Dickey and I would speak at length on the phone. One day, I said to him, “Dickey, it would be great to sit in with you some time if the opportunity arises.” His response was unexpected; he said, “Any show you can make, call my stage manager Mike, and he will make sure there is a half-stack Marshall waiting for you.” No-one had ever made such a generous offer to me.

For the next three years, if Dickey had a show within 100 miles, I made sure I was there. Between 2002 and 2005, I sat in with Dickey and the band more than 20 times.

For most people, Betts was a bit of an enigma. His reputation as a hell raiser was well earned, and there’s no way anyone could know what he was like on a personal level. He was definitely mercurial, but he was also one of the sweetest and most generous people you could ever meet. And his sense of humor was tremendous. 

In 2003, before I joined the band, he invited me down to his house to celebrate his birthday with him and his family. It was a nice gathering, with one of his daughters and his grandchildren; I was the only non-family member there.

At one point I went outside to call my wife, and within a few minutes, the door opened and there was Dickey with a plate and a big piece of birthday cake. He said, “I was looking for you! Don’t you want some of my cake?” 

One morning in 2005, while I was standing in line at the bank, Dickey called and said, “Hey, listen – my guitar player just quit and the tour starts in a week. Do you want to do it?” At that time I had a full-time job with Guitar World, writing for five different magazines, plus two young kids at home. So I said, “Yes, definitely! When do you want me to come down?” He said, “Right now!”

It was a tall task to learn all of the intricate harmonized guitar parts for Dickey's entire three-hour show, and I had about two days to do it. His sets included some of his most difficult material, such as High Falls, Nobody Knows, True Gravity, Jessica, Nothing You Can Do, Revival and so many others – almost all of the material from the Allman Brothers records as well as the Great Southern records and new songs, too. I transcribed reams of charts and brought them with me, and from the very first rehearsal, we were off to the races.

At our very first show, a private event at B.B. King’s Blues Club & Grill in New York City, I went up onstage before sound check to plug in and get the sound together. Dickey came out, stood next to me, plugged in and said, “Let’s play High Falls together.”

As we started to play the opening harmonized lines, he stopped and said, “You should play the parts a little more delicately. Think of our guitars harmonizing in the same way that the Everly Brothers sing.” It was such a beautiful way to describe the sound he was looking for, and I knew immediately what he meant. That one piece of advice changed the entire way I looked at playing harmonized parts with him for all of the songs.

I’ve been asked many times what it was like to work with Dickey. He was a great artist, and as such was very sensitive to every aspect of the music and the contributions of each member of the band. 

He could be very impressionistic in his descriptions of what he was looking for. For example, for the last section of the final harmonized lines in Jessica, he said, “For this part, imagine leaves falling gently in the breeze, drifting back and forth as they drop down from the sky.” It was such a beautifully clear image, such a great mindset to have, and we all understood the nature of the sound he wanted. 

On the first tour, we spent a lot of time sitting together on the bus, and he would talk about his feelings regarding leaving the Allman Brothers Band. He often became very emotional about it.

The music of the band he helped create, and the relationship between the band and the audience, meant everything in the world to him. There was a lot of frustration.

But he would never say anything negative about anyone in the band. He always referred to Gregg Allman as “Gregory,” and he would say, “Gregory is one of the greatest singers I have ever heard. The man has a golden voice.”

In 2011, we had just returned from a Rock Legends cruise and were sitting in his music room – it was just Dickey, his guitar tech Carlos Rodriquez and me. We were talking about songs to add to the set, and I said, “People always ask for Pony Boy; it’s such a great tune.” Dickey said, “Oh, I played that on an acoustic resonator guitar, and I don’t think I even remember how to play it.” 

He then picked up a resonator guitar that was next to him and proceeded to play the intricate slide guitar part of Pony Boy… perfectly. It appeared to be absolutely effortless. Carlos and I had our jaws on the ground.

He then looked at me and said, “I gave you one of Duane’s slides, right?” I said, “No, you did not!” He walked to the other room and within a few minutes came back holding out a glass Coricidin bottle.

He said, “I could only find one — here you go.” I said, ”Don’t give it to me if you only have one!” He said, “There are some others here somewhere. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.” I said, “Yes, I most definitely want to.” I used Duane Allman’s slide for every gig for the next six years.

Dickey was a complex person. He was very passionate about music and could be intense about what he wanted and expected from the band. Dickey set the bar very high and led by example. These are the things that made him who he was and made him such a great bandleader. He wanted and expected everyone to play their best, even better than they thought they could. The result was that everyone’s level of musicianship grew by leaps and bounds. 

I am forever indebted to Dickey Betts for the opportunity to play with him and spend time with him. He blessed the world with his incredible music, and his great legacy will be celebrated for decades to come.

Thanks to a distinct melting pot of genres, a scintillating dual guitar act that reinvented the wheel for two-pronged player partnerships and a borderline unrivaled live energy, the Allman Brothers Band became one of the most influential rock groups of their time.

Born into the music world at the turn of the ‘70s and initially masterminded by Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts and a handful of other instrumentalists, ABB helped progress the Southern rock sound, and pushed the boundaries of the jam genre in the process.

Across the band’s lifetime – which bore witness to tragedy, turmoil and triumph in equal measure – Allman and co. commited countless hits to tape. 

Theirs is a history that can be charted through their music, from the timeless live cuts of At Fillmore East in 1971, recorded before the untimely death of Duane Allman, to the comeback singles of the ‘90s, when Betts’ penchant for country music shone through.

Here, we take you through the ABB story by counting down their 25 greatest tracks, starting with a little number lifted from one of rock’s most enduring live records…

25. Stormy Monday

At Fillmore East (1971)

The Allman Brothers Band were essential in bringing classic blues music to a worldwide audience in the late Sixties/early Seventies, and their masterful rendition of the T-Bone Walker classic (Call It) Stormy Monday, from At Fillmore East, introduced the song to a new generation of listeners.

Duane and Gregg had been playing the song for years as it was a staple in their set with the Allman Joys, basing their version on Bobby “Blue” Bland’s cover. Here, Duane and Dickey display their complete mastery of the blues idiom.

“My biggest blues guitar influences would be T-Bone, B.B. King and Albert King,” said Betts. “A big part of Albert’s signature style was his use of extremely wide bends. He would bend notes all over the place while staying on one string at one fret; he could get four or five different notes out of one single position!

“Albert sounds sort of like a trumpet player on licks like these. On the Fillmore versions of both Stormy Monday and Whipping Post, you can hear examples of Albert’s influence on my playing in terms of using wide bends such as these.”

24. Hot ‘Lanta

At Fillmore East (1971)

Made famous as an impeccably recorded live performance at one of the legendary 1971 Fillmore East shows, this cookin’, jazzy instrumental, an ABB compositional collaboration, features a brisk swing groove in 3/4 meter – a “jazz waltz” – that recalls the feel of Whipping Post but is slightly faster and edgier, with Oakley laying down an aggressive and tastefully crafted walking bassline, lots of Duane’s and Dickey’s signature harmonized lead guitar melodies and some of Gregg’s most inspired and ambitious B3 playing ever.

The tune is based on a repeating blues progression in A minor that’s extended from the standard 12 bars to 13 (if counted in 12/8 meter instead of 3/4), via a dramatic and decidedly jazzy twist – a chromatically descending dominant seven sharp-nine chord, starting on the five, E7#9, and traveling down to C#7#9 – before restating the intro organ riff as a one-bar turnaround.

Gregg, Dickey and Duane all take fiery, well-conceived improvised solos, two choruses each, that lead up to an exhilarating duet drum break. Not content, however, to just leave it at that and come back in with a restatement of the “head” (melody), the Brothers inject a clever ensemble interlude riff into the arrangement, built around the drum break, giving both the composition and their performance of it added richness and depth.

23. No One to Run With

An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set (1995)

One of the highlights from the two excellent live albums the released by the ABB in the Nineties. Betts’ ode to the good old days and lost running buddies quickly became a tribute to Duane, Berry, Lamar and every other fallen brother – sadly added to over the next 20 years.

This live number features a signature Allen Woody bassline, great Haynes and Betts guitar parts, a growling Allman vocal and a spotlight on the three-man rhythm section, with Trucks and Jaimoe augmented by Marc Quinones. In other words, the whole Allmans enchilada. No wonder the song remained in heavy rotation until the final show.

22. You Don’t Love Me

At Fillmore East (1971)

“Everything Duane and I play on the extended ending of that track was completely improvised,” said Dickey Betts. “I played a piece of an old gospel song, some train sounds and things like that, and Duane picked up on those things and went off into his own improvisations.”

The success of the Allman Brothers Band exploded with the release of the incendiary masterpiece At Fillmore East, recorded over two nights in New York City, March 12 and 13, 1971. What is largely forgotten is that the band was originally the “special guest” opening act for Johnny Winter, but in short order the Allmans were switched to headliners.

You Don’t Love Me is an old blues tune originally written and recorded by Willie Cobb in 1960. In 1965, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy released a cover version on Junior Wells’ debut release, Hoodoo Man Blues, upon which the Allmans based their version. The band uses this track as a vehicle for a near 20-minute jam, comprising the entire second side of disc one. Duane and Dickey trade intensely burning solos through the first segment of the performance, joined by Thom Doucette’s harmonica.

At the seven-minute point, the band stops and Duane ventures into a two-minute unaccompanied improvisation that is simply stunning, followed by an equally inspired solo turn by Betts.

“What you hear was played in the spur-of-the-moment, which is exactly what the blues is all about,” said Betts. “You have to be fast on your feet, and react instantly to all of the sounds around you, allowing the music to happen in as spontaneous a way as possible.”

21. Seven Turns

Seven Turns (1990)

The Allman Brothers Band had a lot to prove when they regrouped for the second time in 1990 – namely if they could really make a run at the glories of the original golden era with new members Warren Haynes and Allen Woody. The title track of their comeback album answered a lot of questions.

A classic Betts, country-tinged rocker, it tipped its hat to Native American philosophy, offered Blue Sky-like uplift and featured Haynes’ slide and Betts’ leads side by side. The signature call-and-response vocal that closes the song came about naturally. Gregg Allman was shooting pool as Haynes and Betts worked out vocal harmonies and unconsciously answered their lines. Haynes had the good sense to recognize the missing piece to the puzzle.

20. Black Hearted Woman

The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Like Whipping Post, this early Gregg Allman–penned gem from the band’s debut album features one of their earliest uses of odd meter, opening with a bluesy, repeating one-bar ensemble riff in A that drops an eighth note from the last beat, resulting in a meter of 7/8, before giving way to a more “stable” groove, in this case 4/4.

The song’s funky, hard-driving verse sections are based on a clever twist on the standard 12-bar blues form that extends it two bars, with the two-dominant chord (B7) interjected after the five (E7#9) and the progression capped off by an octave-doubled ensemble break riff that brings to mind the soulful themes of Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies repertoire.

Duane and Dickey both serve up inspired, fiery licks throughout the arrangement, their guitars panned hard left and right in the stereo mix, with punchy lead tones and aggressive string bends and finger vibratos. Gregg kills it vocally, Berry Oakley’s bass line cooks and Butch Trucks’ and Jaimoe’s percussion interlude/breakdown, featuring drums and congas, ushers in a dramatic minor pentatonic “tribal” riff that Oakley scat sings along to, adding intensity and soul to an already earthy melody.

19. Come and Go Blues

Brothers and Sisters (1973)

This underrated masterpiece, originally conceived by Gregg on a fingerpicked acoustic guitar in open G tuning, is built around a hauntingly beautiful, descending blues turnaround that repeats over a G bass pedal tone for the song’s verses. (Check out his stirring live solo performance video of the song from 1981 on YouTube.)

The full ABB reading of Come and Go Blues featured on Brothers and Sisters, with bassist Lamar Williams admirably stepping into the late Berry Oakley’s large musical shoes, develops the composition into a rather ambitious arrangement, with inventive instrumental interludes and ensemble breaks throughout and tasteful improvised solos by Leavell and Betts.

18. One Way Out

Eat a Peach (1972)

One Way Out is a blues song originally recorded (or so it seems) by Elmore James in 1960/’61. Before the Elmore version was released, however, Sonny Boy Williamson II recorded it for Chess Records, releasing it in September 1961. He then re-recorded the song with blues guitarist Buddy Guy in 1963, and this latter version features the arrangement covered by the Allman Brothers, replete with the well-known signature guitar line. Elmore’s version was released posthumously in 1965, bearing a closer resemblance to the earlier Sonny Boy track.

The version released on Eat a Peach was recorded during the band’s final performance at Fillmore East on the night of the venue’s closing, June 27, 1971. It is included on the deluxe, expanded editions of At Fillmore East. The track fades in on Betts’ statement of the primary guitar lick, with the entire band dropping in 16 bars later as Duane emulates Sonny Boy’s harmonica lick with slide guitar. Dickey takes the first solo and it is simply stunning, with laser beam-like intensity and, probably, the greatest Les Paul/Marshall guitar tone ever heard.

Following a brief drum solo, Dickey and Duane trade four-bar licks, and during Duane’s last phrase, bassist Berry Oakley enters a beat early, briefly throwing the band off kilter. They quickly readjust, and this wrinkle is considered an essential part of the song’s charm. The Allmans’ version of One Way Out has been featured in many films, none more effectively than Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, used as the backtrack to a brutal bar fight.

17. Little Martha

Eat a Peach (1972)

Duane Allman’s sole songwriting credit closes Eat a Peach on a wistful note, as it did every Allman Brothers concert of the last 20 years, piped through the P.A. Said to come to Duane in a dream and pieced together over the years, the lilting dobro duet with Betts is played in open Eb. Like so much about Duane, it leaves you wondering “what if.”

“My brother loved playing that kind of stuff, and I have to think there would have been more music coming out of him,” said Gregg.

16. Nobody Knows

Shades of Two Worlds (1991)

The Allman Brothers are revered for instrumental masterpieces like Jessica, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Hot ‘Lanta, Don’t Want You No More, Mountain Jam, Little Martha and Les Brers in A Minor, but they have on occasion directed that instrumental magic touch to vocal tunes such as Whipping Post, as well as this tour de force from the band’s early Nineties incarnation.

Gregg Allman had derided the tune for being too similar to Whipping Post – both songs are in A minor with a 6/8 feel (as is Hot ‘Lanta) – but make no mistake; Nobody Knows is as powerful a track as any in the band’s history.

“Nobody Knows is one of the best lyrical songs I’ve ever written,” Betts said in ’91. “These are nice, abstract, poetic lyrics. I wrote that about as fast as I could write the words down, at 4:30 in the morning after rehearsal.

“[Producer] Tom Dowd had said, ‘We could use a tune as heavy as ‘Whipping Post” for this record,’ and I thought, ‘Man, that’s a tall order!’ I sat down and those words just started flying out. In 30 minutes I’d written the whole thing, like I was writing a letter to someone.”

15. Mountain Jam

Eat a Peach (1972)

Based on the 1967 Donovan song There Is a Mountain, Mountain Jam served as an extended instrumental jamming vehicle for the Allman Brothers Band throughout the band’s long history.

The first recording of the song is from one of their very first gigs, May 4, 1969; they also played the song on the very last night the Allman Brothers Band ever performed, October 29, 2014. This is wholly appropriate, as no song better represents the adventurous, experimental spirit of the band’s musical DNA.

Listeners get the first hints of Mountain Jam and the end of the album that precedes Eat a Peach, At Fillmore East, following the last strains of Whipping Post as the album fades out.

At nearly 34 minutes in length, Mountain Jam is a wild ride, through beautifully delicate harmonized guitar lines, intensely extraordinary guitar solos from Duane and Dickey, expressive Hammond organ work from Gregg, and lock-tight, swinging rhythm section work from Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe. Dickey and Duane burst into improvised harmonized lines, all the while displaying incredible chops and dreamlike Les Paul/Marshall stack guitar tones.

A furious tandem drum solo is followed by a deeply syncopated bass solo from Berry and a shift to a shuffle feel and reference to Jimi Hendrix’ Third Stone from the Sun, transitioning seamlessly to a 6/8 instrumental take on Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

14. Statesboro Blues

At Fillmore East (1971)

For a great many of us – especially those who were teenagers in 1971 when At Fillmore East was released – Statesboro Blues represents the very moment the Allman Brothers Band blasted into our lives.

As an aspiring young guitar player, its impact was instantaneous. Duane Allman’s dramatic and distinct slide guitar intro grabs you from the very first note and, as the opening track on what would be the band’s breakthrough album, the hard-rocking, lock-tight sound and spirit of the Allman Brothers was now firmly set in stone. Even Michael Aherns’ understated introduction, “Okay, the Allman Brothers Band,” is now considered an essential part of the track.

Statesboro Blues was written by Piedmont blues guitarist/singer Blind Willie McTell, who first recorded the song in 1928, backing himself on acoustic guitar. Blues singer/guitarist Taj Mahal recorded a great version of the song on his 1968 eponymous debut, featuring guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, and this version is the one Duane heard, inspiring him to learn to play slide guitar.

The story goes that brother Gregg had given Duane the album for his birthday, simultaneously giving him a bottle of Coricidan, a cold medication, as Duane was sick at the time. Inspired by the recording, Duane emptied the pills from the bottle and, wearing it on the ring finger of his fretting hand, taught himself to play slide guitar. 

Today, millions of guitarists the world over use bottle-type slides on their ring fingers – such as Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks – in emulation of Duane Allman.

13. Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’

Idlewild South (1972)

Rhythm and blues and soul were the two styles of music that had the strongest influence on Gregg Allman as a performer and as a composer. He had stated often that such artists as Ray Charles, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Little Milton were hugely influential on his singing style and musical sense.

According to Gregg, “When I heard Ray Charles, I said, ‘That’s my goal in life.’ Ray Charles is the one who taught me to just relax and let it ooze out. If it’s in your soul, it’ll come out.”

Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ kicks off with a dual slide guitar/harmonica lick, followed by a funky blues-like rhythm part laid down by Dickey Betts, abutted by slide guitar from Duane and harmonica from Thom Doucette. Duane plays a stinging, high slide solo that culminates with a syncopated band figure similar to those heard on Black Hearted Woman.

12. Les Brers in A Minor

Eat a Peach (1972)

Like Betts’ earlier masterpiece, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, this majestic nine-minute instrumental, penned by the guitarist in 1971 and recorded by the ABB in the wake of brother Duane’s tragic death late that year, showcases Dickey’s eclectic musical sophistication as a composer and grasp of both jazz harmony and classical orchestration.

The piece begins with an extended, mesmerizing intro, featuring a highly interactive ensemble crescendo that swells from a whisper through a series of meditative tonal-center shifts, from A to G and back, performed in a “floaty” free-time feel and culminating in a climactic succession of loud, dramatic “orchestra hits,” in a way that brings to mind the opening strains from the first and second movements of Beethoven’s ninth symphony.

Near the four-minute mark, Berry Oakley nimbly kicks off the tune’s main theme and establishes its brisk tempo with a growling, flat-picked bass riff, a repeating ostinato figure that outlines an A minor hexatonic tonality, over which Dickey and Gregg then proceed to double the tune’s melody in unison over a rich, syncopated percussion groove.

This is followed at 4:25 by an inventive, jazzy bridge, or interlude, that momentarily interrupts the driving 16th-note groove for about 20 seconds with a somber melody, set to an intriguing chord progression played with a half-time feel, followed by a return to the 16th-note groove and some inspired open-ended soloing and jamming, with each individual solo bookended and punctuated by tight ensemble riffs.

11. Ain’t Wasting Time No More

Eat a Peach (1972)

As the lead single from Eat a Peach, the first Allman Brothers Band album released following the tragic death of founding band member and leader Duane Allman, Gregg Allman’s heartfelt composition captures, in part, his feelings at one of the most difficult times of his life.

The lyrical content of the song deals with overcoming depression, with lines like, “Last Sunday morning the sunshine felt like rain, the week before, they all seemed the same... But with the help of God and two friends, I’ve come to realize, I still have two strong legs and even wings to fly,” and also, “You don’t need no gypsy to tell you why, you can’t let another precious day go by.”

The song is driven by Gregg’s rock-solid piano playing, supplemented by lyrical slide guitar playing by Dickey Betts, ably picking up the Duane Allman mantle, as well as gently flowing percussion from Jaimoe.

10. Ramblin’ Man

Brothers and Sisters (1973)

Written by Dickey Betts in 1972, Ramblin’ Man was the Allman Brothers Band’s only top-10 hit single and the last song recorded by bassist Berry Oakley, shortly before his untimely passing in November of that year. Inspired by a 1951 Hank Williams composition of the same name, the song features Betts singing lead vocal.

Ramblin’ Man saw the Allmans reach a commercial peak and, together with other Betts-penned songs included on the album, represented a stylistic change in direction for the group, from their foundational blues-based and jazz-tinged rock to more of a country-pop flavor, while still upholding their credo of collective improvisation and the jamming spirit that the ABB has always embraced.

Ramblin’ Man was written and performed in the key of G, but the original recording was sped up in the mastering process, which, in addition to increasing the tempo by a few beats per minute, raised its pitch a little more than a half step, resulting in the finished track sounding slightly sharp of the key of Ab.

Along with other Betts compositions featured on Brothers and Sisters, namely Southbound, Pony Boy and the instrumental Jessica, Ramblin’ Man represented Dickey’s emergence as one of the outfit’s principal songwriters, alongside Gregg, and demonstrated that the guitarist could admirably carry the torch as the band’s only full-time guitarist, as they chose, for the time being, not to replace Duane with another six-stringer, instead bringing in the very talented pianist Chuck Leavell as a second instrumental soloist.

Ramblin’ Man gloriously showcases Betts’ signature lyrical soloing style, which is characterized by owing eighth-note rhythms, rolling melodic contours, soar- ing, pedal steel-like bends, smooth legato phrasing and the frequent use of the major hexatonic scale, a sound that is regarded by many as his musical calling card.

Guitarist Les Dudek made a guest appearance on the track, providing the arrangement’s signature sweet harmony leads, which he layered by overdubbing single-note parts.

9. Revival

Idlewild South (1970)

Revival, aka Revival (Love Is Everywhere), represents Dickey Betts’ first songwriting credit with the band. “Revival started out as an instrumental tune,” said Betts. “In fact, we would refer to that first instrumental section of the song as ‘The Gypsy Dance.’ When I wrote it, I had the image of gypsies dancing around a fire in my mind, and I tried to conjure that spirit in the music.”

The song opens with Duane Allman’s strummed acoustic-guitar rhythm part, followed immediately by an evocative, bluesy harmonized guitar line. Once again, the influence of modal jazz is present, as the song moves seamlessly through different tonalities, such as major, natural minor and the Dorian mode.

Drummer “Jaimoe” Jai Johanny Johanson is featured on percussion on the track, lending a Latin feel. This Latin feel, also present on In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, was inspired in part by Latin jazz as well as the Latin flavors South Florida musicians like Mike Pinera (Blues Image) were incorporating into their music at the time.

“In writing this tune – or any of the instrumentals – you have to decide what you are trying to do, and then see if you can make it happen,” said Betts. “These are the mental tools I use to help guide me through, to find the proper direction for whatever piece of music I am working on. I used this approach for songs like In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, High Falls and Revival. Just like the use of words in the telling of a story, every note is of essential importance in crafting a successful instrumental.”

After this initial minor-key instrumental section, the song moves back into a major key for the uplifting gospel-like vocal sections.

8. Jessica

Brothers and Sisters (1973)

Brothers and Sisters was the first album to feature neither Duane Allman nor Berry Oakley, both of whom had died tragically in motorcycle accidents over the previous two years.

Quite incredibly, the band pulled together to create the most successful album of its entire career, on the strength of such powerful Betts compositions as Jessica, Southbound and the band’s only Number One hit, Ramblin’ Man. Brothers and Sisters sold over a million copies within a month of its release, and to date over seven million copies worldwide.

“Here’s the story which has been told many times,” recalled Betts. “I had a general idea of a melody and a feeling for Jessica, but I couldn’t get started on it; nothing was really adding up. My little girl Jessica, who at the time was an infant, crawled up to me and I started playing to her, playing to the feeling of the innocence of her personality. And soon the whole song just fell together. The song was justly named after her for providing the needed inspiration.”

Jessica also displays the influence of some other elements that were important to Betts’ musical development, such as the playing of legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

“Django only used two fingers to fret with,” said Betts, “so I devised a melody that I could play with just the index and middle fingers.” Additionally, Betts’ ancestry includes the fiddle players of Prince Edward Sound, which is located in eastern Canada just above Nova Scotia.

“These fiddle players were known for possessing a very distinct style,” explained Betts, “and the style of the Prince Edward Sound fiddlers sounded just like the fiddle playing of my dad and my uncles. This provided me with an instinct for a melodic approach to playing. One of the best examples of this influence coming to the fore is Jessica.”

7. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Idlewild South (1970) and At Fillmore East (1971)

This is the first of many distinctly original instrumental songs Dickey Betts would write for the Allman Brothers Band and, like Whipping Post, its true power, breadth and scope came to fruition in the live setting. It remains one of the most recognizable songs in the band’s catalog, and was a staple in the live shows from the song’s inception until the band’s final shows in 2014.

Said Betts, “[Late Allmans bassist] Berry Oakley and I inspired each other’s improvisational creativity while we were in Second Coming, the band that presaged the Allman Brothers.

One of our favorite things to do was to jam in minor keys, experimenting freely with the sounds of different minor modes. We allowed our ears to guide us, and this type of ‘jamming’ served to inspire the writing of songs like In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Les Brers in A Minor. We were both fascinated with the modal jazz improvisation of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, such as that heard on Kind of Blue.”

“In Memory of Elizabeth Reed was inspired by a woman I knew named Carmella. At the time, she was involved with a friend of mine, but something started to happen be- tween her and myself. She was a very seductive, sultry, secretive woman, and I thought our little cloak-and-dagger romance was a beautiful image for a song. She and I would rendezvous in this old abandoned graveyard by the river, which was the place I liked to go to write songs.

“I wrote just about everything there at that time; I wrote Blue Sky there, too. When I wrote this song for her, the gravestone next to where I was sitting happened to say, ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’, so that became the song’s title.”

An essential signature element in this song is the brilliant use of harmonized guitar lines, present in both the initial “intro” section of the tune as well as the main theme and the harmonized melodic lines that wrap up each guitar solo section.

“I first discovered harmonized melodies from listening to western swing music, like Bob Wills, where the melodies are harmonized by guitar, pedal steel, piano and violin,” said Betts.

“Devising harmonized guitar parts became something Duane and I really enjoyed working on together. We would let our imaginations guide us as to what the harmony line should sound like. Of course, the presence of these guitar harmonies became essential to the sound of the Allman Brothers Band.”

6. Melissa

Eat a Peach (1972)

Gregg Allman said that he wrote and threw out 300-400 songs before he wrote his first keeper: Melissa, in late 1967, shortly after Duane traded a beloved guitar to get Gregg a quality acoustic. Allman said that he picked up the guitar not knowing that his brother had tuned it to open E.

“I just started strumming it and hit these beautiful chords,” he said. “It was just open strings, then an E shape first fret, then moved to the second fret. This is a great example of the way different tunings can open up different roads to you as a songwriter. The music immediately made me feel good and the words just started coming to me.”

The brothers Allman cut the song first in 1968 with Butch Trucks’ 31st of February, a demo that was eventually released under the misleading name “Duane and Gregg Allman”. After Duane’s death, as the band finished a few tracks for Eat a Peach, Gregg took out his old favorite.

5. It’s Not My Cross to Bear

The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Along with Dreams, It’s Not My Cross to Bear is the second of two songs that Gregg had in his back pocket when he traveled from Los Angeles to join the new band in Jacksonville. And, again, it’s remarkable that he wrote such a deep, world weary blues at such a young age, promising a departing lover, “I’ll live on, I’ll be strong,” a promise that seems primarily determined to convince himself.

In a demo recorded in Los Angeles in January 1969, the song is structurally complete and Gregg’s vocals are already deep and true, but it also provides keen insight into what the band added: a sure groove and steady time through the deepest, slowest blues and two contrasting but equally powerful guitar voices, with Duane and Dickey playing solos that bleed, cry and gnash just as surely as Gregg’s simply phrased, powerfully emotive vocals.

No song better encapsulates the way in which the Allman Brothers Band delivered on the elusive goal of countless hippie rockers who loved Muddy Waters: playing blues that were equally original and rooted in the classics.

4. Dreams

The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Gregg Allman said that he arrived in Jacksonville to join his brother’s new band with a catalog of 22 songs. His confidence in his songwriting flagged as the first dozen songs were rejected, before he got to Dreams, which he always maintained was the only song he ever wrote on a Hammond organ. (He generally preferred guitar or piano.)

The song’s minimalist lyrics read like a blues haiku, anchored by the existentialist dread of being haunted by redemptive dreams so distant you can’t even dream them.

The song, which was immediately worked up by the band, became a perfect skeleton to hang their interpretation of Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s modal jazz explorations. With a bassline directly pinched from Davis’ All Blues and Jaimoe playing drum fills from the same song, Duane Allman played a deeply moving two-part solo over a simply swinging two-chord vamp.

It is the only classic Allman Brothers song to feature one instead of two guitar soloists, with Duane playing a “straight” solo, then picking up his slide to kick the song into overdrive.

Like so much of the debut album, Dreams remained a live staple until the last show. It is arguably the band’s spiritual core.

3. Midnight Rider

Idlewild South (1970)

Gregg Allman’s theme song came to him almost whole in a flash of inspiration. “Midnight Rider hit me like a damn sack of hoe handles,” he said. “It was just there, crawling all over me. And about an hour and 15 minutes later I had the rough draft down... and was putting it down on tape.”

The only problem was that Allman’s inspiration came in the middle of the night and drummer Jaimoe was the only band member he could find to record a demo – and besides, he was locked out of the Capricorn Records studio. When studio managers said to leave them alone after being woken up at 3 a.m., Allman and roadie Kim Payne broke in. Along the way, Payne contributed a crucial line that completed the song: “I’ve gone past the point of caring/some ol’ bed I’ll soon be sharing.”

With his other bandmates nowhere to be found, Allman put a bass in the hands of the awoken road manager Twiggs Lyndon, showing him how to play the distinctive lick running through his brain and telling him to play absolutely nothing else.

After wildly flipping switches trying to turn on the studio boards, Payne managed to get tape rolling and Gregg recorded a demo of Midnight Rider with himself on 12-string guitar, Lyndon playing rudimentary bass and Jaimoe on drums, or maybe percussion – no-one’s recollection is quite clear on that.

They all say, however, that the final version differed little structurally from the quickly recorded demo, other than Duane Allman and Dickey Betts’ subtly sweet guitar work, which put the song over the top, creating a haunting, simple, perfectly crafted classic that will be played long after we are all dust in the wind.

2. Blue Sky

Eat a Peach (1972)

Blue Sky is a gentle ballad-like song with a country feel, revealing the country influences present in the songwriting style of Dickey Betts. He wrote the song as a tribute to his wife, Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig, who was of Native American descent.

Eat a Peach was the first album released after the passing of Duane Allman, and Blue Sky represents one of his final recordings with the band. Played rarely in concert at the time, a great version featuring Duane is available on S.U.N.Y. at Stonybrook: Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71, self-released by the band in 2003. Blue Sky, Dickey Betts’ debut as a lead singer on an Allman Brothers album, features beautifully inspired harmonized guitar lines from Dickey and Duane.

“When we originally recorded Blue Sky, Duane and I tried all different kinds of harmonies until we found the one that best suited the song,” said Betts. “We found that the softer-edged harmony was what worked best.”

In many instances, the relationship between the melody and the harmony changes to a combination of thirds and fourths, and this is exactly the case with Blue Sky. The initial guitar melody in the song is based on a scale known as E major hexatonic, which is the same as a standard major scale, but the seventh tone is removed, resulting in a six-tone major scale. The very first melodic line in the song, however, was not harmonized by another guitar.

1. Whipping Post

The Allman Brothers Band (1969) and At Fillmore East (1971)

Of the many timeless classic rock songs residing in the Allman Brothers Band canon, Whipping Post stands as the heavyweight champion of them all.

Released originally on the band’s eponymous debut, the song’s full power was realized in live performance, captured in all its brilliance on the band’s watershed double live album, At Fillmore East. At 22 minutes in length, this version comprises the entire fourth and closing side of the album. It is widely revered as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

This live version showcases everything original – and everything truly extraordinary – about the Allman Brothers Band: distinctly original music, soulful, expressive vocals and lyrics from Gregg Allman, fiery, virtuoso guitar playing from Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, and jazz-like musical intricacy and precise band interplay.

Whipping Post, written by Gregg Allman, started out as a basic slow blues in A minor. While initially working on it in rehearsal, bassist Berry Oakley said, “Hold it! I have an idea for this tune – let’s work on it tomorrow.” And the next day he came in with a completely rearranged, re-imagined structure and feel that became the Whipping Post we all know.

He had reworked the intro into an odd 11/8 meter that somehow sounds perfectly suited for the song. From there, Duane and Dickey began to forge their unique harmonized guitar lines.

“When Duane and I would work on harmonizing guitar parts, we didn’t use any kind of technical approach,” said Betts. “We didn’t study the structure of the scales or spend time figuring out on paper what should work.

“We approached harmonizing guitar parts in the same way we approached vocal harmonies: we would try a few different ideas, and go with the one that sounded the best to our ears. Usually, I’d have a certain sound in my mind that I was after, and we used a ‘trial and error’ method to find it.”

In honor of Dickey Betts, who passed away at the age of 80 on April 18 2024, we have been leafing through the archives to unearth some of his best interviews with Guitar World. The following is a comprehensive oral history of the Allman Brothers Band, featuring Betts, Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, and others who were part of the group's storied career. It was first published in the July 2009 issue.

"The Road Goes on Forever.” Gregg Allman wrote and sang the words in Midnight Rider, and his Allman Brothers Band (ABB) adopted them as a motto, and for good reason: despite the death of two founding members, two breakups and an acrimonious parting with guitarist Dickey Betts, this summer the band is marking its 40th anniversary and doing so in high style.

Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, who have now played together for nine years in the ABB, form a dynamic, explosive duo that blows away the competition. In that respect, some things in the Allman Brothers Band never change.

The road for the ABB began in 1968 when Duane Allman, a red-hot session guitarist who had made his mark recording with Otis Rush, Boz Scaggs, Aretha Franklin and others, headed to Jacksonville, Florida, looking to put together a band. His manager wanted a power trio – just like Cream – but Duane reportedly scoffed at the notion, saying, “I ain’t on no star trip.” 

It was a revealing statement, for the group that resulted from Duane’s quest for kindred musical souls was anything but ego-driven. The music of the Allman Brothers Band has revolved around group improvisation and dynamics since their self-titled 1969 debut.

Duane’s musical vision and open mind allowed him to ignore protocol and put together a completely unique hard-rocking outfit featuring two very different but complementary drummers (Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson and Butch Trucks), an inventive bassist who could hold down the bottom end while displaying melodic flair (Berry Oakley), a soulful singer and organist (brother Gregg), and another hot lead guitarist (Betts).

Betts would prove to be a monumental addition, for his participation underscored the band’s adherence to a rule of jazz: that a group needs multiple, equally powerful lead voices to truly generate sparks. 

Betts and Allman rewrote the rules for how two rock guitarists can work together, completely scrapping the traditional rhythm/lead roles to stand toe to toe, alternately cutting each other’s heads and joining together for marvelous flights of harmony.

The ABB’s instrumental majesty was grounded in the blues and in the excellent tunes penned by Gregg Allman and Betts. This combination of a unique vision, instrumental superiority and great songwriting has carried the band through four decades. The Allmans pushed on after Duane Allman’s and Berry Oakley’s tragic deaths, reunited after two breakups and, perhaps most shockingly, have performed without Betts since 2000.

What follows is the ultimate overview of the band’s career, an oral history told in the words of the people who lived it.

The beginning of the Allman Brothers Band

Duane Allman met drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson while working on sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Duane wanted to form his own band, and his manager, Phil Walden, suggested that he create a power trio in the spirit of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. 

Allman targeted bassist Berry Oakley, a Chicago native who was then playing in a Florida band called Second Coming with guitarist Dickey Betts. At Duane’s invitation, Oakley came to Alabama for jam sessions...

Dickey Betts: “The band just sort of happened. It was supposed to be a three-piece with Duane, Berry and Jaimoe. Duane and Jaimoe kept coming and sitting in with Second Coming to get used to playing together, and as we started jamming, something clicked. 

“Eventually Duane asked if I’d go with them. When Butch [Trucks] came along one day and jammed with us, it was something special. All of a sudden the trio had five pieces. We all were smart enough to see that each of us was making a contribution to the sound.”

Butch Trucks: “I had played with Gregg and Duane before, and he called me when he came back to Jacksonville. He was jamming with lots of different people. We played, and it just worked. Jaimoe told Duane I was the guy they needed – he wanted two drummers like James Brown had – but I don’t think Duane wanted me in the band. 

“I fit musically, but I was a bundle of insecurity, and he didn’t want that. He was such a strong person – very confident and totally sure of himself – and that’s the kind of people he wanted around him.”

Betts: “It says a lot that Duane’s hero was Muhammad Ali. He had Ali’s type of supreme confidence. If you weren’t involved in what he thought was the big picture, he didn’t have any time for you. 

“A lot of people really didn’t like him for that. It’s not that he was aggressive; it was more a super-positive, straight-ahead, I’ve-got-work-to-do kind of thing. If you didn’t get it, see you later. He always seemed like he was charging ahead.”

Trucks: “One day we were jamming on a shuffle, going nowhere, so I started pulling back and Duane whipped around, looked me in the eyes and played this lick way up the neck, like a challenge. My first reaction was to back up, but he kept doing it, which had everyone looking at me like the whole flaccid nature of the sound was my fault. 

“The third time I got really angry and started pounding the drums like I was hitting him upside his head. The jam took off, and I forgot about being self-conscious and started playing music. Duane smiled at me, as if to say, 'Now that’s more like it!'

“It was like he reached inside me and flipped a switch, and I’ve never been insecure about my drumming since. It was an absolute epiphany; it hit me like a ton of bricks. I swear, if that moment had not happened, I would probably have spent the past 30 years as a teacher. Duane was capable of reaching inside people and pulling out the best. He made us all realize that music will never be great if everyone doesn’t give it all they have, and we all took the attitude that if you don’t do that, why bother?”

Betts: “Duane was a natural leader, and if he got knocked down, you’d feel compelled to do everything you could to get him back up and going again. He and I talked a lot about that and decided that would be the difference in our band as compared to every other band we’d ever been in: when someone falls, instead of talking about him or taking advantage of him, we’d pull him back up. Whenever we needed a leader, someone would step forward and lead.”

Trucks: “One day, the five of us had just played this incredible jam, and Duane went to the door and said, 'If anyone wants to leave this room, they’re going to have to fight their way out.' We all knew we had something great going, but we didn’t have a singer.”

Phil Walden [co-founder of Capricorn Records]: “They had this great instrumental presence but no real vocalist. So Duane called Gregg and asked him to come down.”

Gregg was still living in Los Angeles, having remained there after the breakup of Hour Glass, a band he and Duane had formed and which had recorded for Liberty Records. The records had little success, and Duane returned to the South, “where we belonged,” says Gregg.

Gregg Allman: “I didn’t have a band, but I was under contract to a label that had me cut two terrible records with these studio cats in L.A. They had me do a blues version of Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E, which can’t be done. It was really horrible. They told us what to wear, what to play… everything. I hated it, so I was excited when my brother called and said he was putting a new band together and wanted me to join. I was doing nothing, going nowhere.

“Duane said he was tired of being a robot on the staff down in Muscle Shoals [Sound Studio], even though he had made some progress and gotten a little fame from playing with great people like Aretha and Wilson Pickett. He wanted to take off and do his own thing. He said, 'I’m ready to get back on the stage, and I got this killer band together. We got two drummers, a great bass player and a hell of a lead guitar player, too.' And I said, 'Well, what do you do?' And he said, 'Wait’ll you get here and I’ll show you.'

“I didn’t know that he had learned to play slide so well. We were not together for the 11 months after he left L.A. – the only time we were ever apart – and that’s when he really learned to play slide. He sent me a ticket, but I didn’t have any money, so I cashed it in, stuck out my thumb on the San Bernardino Freeway and got a ride all the way to Jacksonville.

“I walked into rehearsal on March 26, 1969, and they played me the track they had worked up – Muddy Waters’ Trouble No More. It blew me away. It was so intense. I got my brother aside and said, 'I don’t know if I can cut this. I don’t know if I’m good enough.' And he starts in on me: 'Oh, you little punk, I told these people all about you, and you don’t come in here letting me down.'

“He handed me the words to the song, all written out. I said, 'Count it off, let’s do it,' and I did my damnedest. I’d never heard or sung this song before, but by God I did it. I shut my eyes and sang, and at the end of that there was just a long silence. At that moment we knew what we had. Duane knew which buttons to push. He kinda pissed me off and embarrassed me into singing my guts out.”

Walden: “Aside from a true vocal presence, Gregg brought these really important foundation songs that the band was really built around.”

Allman: “They asked if I had any songs, and I showed them 22. They rejected them all except Ain’t My Cross to Bear and Dreams and told me to get busy writing. And within the next five days I wrote Whipping Post, Black-Hearted Woman and a few others. I got on a real roll there. Those songs came out of the long struggle of trying so hard and getting fucked by different land sharks in the business – just the competition I experienced out in L.A. and being really frustrated, but hanging on and not saying 'Fuck it' and going into construction work or something.”

Betts: “Berry played a huge role in the band’s arrangements. Whipping Post was a ballad when Gregg brought it to us. It was a real melancholy, slow minor-key blues, along the lines of Dreams. Oakley came up with the heavy bass line that starts off the track, along with the 6/8-to-5/8 shifting time signature. 

“Oakley called a halt to the rehearsal and said, 'Let me work on this song tonight, and let’s get back to it tomorrow.' By the next day, he had that intro worked out. When he played that riff for us, everyone went, 'Yeah! That’s it!' Oakley morphed a lot of those songs into something different.”

Breaking through with guitar harmonies

The band’s first real musical breakthrough was the extensive use of guitar harmonies. Betts, with his knack for crafting memorable melodies, generally played the line first. Allman, with his perfect pitch and spot-on ear, picked up anything and created a harmony on the spot.

Betts: “We got those ideas from jazz horn players like Miles Davis and John Coltrane and fiddle lines from western swing music. I listened to a lot of country and string [bluegrass] music growing up. I played mandolin, ukulele and fiddle before I ever touched a guitar, which may be where a lot of the major keys I play come from. 

“But I also always loved jazz, and once the Allman Brothers were formed, Jaimoe really fired us up on jazz, which is all he listens to. He had us listening to a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and a lot of our guitar arrangements came from the way they played together.

“Duane and I had an immense amount of respect for each other. We talked about being jealous of each other and how dangerous it was to think that way, that we had to fight that feeling when we were onstage. He’d say, 'When I listen to you play, I have to try hard to keep the jealously thing at bay and not try to out-do you when I play my solo. But I still want to play my best!'

“We’d laugh about what a thin line that was. We learned a lot from each other. Duane had a strong belief in himself, and he was damn good. I was damn good too; I just didn’t believe in myself the way Duane did.”

Warren Haynes: “The Allman Brothers Band is based on the fact that no one onstage can rest on their laurels; you have to bring it. That’s where that fire comes from, and it certainly emanates from the intensity of having two great lead players like Dickey and Duane throwing sparks off of each other. 

“Obviously, jazz and blues musicians have been doing this for decades, but I think they really brought that sense that anyone onstage can inspire anyone else at any given time to rock music.”

Allman: “Duane was all about two lead guitars. He loved players like Curtis Mayfield and wanted the bass, keyboards and second guitar to form patterns behind the solo rather than just comping. Duane also loved jazz guitarists like Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell.

“But the main initial jazz influence came from Jaimoe, and Jaimoe really got all of us into Coltrane, which became a big influence. I brought the blues to the band, and what country music you hear in our sound came from Dickey. We all dug this different stuff, and we all started listening to the other guys’ music. What came out was a mixture of all of it.”

Betts: “Duane and Gregg had a real 'purist' blues approach, but Oakley and I, in our band, would take a standard blues and push the envelope. We loved the blues, but we wanted to play in a rock style, like what Cream and Hendrix were doing.

“Duane was smart enough to see what ingredients were missing from both bands. We knew that we didn’t have enough of the purist blues, and he didn’t have enough of the avant-garde/psychedelic approach to the blues. So he tried to put the two sounds together, and that was the first step in finding the sound of the Allman Brothers Band.”

A new voice on the American music scene

The band moved to Macon, Georgia, and spent countless hours living and playing together, in the process forming a real brotherhood. Their self-titled debut, featuring five Gregg Allman originals and covers of Muddy Waters and Spencer Davis songs, was released in November 1969. It heralded the arrival of a new voice on the American music scene, but few were listening...

Walden: “The first album sold less than 35,000 copies when it was released.”

Betts: “We were just so naïve. All we knew is that we had the best band that any of us had ever played in and were making the best music that we had ever made. That’s what we went with. Everyone in the industry was saying that we’d never make it, we’d never do anything, that Phil Walden should move us to New York or L.A. and acclimate us to the industry, that we had to get the idea of how a rock and roll band was supposed to present themselves.

“Of course, none of us would do that, and thankfully, Walden was smart enough to see that would just ruin what we had. We just stayed on the road, playing gigs and getting tighter and better.”

Allman: “We sure didn’t set out to be a 'jam band', but those long jams just kinda emanated from within the band, because we didn’t want to just play three minutes and be over. And we definitely didn’t want to play nobody else’s songs like we had to do in California. We were going to do our own tunes, which at first meant mine, or else we were going to take old blues songs like Trouble No More and totally refurbish them to our tastes.”

The band’s second album Idlewild South, was released less than a year later. Producer Tom Dowd, who would become an honorary member of the band, helped them expand their palette. Still, the album did only marginally better than its predecessor despite two singles, Midnight Rider and Revival and the debut of Betts’ masterful instrumental In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.

Allman: “When the first record came out at Number 200 with an anchor, and dropped off the face of the earth, my brother and I did not get discouraged. But I thought Idlewild South was a much better record, and when that died on the vine, I thought, 'Damn, maybe we were wrong about this group.'”

Walden: “I doubted myself. It seemed like I had just been wrong and that they were never going to catch on. People just didn’t grasp what the Allmans were all about, musically or any other way. But they kept touring, going across the country, establishing themselves city by city as the best live band around, and building a base.”

Betts: “Duane was bursting with energy; he was a force to be reckoned with. His drive and focus were incredible, as was his intense belief in himself and our band. He knew we were going to make it. We all knew we were a good band, but no one else had that supreme confidence. And his confidence and enthusiasm were infectious. He helped us all believe in ourselves, and that was an essential key to the success of the Allman Brothers Band.”

Allman: “We played 306 nights in 1970, traveling most of the off days. We were in a Ford Econoline van and then a Winnebago. That kind of schedule puts a lot of wear and tear on your ass, but we were sure getting better. We simply realized that we were a better live band than studio outfit because we were always ready to experiment – offstage as well as on, I may add. And the audience was a big part of what we did, which couldn’t be duplicated in a studio. A light bulb finally went off: we needed to do a live album.”

At Fillmore East

The Allman Brothers’ marathon live shows were certainly drawing raves. Onstage, the group combined the Grateful Dead’s go-anywhere jam ethos with a far-superior musical precision. Under the circumstances, a live album was an obvious choice. The result was the double-album At Fillmore East. To cut the album, the band played New York’s Fillmore East for three nights on March 11, 12 and 13 of 1971. 

A mobile 16-track recording studio was parked on the street outside the theater, with Dowd and a small crew set up inside. Things went smoothly on the first night until the band unexpectedly brought out sax player “Juicy” Carter and harmonica player Thom Doucette.

At Fillmore East’s sales numbers were strong from the start, and the band kept on the road. Duane’s constant faith seemed to be paying off. But things were far from calm...

Tom Dowd: “One of the guys asked me how to mic the horn, and I thought he was joking. They started playing and the horn was leaking all over everything, rendering the songs unusable. I ran down at the break and grabbed Duane and said, 'The horn has to go!' and he went, 'But he’s right on, man.' And I said, 'Duane, trust me, this isn’t the time to try this out.' He asked if the harp could stick around, and I said sure, because I knew it could be contained [on the recording] and wiped out if necessary.

“Every night after the show we would just grab some beers and sandwiches and head up to the Atlantic studios to go through the show. That way, the next night, they knew exactly what they had and which songs they didn’t have to play again.”

Betts: “We just felt like we could play all night and sometimes we did. We could really hit the note. There’s not a single fix on Fillmore. Everything you hear there is how we played it.”

Dowd: “That album captured the band in all its glory. The Allmans have always had a perpetual swing sensation that is unique in rock. They swing like they’re playing jazz when they play things that are tangential to the blues, and even when they play heavy rock. They’re never vertical but always going forward, and it’s always a groove. 

“Fusion is a term that came later, but if you wanted to look at a fusion album, it would be Fillmore East. Here was a rock and roll band playing blues in the jazz vernacular. And they tore the place up.”

Betts: “There’s nothing too complicated about what makes Fillmore a great album. We were a hell of a band, and we just got a good recording that captured what we sounded like. I think it’s one of the greatest musical projects that’s ever been done in any genre. It’s an absolutely honest representation of our band and of the times.”

Jaimoe: “Fillmore was a particularly great performance and represents what a typical night was like for us. That’s what we did!”

Walden: “Atlantic/Atco rejected the idea of releasing a double-live album. [Atlantic executive] Jerry Wexler thought it was ridiculous to preserve all these jams. But we explained to them that the Allman Brothers were the people’s band, that playing – not recording – was what they were all about, and that a standard-length phonograph record was confining to a group like this.”

Allman: “All of a sudden, here comes fame and fortune. In a three- or four-week period, we went from rags to riches, from living on a three-dollar-a-day per diem to 'Get anything you want, boys!'”

Butch Trucks: “Duane was strong, confident and honest. He wanted to experience everything, good or bad, and when he realized that what he was doing was negative, he would stop. I saw him experiment with every drug there was, but once he realized it was affecting his music, he stopped and never did it again. And that included heroin. He never stuck a needle in his arm, but he would snort it. 

“One night in the summer of ’71, in San Francisco, he came to my hotel room and jumped in my face. He said, 'When Dickey gets up to play, the rhythm section is pumping away, and when I get up there you’re laying back and not pushing at all.' I looked him dead in the eye and said, 'Duane, you’re so fucked up, you’re not giving us anything.' He looked me in the eye, walked out the door and never touched the stuff again. 

“I think he knew I was telling the truth, and that’s what he wanted to hear. He needed someone to tell him what he already knew, and it was one of the few times I had the balls to get in his face.”

Dr. John [keyboardist and peer of the Allmans]: “Duane was so special, man, a real sweetheart. He was out there, past left field, but he was as sweet as they come. In some way, Duane knew he lived on the edge. I don’t think he had a death wish, but he knew that he was pushing it, that his lifestyle wasn’t necessarily compatible with life. I remember being in Miami with him, and he got an Opel because that was supposed to be the car you couldn’t turn over, and he just wanted to prove that he could flip it.

“We were there doing a session with Ronnie Hawkins, and the three of us was havin’ a drink with a hurricane comin’ up, and he said something like, 'If I’m not here, could you look after my brother?' It wouldn’t have been his style to be that direct, ’cause he wasn’t that clear about anything. But he knew he might not be around for real long, and we both understood that’s what he was saying. It was eerie, man.”

Tragedy strikes

At Fillmore East was certified Gold on October 14, 1971. 20 days later Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in Macon, while on a break from recording the band’s followup album, Eat a Peach, in Miami. He was one month shy of his 25th birthday and had been playing slide guitar for less than four years.

Allman: “We didn’t enjoy our [breakthrough with] Fillmore for long. A lot of the initial impact of the joy was absent because of the heavy tragedy that happened to my brother. We worked so hard, so long, to get there, then, bam, he was gone.”

Betts: “We thought about breaking up and all forming our own bands. But the thought of just ending it and being alone was too depressing.”

Scott Boyer [musician close to the Allmans]: “Gregg was extremely tore up, which is only natural. Actually, every musician in Macon was pretty down. We couldn’t believe Duane was gone. It was inconceivable how someone that alive could be dead. He was a central figure for all of us, and, of course, he was the central figure for Gregg. They were extremely close.”

Trucks: “It was just unacceptable that he was gone. Unfathomable. We thought about quitting because how could we go on without Duane? But then we thought, How could we stop? We decided to take six months off, but we had to get back together after a few weeks because it was too lonely and depressing. A musician gets his emotions out by playing music. We were all just devastated, and the only way to deal with it was to play.”

The band had already recorded several tracks for Eat a Peach. These included Little Martha, a gorgeous acoustic duet between Betts and Allman, which was the only music Duane ever officially wrote, and Blue Sky, Betts’ country rock song, which features a stunning dual-guitar break. Just weeks after Duane’s death, the band recorded four more outstanding tracks, including Melissa, Betts’ instrumental Les Brers in A Minor and Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More, Gregg’s defiant response to his brother’s passing. 

The double-album release was rounded out by more great tracks from the Fillmore shows, including the 34-minute Mountain Jam, One Way Out and Trouble No More. Eat a Peach was an instant classic, but as the band returned to the road, they felt the absence of their guiding light profoundly.

Allman and Betts worked constantly, recording solo albums even as the ABB began cutting Brothers and Sisters, their follow-up to Eat a Peach, featuring the hits Ramblin’ Man and Jessica. Pianist Chuck Leavell, who had played on Gregg’s Laid Back solo effort, became a crucial new member of the ABB.

Trucks: “We played gigs as a five-piece, but there was a big hole there. How could you not miss such a personality? But we were up there playing the music that he started. We were playing for him, and that was the way to be closest to him. Duane had put this thing inside all of us and we couldn’t walk away.”

Chuck Leavell: “I was asked to work on Laid Back. The Brothers were recording Brothers and Sisters at the same time, the sessions often overlapped, and we all hung around the studio an awful lot. Before I knew what was going on, I was working on that, too. Things were pretty loose.”

Betts: “We did what we had to do. We were forced to bring new people into the band, and replacing Duane with another guitar player was out of the question. We added Chuck Leavell, and it changed the whole direction of the band – a little too much in the end. It wasn’t by any means all bad change; Jessica wouldn’t be the same tune without Chuck, who is just a great, great player. But the band headed off the path of what the original players had envisioned from the first day.

Trucks: “Dickey took over. While Duane was around we were a blues-based band and we added John Coltrane and Miles Davis to the mix. After Duane died, we started heading in a country direction, because that was Dickey’s background.

“We all thought Ramblin’ Man was too country to even record. We knew it was a good song, but it didn’t sound like us. 

“We went to the studio to do a demo to send to Merle Haggard or someone, and then we got into that big long guitar jam, which kind of fit us, so we put it on the album, and it became a hit. Then it more and more and more became Dickey’s band.”

Shortly into sessions for the new album, tragedy struck the band again. On November 11, 1972, Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle crash, just two weeks past the one-year anniversary – and only three blocks from the location – of Duane’s death.

The band added Lamar Williams and finished Brothers and Sisters, which was released in August 1973. It became the Allman Brothers Band’s first Number One album, thanks in part to the hit single Ramblin’ Man, as well as Jessica and Southbound, which both remain band staples. 

The Allman Brothers were just about to find their greatest success, but the band was reeling from the impact of so many changes.

Betts: “After Duane died, it was still very dynamic at first, but it just slowly slipped away. And then we lost Berry, and it was very hard to continue. I’m not weighing Duane’s loss against Berry’s loss, but losing two members was just so tough. Berry was also a huge personality. 

“He was the social dynamics guy: he wanted our band to relate to the people honestly. He was always making sure that the merchandise was worth what they were charging, and he was always going in and arguing about not letting the ticket prices get too high, so that our people could still afford to come see us.”

Trucks: “Brothers and Sisters took off and we became big rock stars and were the number-one band in the country, but the music became secondary to everything else. Of course, having all these gorgeous women falling over us and all this stuff was fun. It was a big party. But the music became secondary. 

“Eventually, we all realized that the drugs and everything else had become so destructive that we were killing ourselves, and it got to where we didn’t like each other. We just couldn’t keep it going.”

Betts: “The whole thing probably wouldn’t have even lasted as long as it did if it weren’t for Chuck Leavell. He was just such a strong player.”

Breakups and reunions

By the time the group’s live effort Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas was released in 1976, the Allmans had disbanded. They reunited in 1978 with guitarist “Dangerous” Dan Toler, who had played with Betts in his band Great Southern, and released Enlightened Rogues in early 1979. But some indefinable spark was missing, and the band’s music grew weaker over the course of two uncompelling albums recorded for Arista: 1980’s Reach for the Sky and 1981’s Brothers of the Road.

Dowd: “We tried very hard to reach the classic sound on Enlightened Rogues. We worked our fingers to the bone.”

Trucks: “That band just didn’t work. The chemistry wasn’t there. The only reason the first album [Reach for the Sky] was half successful was that Tom Dowd worked so hard.”

Betts: “We just could not measure up to the original band. Even when we had some great players, there was a pull, a tension. The unity was lacking. And we didn’t have another slide guitarist, so I played slide, which I never really liked, and which also took away from the sound of my guitar.”

Trucks: “At Arista, [label founder] Clive Davis tried to turn us into Led Zeppelin and brought in outside producers, and it just kept getting worse.”

Betts: “When the music trend started turning away from blues-oriented rock toward synthesizer-based dance music arrangements, the record company started to dictate what type of record we could make, and we got caught up in that whole thing. 

“A guy like Eric Clapton has a way of being a chameleon, of finding songs that keep him in the forefront and surviving through times when the kind of music he loves to play isn’t popular. 

“The Allman Brothers Band was never able to do that. We either sounded like our band or we didn’t. The band never really had anything special when we’re not able to do the instrumental jams and improvisation – which were kind of taken away from us for a while. We were even asked not to mention southern rock in an interview or wear hats onstage.”

Allman: “Arista tried to throw us into doing something that we weren’t. The whole music scene of the Eighties just wasn’t conducive to our music at all. We cut two albums and…it was very frustrating. Embarrassing, really.”

Betts: “We broke up in ’81 because we decided we better just back out or we would ruin what was left of the band’s image.”

Throughout the '80s, the members of the Allman Brothers Band toured with different groups. By the end of the decade, the new classic rock radio format had given the Allman Brothers’ great songs renewed prominence, while the 1989 four-album Dreams box set shone a light on their legacy. 

Epic Records, which had both Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts under contract, suggested an ABB reunion. The band took to the road with two new players: guitarist Warren Haynes, who had played with Betts for several years, and bassist Allen Woody, who was hired after open auditions.

The Allman Brothers band returned to the studio with Dowd and produced 1990’s Seven Turns, a surprisingly strong comeback. They followed it up with Shades of Two Worlds the following year, then showed their mettle on two live releases and 1994’s Where It All Begins.

Betts: “Classic rock stations really brought the Allman Brothers back, and Stevie Ray Vaughan opened the whole thing up. He just would not be denied and kept making those traditional urban blues records. He just shoved blues down people’s throats, and they got to likin’ it. He just kicked the door open.

“I remember how beautiful it made me feel to hear him on the radio. And I think that a lot of other people felt the same way and were more ready for us to reappear. The Who were touring, and the Stones were getting ready to hit the road. CBS wanted us to get back together because everyone else was doing it. But it wasn’t nearly that simple. We knew we had to go slow, to see if the music was up to snuff and whether we really wanted to do it.

“Seven Turns was a tough album, because we knew that the critics would use it to determine whether we should be back playing together or should have remained broken up. We were under pressure to show that we belonged back together. We never doubted it, but the album simply had to prove that.”

Allman: “To me, there wasn’t a lot of pressure on Seven Turns. It was more of an adventure: let’s see what a few years away from each other did for us. And it was good. We needed a break from each other and came out swinging.”

Betts: “There were a variety of reasons that group worked better than some of the others. For one thing, Warren and Allen knew what we were after. They had studied us for years and understood where they fit into the band. And Warren was the first guitarist who came along since Duane who could really stand on his own and play off of me, which is the basis of our whole style. 

“He’s a great player and has his own style, so he was not pulled into constantly trying to sound like Duane, though he was plagued with that comparison from day one.”

Haynes: “I had listened to the Allman Brothers since I was nine years old, and I studied that music hard. But once I joined the band, some of the things that they were doing became obvious to me in a way that I could never have figured out as a listener.

“At the beginning I was constantly drawing the line about how much of Duane’s influence to show. It was always left up to me how much of it to insert. They’ve always said, 'Play like you. That’s what we hired you to do.' They definitely allowed me the creative freedom to interject my own personality into the music. Not a lot of bands would do that. 

“The Allman Brothers were very open minded about that from the very beginning, because that music was built on the foundation of two guitar players working equally together. If you don’t have that, the music suffers.”

Allman: “From the start, Woody and Warren were full-on Allman Brothers, much more so than some people in earlier incarnations. And that made a big difference.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Allman Brothers Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1995. Gregg Allman remembers the event primarily for what he didn’t do – speak coherently – and how it prompted him to sober up.

Allman: “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night is what made me finally clean up. I could barely stand up. I meant to say something about my mother and something about Bill Graham. I meant to say a lot of stuff, and I was too gone to say any of it. All day I tried to be really cool about it, but you just cannot. Later, I watched it on TV, and I was mortified. 

“That’s what it took for me to get serious about cleaning up. I didn’t go into a rehab. I hired a private nurse to come in to my house in Novato, California. It was a real rough year, but I sure needed it.”

Departure of Dickey Betts

In 1997, Haynes and Woody left the Allman Brothers Band to pursue their power trio, Gov’t Mule, full time. The band replaced them with bassist Oteil Burbridge and guitarist Jack Pearson and soldiered on with a somewhat quieter, more groove-based sound. 

In ’99, Pearson departed and was replaced by Derek Trucks, Butch’s then-19-year-old nephew. One year later, Trucks had already begun to establish himself as a dynamic soloist when, after a brief and shaky spring tour, the band members told Dickey Betts that they would no longer perform with him.

Trucks: “We did not fire Dickey. We wrote him a letter and said we would not tour with him that summer, but dates were already booked and we were going to honor them with someone else. He responded by hiring a lawyer and suing us, and then we sat there in arbitration for weeks. After all the stuff that was said, there’s no way we can work together again.”

Betts: “I knew that there was tension that had to snap, but I had no idea that it was all on me. I thought something would snap that I would have to take care of, like I had so many times before. I called Gregg, and he said, ‘I don’t owe you an explanation. Listen to the fucking tapes [of the spring tour],’ and hung up.”

Allman: “We made this decision for a simple reason: the music was suffering. It had ceased to be a band – everything had to be based around what Dickey was playing. I was actually getting ready to walk because I could not stand the situation anymore. I even wrote a letter of resignation. Then I spoke with Butchie [Trucks], and he was thinking the same thing, and we just realized that was crazy. 

“After so many years of drinking and abusing drugs, I finally cleaned up, and I didn’t want to waste one minute of time for the rest of my life. God, I had wasted enough time! I was finally sober. That monkey was off my back. I even quit cigarettes and I quit it all at once. 

“I realized I was on death’s doorstep, and I was thankful to God that I had woke up before all the innings of the game were over. I wasn’t gonna put up with nothing – not another minute of bullying or negativity mixed with music. I’d quit music first, and I don’t think I’m ever gonna quit music.

“It’s definitely hard to maintain a band for so many years for many, many reasons. It’s a give-and-take thing, so similar to a marriage or relationship. You have to maintain a balance or everyone suffers.”

Betts: “It was a real family for so long, and we took care of each other. We took care of brother Gregg, and we took care of brother Butch. It’s amazing that we kept going for 30 years with our two big brothers gone. Then it finally flew apart, and it’s kind of okay. I just happened to be the one that it came down on.”

Guitarist Jimmy Herring joined the ABB for their 2000 summer tour. That August, Woody passed away. Allman called Haynes and extended an offer to perform with the group. Unsure of the Gov’t Mule’s future, Haynes accepted and returned to the Allmans the following March for their annual residency at New York City’s Beacon Theater. 

He was billed as a special guest, with no guarantees of what would come next. Haynes and Derek Trucks immediately struck an explosive chemistry, which has continued to deepen over the years. Subsequent to Haynes rejoining the band, the ABB released Hittin’ the Note, their last album of new material, in 2003.

Haynes: “No one knew what I was going to do, including me. I had some concerns about coming back to the Allmans, but Gregg’s phone call was really a saving grace, because I needed to stop wallowing in my misery over Woody’s death and plunge into something. I agreed to play some shows and see if the vibe and the music were good.”

Trucks: “Warren was the guy we needed. I’m not sure we would have continued at all if Warren hadn’t taken the job. I simply can’t imagine who else could have done this gig.”

Haynes: “The band has certainly undergone a strange transformation, but in a very positive way. This particular unit plays great together and probably listens more intently than any band I’ve ever been in, which makes it easy to go some place different every night. And that is the goal: to take this venerable institution someplace new without ever losing touch with the four-decade tradition that makes the Allman Brothers Band something really special.”

Derek Trucks: “It’s just an underlying respect for the band’s history and legacy, which Warren and I both share. You want to make music that can stand on its own, and you want to be able to listen to it in 20 years and be proud. It’s a big obligation to make music as the Allman Brothers, and both of us want to make sure that the name is back in a very positive way. You don’t want to be the guy who let it slip!”

Allman: “Where does Derek come from? I don’t know, but if you believe in reincarnation...”

Trucks: “I can’t explain Derek and don’t even try. I’ve been playing with him nine or 10 years now and I still have no idea what he is going to do. Every time he plays something it’s a surprise, and it’s astounding what that says about his musical depth. I think he is what Duane may have become if he had more time. Remember, Duane was 24 when he died and had only been playing slide for a few years.”

Allman: “Probably not a day goes by that we don’t talk about Duane. It’s almost like he’s with us. Sometimes when I’m onstage I can feel his presence so strong, I can almost smell him. It’s like he’s right there next to me. For years I thought that my brother really got shortchanged because he never quite got to see what he had accomplished, but I’ve slowly come to realize that he left a hell of a legacy for dying at the age of 24.

“When we perform, the drummers are back there, behind me, and I’m on the frontline of the stage. One night at the Beacon, I looked down and realized I was the only one left on the frontline. I guess it makes me appreciate the whole thing even more, really. 

“It’s hard to stick together, and that’s probably why a lot of other good bands don’t last this long. My brother, Woody, Oakley – they can’t be replaced because they were all unique individuals. But it doesn’t mean the whole shebang has got to fold. We still have music left to play.”

Duane Betts is gearing up for the release of his debut solo album, Wild and Precious Life, and has shared a new single, featuring Derek Trucks, called Staring at the Sun.

The track is reportedly sparked by something Trucks said to Duane about his father, Dickey Betts – the Allman Brothers Band’s iconic guitarist.

“I was inspired by a conversation I’d had with Derek,” explains Betts. “He was talking about my father’s guitar playing and he told me, ‘Your dad is one of those players who’s not afraid to stare directly into the sun,’ and I loved that line. I was already working on a new song, and Derek’s sentiment gave the song a center.”

Of course, there are few players better placed to assess Dickey Betts’ guitar style than these two and they share a musical kinship, given Trucks’ own connections with the Allman Brothers Band. 

For his part, Betts has said he “wanted to make a record which would really capture that old school Florida vibe.” Stare At The Sun certainly does that, but it also entwines some beautiful, fleeting nods to Betts Sr.’s playful major pentatonic runs and chiming tones.

Betts has spent much of his playing career serving as a sideman, whether in his father’s group, Dickey Betts Band and Great Southern, or the folk rockers Dawes. He then formed the Allman Betts Band in with Devon Allman and Berry Oakley Jr. in 2018.

“It felt like the right time to make something that was entirely my own vision,” says Betts of his first solo album. “This is a record that guitar players will love, but at its core, it’s really a song record. It’s an album about who I am, where I come from, and what I believe in.”

Trucks isn’t the only big name guitar player to drop in, either. Blues/Southern rock maestro, Marcus King also appears to take a solo on the song Cold Dark World. 

Meanwhile, in a recent Guitar World interview, Derek Trucks named 11 guitarists who shaped his sound and took the chance to discuss his admiration for the Allman Brothers Band’s other guitarist. “Duane Allman was an almost mythical character in my house...” says the slide virtuoso. “The starting point for me when it comes to guitar.”

Wild And Precious Life is out July 14. Head to Duane Betts’ site for more information and pre-orders.

A 1958 sunburst Gibson Les Paul owned and played on stage by Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts has hit the auction block. 

According to Gotta Have Rock and Roll, the auction house hosting the listing, the electric guitar – which requires a minimum bid of $500,000, but is expected to sell for between $800,000 and $1.2 million – started life as a Goldtop, and Betts had Gibson refinish it with a sunburst look some time in the early ‘70s.

Betts was reportedly the primary owner and player of the guitar between 1968 and 1978, before giving it to his Allman Brothers Band bandmate Dan Toler in 1979. Toler continued to play the guitar while a member of the ABB, and went on to use it with the Gregg Allman Band and in various other gigs through 1998.

The winning bidder will receive, alongside the guitar itself, a detailed notarized letter of authenticity from William H. Perkins of Macon, Georgia’s Republic Artist Management – tour manager for the Allman Brothers Band from 1970 until 1976 and co-personal manager for Gregg Allman from 1983 to 1989.

Additionally, the guitar – the condition of which is described as “very good” – comes with printouts of photos of both Betts and Toler playing the guitar, as well as a Gotta Have Rock and Roll certificate of authenticity.

For more information, head to Gotta Have Rock and Roll.

Six-strings played by iconic guitarists continue to command astronomically high prices. Earlier this month, a 1973 Fender Mustang played and smashed onstage by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain sold for nearly $500,000.

This week, a 1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster built for and played by Elvis Presley – sister guitar to the one championed by The Beatles’ George Harrison – was listed for sale on Reverb with a price tag of $295,000.

In fact, instruments selling at these kinds of prices is so common that back in May, we compiled the 11 most expensive guitars ever sold at auction, featuring Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E acoustic, which in 2020 sold for an eye-watering $6,010,000, and David Gilmour's 1954 Fender Stratocaster, which in 2019 went for $1,815,000.

Later this month, The Dickey Betts Band will release a new live album, Ramblin’ Man: Live at The St. George Theatre.

Recorded during the band's July 21, 2018 performance at the historic St. George Theatre on Staten Island in New York City, Ramblin’ Man is set for a July 26 release on DVD/CD + LP. 

Today, we present the exclusive premiere of the set's title track, a scintillating version of Betts' signature contribution to the Allman Brothers Band catalog. You can check it out below.

"When I first wrote this song, I didn’t think much of it," Dickey Betts told Guitar World. "When I played it for the band they insisted we record it. Now, it seems it’s the one song I have to play every night!"

Ramblin’ Man features Betts on lead guitar and vocals, Duane Betts on lead guitar, Frankie Lombardi on drums and backing vocals, Mike Kach on keyboards and lead vocals, Pedro Arevalo on bass, Damon Fowler on lead/slide guitar and vocals and Steve Camilleri on drums. In addition, the album features a special guest appearance from Devon Allman, son of Gregg Allman, on “Midnight Rider.”

For more on the Dickey Betts Band, follow along on Facebook.

Devon Allman and Duane Betts, the sons, respectively, of Allman Brothers Band legends Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts, have joined together in a group, the Allman Betts Band. The outfit’s debut album is slated for release in March, 2019.

Additionally, the Allman Betts Band have announced the first dates of their 2019 world tour. The set lists for the upcoming shows will feature new music, songs from their respective solo projects and classic Allman Brothers and Gregg Allman tunes in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Allman Brothers Band.

In addition to Devon and Duane, the live Allman Betts Band will include Berry Oakley Jr. (son of original Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley), slide guitarist Johnny Stachela and percussionists R. Scott Bryan (Sheryl Crow) and John Lum, both of whom also play with Devon in the Devon Allman Project.

Peter Levin (Gregg Allman's Hammond B3 player) and Chuck Leavell (former Allman Brothers Band keyboardist and current Rolling Stones keyboardist) will also appear on the record.

Tour dates for the Allman Betts Band are below. For more information and to purchase tickets, head over to AllmanBettsBand.com.

Additionally, the Devon Allman Project, with Duane Betts appearing as a special guest, are currently on the road. Information about those dates can be found here.

The Allman Betts Band 2019 tour dates:

Mar 28 - Torrington, CT @ Warner Theatre

Mar 29 - Plymouth, NH @ Flying Monkey PAC

Mar 30 - Plattsburgh, NY @ The Strand Theater

Apr 4 - Huntington, NY @ The Paramount

Apr 5 - Stowe, VT @ Spruce Peak PAC

Apr 6 - Staten Island, NY @ St. George Theatre

Apr 11 - Homer, NY @ Center for the Arts

Apr 12 - Newton, NJ @ Newton Theater

Apr 13 - Beverly, MA @ Cabot Theater

Jun 29 - New Martinsville, WV @ Back Home Festival

Sep 1 - Lakeville, PA @ Cove Haven Southern Rock Festival

Text and Photos by Ken Spielman.

The hills of Montage Mountain were very much alive with the sound of music this past July 19 through July 22. For the last seven years, The Peach Festival has attracted thousands of music lovers from near and far to Scranton, Pennsylvania to witness an assorted line-up of seasoned veterans and up and comers.

While there's no denying that the nucleus of the Peach is jam-based, there was plenty of musical diversity to be found all around. The festival grounds were set up perfectly, with three stages all within walking distance of one another. With over 60 performances over the four day period, fans would bounce from stage to stage taking in the fascinating song structures of The Revitalists to the legendary riffs of the Ramblin' Man himself—Dickey Betts—to the rock-infused bluegrass funk of Twiddle and the contemporary pop sounds of Z.Z. Ward.  

Tye dye fans let their hippie flags fly with favorites from Phil Lesh and the Terrapin  Family Band, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, while things got super funky with Turkuaz (whose horn section made other special appearances), Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and Dumpstaphunk.

While the weather for the first two days was as good as any festival goer could have asked for, things took a pretty dramatic turn by late Saturday afternoon as the skies opened up for the rest of evening. The rain didn't dampen the mood though, as the crowd remained “peachy." 

Gear-wise, an hour didn’t go by that a Fender Stratocaster wasn’t on stage.  Honorable mentions include a great showing from Mesa/Boogie, Roland and Yamaha. Check out the Peach Festival for yourself next summer, and some terrific photos from this year's event below. 

Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts, founding member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, successful solo artist and leader of his own ensemble, Great Southern, possesses one of the most distinct and influential guitar styles in the history of rock.

Combining elements of blues, rock, jazz, country, folk, bluegrass and world music, Dickey Betts forged his signature sound while laying the groundwork—along with Grateful Dead guitarist/leader Jerry Garcia—for the unique, progressive and forever mysterious genre known as “jam band” music.

In this edition of In Deep, we’ll take a look at a few of the scales Dickey relies on most when weaving his classic solos and melodic patterns.

One of the scales closely associated with the Dickey Betts sound is major pentatonic, the five-tone scale built from the first, second, third, fifth and sixth major scale degrees. FIGURE 1 illustrates G major pentatonic (G A B D E) as played in “open” position, using open strings. This pattern is used very often for soloing in bluegrass and country music, and Dickey learned about its use in this context as a young child, playing acoustic “string music” with his father and uncles.

A common technique when soloing with this scale is to use the minor, or “flatted,” third as a passing tone between the second and the major third. In the key of G, the minor third is Bb and the major third is B. FIGURE 2 presents a Betts-like bluegrass-style three-bar solo that features the use of the flatted-third passing tone as well as many hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides, used to yield a smooth, legato sound.

As is the case when studying any scale, it is essential to plot it out on every area of the fretboard and memorize it. FIGURE 3 illustrates G major pentatonic as played in second/third position, with a quick shift up to fifth position and then back to third position on the high E string. This pattern encompasses only fretted notes, so it is easily moved to other positions and keys up and down the fretboard.

One of the signature elements in Dickey’s soloing style is his use of small melodic “cells” that progress in either an ascending or descending manner throughout a phrase. FIGURE 4 shows a solo pattern based on the previously shown scale position of G major pentatonic and built from steadily descending 16th-note melodic cells on each beat. As you play through the figure, notice the subtle differences in the melodic shape of each four-note group as it falls on each successive beat. Classic examples of Betts utilizing this specific technique can be heard on perennial Allman Brothers favorites like “Jessica,” “Melissa” and “Ramblin’ Man.”

The major pentatonic scale lends itself well to performance over large spans of the fretboard, especially when incorporating hammer-ons and slides in order to shift quickly from one position to another. FIGURE 5 illustrates G major pentatonic in an extended pattern that starts in third position and ends in 12th. Play this pattern up and down utilizing the hammer-ons, pull-offs and legato finger slides as shown.

In FIGURE 6, I use this extended pattern to weave another three-bar solo-type phrase that moves smoothly from position to position. When forming the four-note melodic cells, one phrase can be connected to the next using a great variety of choices. At the end of bar 2 into bar 3, I decided to repeat the G root note on the downbeat of beat one in bar 3 to begin the subsequent phrase.

As alluded to in FIGURE 2, passing tones are very useful when building solo phrases from the major pentatonic scale. Along with using the minor third as a passing tone into the major third, the minor, or “flatted,” sixth works great as a connecting note between the fifth and major sixth. In FIGURE 7, I use both of these passing tones in different octaves in order to shape a more interesting melodic line. At the end of the phrase, on beat three of bar 2, I use an oblique bend—a bent note on one string coupled with an unbent note on a different string—to wrap up the phrase.

The sound of oblique bends is one closely associated with the pedal-steel guitar, and Dickey often mimics the pedal-steel sound by incorporating alternating oblique bends in his solo phrases. In FIGURE 8, an A note on the B string’s 10th fret is bent up one whole step, to B, and held while a series of alternating notes are played against it on the high E string. It will take practice to hold this bend firmly and in tune while switching between the different notes on the high E, and I suggest using the middle finger for the bend and the other three fingers for the notes fretted on the high E string.

Another scale that Betts uses to great effect is the six-note major hexatonic, which is nearly identical to the major pentatonic, the difference being that it additionally includes the perfect fourth (in the key of G, that would be C). As depicted in FIGURE 9, G major hexatonic is built from the notes G A B C D E. The major hexatonic can be used very effectively when harmonizing a major pentatonic line. FIGURE 10a illustrates a classic Betts-style major pentatonic melody, and FIGURE 10b harmonizes this melody a third higher, using notes from the G major hexatonic scale (G A B C D E).

Dickey’s best-known use of major hexatonic is most likely within his song, “Blue Sky,” and FIGURES 11a and 11b offer a G major hexatonic melody and a lower harmony line, thirds apart, the latter being based on G major pentatonic.

Acoustic fingerpicker Joshua Jacobson scored quite a coup on his wonderful debut album, Good Little Thing, getting Dickey Betts to play on a cut.

The Allman Brothers Band founding member has been laying low in semi-retirement at his Florida home for a few years. Jacobson, who lives in rural Georgia, explains how a mutual love of Blind Willie McTell helped him bond with Betts—and how he came to own of the guitar legend's 1930s Gibson L-00.

Congrats on having Dickey Betts appear on your album. How did he end up playing on “Pistol Packin’ Papa”?
I met Dickey through a mutual friend who Dickey calls "Luke the Drifter." Luke called me years back and told me he was cooking for Dickey at his Myakka River party [in Florida] and told me if I ever wanted the chance to meet the cat, this was it.

I flew down and Luke called Dickey at home to tell him he had a friend coming who plays “all of that Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell stuff.” Dickey told him to come on over, and we showed up with a 5-gallon bucket full of Bud and my old Stella 12-string.

We did that whole back-and-forth thing where he’d play a tune and then I’d play one. He played “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” with a slide and I was floored! Here I am in my hero’s house and he’s playing stuff live I’ve never heard him do! Then he tells me to play something. These old school cats, the Great Ones, they ain’t fooling around, so I just put it all on the line and played McTell’s “Southern Can Is Mine.” Dickey said I sounded great but that I really needed to start writing my own songs.

About one year later I drove up to Nashville to see his band play and I propositioned him. I said I’ve been writing my own tunes, whipped out my new Fraulini and played “Baby’s Mama Really Don’t Care,” the latest one I’d written. I got to the part about meeting her auntie down at the Piggly Wiggly, and Dickey chuckled. I told him I’ve got enough to record an album and asked if he’d play on it. He agreed, as long as we did it down at the Spirit Ranch recording studio in Myakkam, so we did.

“Pistol Packin’ Papa” is way different from all of the other ones on the album. I had written it in more of a Piedmont style, much like Blind Blake’s “Hard Pushin’ Papa.” Scott Cable, the producer, suggested we record three or four tunes for Dickey to listen to before tracking. Dickey shows up, listens to “Katie” and says he hears slide on it. Then he listens to “Good Little Thing” and doesn’t care for that one either. Then Scott suggested we play “Pistol Packin’ Papa” with a different tempo in a shuffle and showed me on the guitar. I thought the cat was really screwing up my song but Dickey listened to it, liked it and got on the album.

Man, if it wasn’t for Scott Cable, Dickey Betts wouldn’t be playing on my album!

What was the experience of working with Dickey like?
It was really a dream come true. The Allman Brothers have been my favorite band since I was 14 and heard “Melissa.” He was really straight-forward with his expectations about what he would like to play and was willing to help me in any way he could. I’ve heard all the jive and here-say about Dickey, but he’s been nothing but kind to me. As far as I’m concerned there ain’t one bad word to be said about Dickey Betts. He’s a stand-up guy and that’s more than I can say for most people.

I’ll give you an example. I forgot my travelling cigar humidor at his house one time. He was taking a tour up the East Coast about a half a year later; I showed up in Atlanta and after the show Dickey says he’s got something for me. He walks to the back of the bus and handed me my travelling cigar humidor. I couldn’t believe that after all this time he remembered! People who are selfish and self-centered don’t have the capacity for empathy, but Dickey does. He’s a very kind and thoughtful man; a real stand-up cat.

We’ve gotten together and played a little off and on. Dickey invited a few folks over after one of the Myakka parties on the river and we got back to his place before everyone else. He asked about the sound that night and I told him how much I really liked his tune, “Nothing You Can Do.” So Dickey reached over and picked up his flat top and started belting the tune out. So I reached over and grabbed Dickey’s old Twenties or Thirties National Tricone that he said Elvin Bishop gave him, and I started playing slide on it. And with slide you don’t really even have to know what the chords are, you can just play in the box-style pattern like Duane did.

• I was just enjoying playing, not paying attention to the chord changes and Dickey stops playing rhythm and starts playing lead! I had to figure it out on the spot and I guess I got it right because he didn’t throw his guitar down and leave! But those old cats, man, you’ve really got to toe the line with them, and there’s this unspoken thing where they really kind of demand the very best from you and you’ve got to either step up or step down. He plays an electric blues solo here, of course, but he is also a fine and very interesting acoustic picker.

Above: Joshua Jacobson and Dickey Betts (Photo: George Mitchell)

Have you talked about his favorite players?
Every time I see him he gives me the name of someone who I haven’t heard of that he says I need to check out. But for blues, country and jazz, his tops would be Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Billy Joe Shaver and Charlie Parker. I think the first time we got together we talked about the Bird for nearly an hour. And if you listen to Dickey’s playing, he’s all about playing the melody just like the Bird did. Nobody in rock and roll plays the melody like Dickey does. He is the Charlie Parker of rock.

We talked about the movie Clint Eastwood directed, Bird. Dickey referenced the part of the movie where a young Parker got up the guts to jam with some guys, didn’t change keys with the band so the drummer throws the symbol out on the floor and the music came to a crashing halt. Well Dickey said a similar situation happened to him. He was up in Jacksonville playing some of these bottle shops that would stay open until the wee hours of the morning where you bring your own booze in and check it and they sell you a mixer for your drink.

So Dickey said Stix Hooper, the drummer for the Jazz Crusaders, comes in and invites him to a jam that he has across town. Dickey said Stix warned him from the beginning and told him that he had to be cool and if he got up there hot-dogging it then these cats would go sit down on him. Dickey said he got up and started playing and was really wearing it out. The next thing he knew he looked out in the audience and saw their guitar player sitting at a table having a drink and smoking a cigarette. Then Dickey said he noticed another guy walked off the stage. By the time he finished his solo Dickey said he was the only guy up on the stage. So Dickey said he learned his lesson after that!

Where can people see you play? Buy your CD?
I got a lot of things up in the air right now—and I’m actively looking for a publicist and booking agent, so anyone who fits the bill should get in touch! I’m in the process of setting up a CD-release party for the end of next month in Atlanta which I’ll post on my website once it’s final. Or you can follow my Facebook page for updates.

Also Pedro Arevalo, Dickey’s bass player, and I are trying to put a tour together. Pedro’s a great acoustic player, a hell of a musician and just a stand-up cat. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather go out on the road with. Hopefully, we’ll be starting something up within the next two or three months. And people can purchase the CD from the website and look for us when we’re in your area.

Tell us about the beautiful acoustics you play. The Fraulinis look gorgeous; are they the modern version of Stellas? You also play a vintage Stella, right? Talk about both of these guitars and what makes them special for what you do.
I bought an old Yamaha 12-string that I started trying to learn Blind Willie McTell on, but it just didn’t cut the mustard. You know when the folk revival thing came around in the Sixties, they started making 12-string guitars that sounded like harps; they just didn’t have the bottom end punch that those old Stella jumbo 12-strings did. So I bought an old jumbo Stella 12-string, and that really put the fire in my playing to learn all of those old McTell tunes. It’s a great-sounding guitar, but it’s not really road worthy and the top is buckling so it needs a little TLC. And the fretboard is massive! It’s big enough to land an aircraft on and playing it is like playing a flight deck!

So I did a ton of research and reading reviews from people who owned new guitars made like the old Stellas, and everyone was singing the praises of this luthier, Todd Cambio, in Madison, Wisconsin. So I talked to him, and he was so confident he gave me the names of some well-known players who used his guitars. They all spoke well of Todd and his Fraulinis, so I pulled the trigger on it and had him install a Pure Western pickup, which sounds great! It’s got the bottom end that those old Stellas had, and he braces them with ladder bracing just like they did with the Stellas, so it sounds amazing! When I played it for Dickey on the bus his exact words were, “That sounds better than your old Stella does!”

If you look for those Fraulini’s used online, you can’t find one. And if you want to order one, Todd’s got a waiting list. And Todd’s not an uptight traditional luthier; he questions conventional methodologies and isn’t afraid to try something new. He’s all about quality improvement and trying to get closer to the original sound; he’s a real purist.

You know he’s building a new line of Fraulini’s like the decalomania, much like the one McTell is pictured with on The Early Years [see below] with that decal beneath the sound hole. He built a line of them, posted them online and sold them in less than one week and had a waiting list three deep in case the buyers backed out at the last minute. I’m looking to sell my Fraulini 12-string so I can purchase another 12-string for the road and an additional six-string, and I think that will make my Holy Grail search for guitars quest complete.

The six-string with the killer tone that you hear on “Katie,” “Pistol Packin’ Papa” and the opening notes on “Twerkin’ Lil’ Mama” is an early Thirties model Gibson L-00. I played with Cora Mae Bryant for several years, and she always told me that the only guitars she saw her dad, Curley Weaver, and his playing partner, Buddy Moss, play was a Gibson, both L-00’s. So playing with her and playing her dad’s music, I’ve always wanted a Gibson. Well Dickey said he had three L-00’s Gary Stewart had given him; he had that country hit out in the seventies “She’s Acting Single and I’m Drinking Doubles.”

I was joking around with him one day and said, “Well hell! You ought to give me of ‘em them!” Dickey replied, “If the Lord keeps telling me to, I’m going to have to.” So I went and saw him up in Chastain a few years back and he told his guitar tech to grab that guitar for him. He opened the case strummed it and then handed it to me. I think the world of that man and he knows I love him; not one bad word to be said about Dickey Betts.

Then he told me I needed to put a rattler from a rattlesnake down in the box to keep any rodents away. I remember thinking, “Come on, Dickey, I don’t live on no damn farm!” But what do you do when Dickey Betts tells you to put a rattler in your box? You go on eBay and purchase one!Alan Paul is the author of One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band.

Earlier today, Time Life Records released The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Volume 3, a new disc that collects 10 historic live Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performances.

To celebrate the release, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of a powerful one-and-a-half-minute-long clip of the Allman Brothers Band performing "Midnight Rider" with Sheryl Crow in 1995. Although the video is brief, it captures some stellar guitar work by Warren Haynes and—especially—original Allman Brothers Band axman Dickey Betts, who reprises his fretwork from the original 1970 recording.

You can watch it below.

To order the album on special-edition 180-gram colored vinyl, head here. Be sure to check out the complete track list below; note that it also features performances by Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson, Velvet Revolver, Carl Perkins and more.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Vol. 3 Track List:
SIDE A
Blue Suede Shoes (Mono): Carl Perkins, Keith Richards, Paul Butterfield and the Rock Hall Jam Band (1987)
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman: Aretha Franklin (1995)
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.: John Mellencamp (1995)
Midnight Rider: Allman Brothers Band with Sheryl Crow (1995)
Hallelujah: Damien Rice (2008)SIDE B
I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Stevie Wonder, Keith John, Joan Osborne and the Rock Hall Jam Band (1996)
Nature Boy: Ray Charles (2000)
Sweet Home Chicago: Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson, Bonnie Raitt and The Rock Hall Jam Band (2000)
Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love: Velvet Revolver (2007)
Dear Mr. Fantasy: Traffic (2004)

The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East has been considered rock’s best live album since its 1971 release.

Recorded March 12 and 13, 1971, at the New York club, the album captured the original Allman Brothers Band at the peak of their powers, playing with verve, grace, intensity and seemingly telepathic communication.

Guitarists Dickey Betts and Duane Allman finished one another’s phrases, spun beautiful leads off each other’s riffs and prodded themselves to guitar heights that have rarely, if ever, been equaled.

Over the years, different versions have been issued, including the expanded The Fillmore Concerts, but the holy grail for Allmans fans has been hearing the many unreleased tracks from the shows, mostly stemming from Friday, March 12, as most of the album was culled from the final night.

A new deluxe set, The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings, delivers almost all of the music played by the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East during these shows in great, remastered sound. The set consists of six CDs or three Blu-ray discs, which are mixed for Surround Sound and bring the band’s performance to a shimmering new life.

Duane Allman famously invited several guests, including soprano saxophonist Juicy Carter, harmonica player Thom Doucette and percussionist Bobby Caldwell (the drummer from the headlining Johnny Winter And), to sit in, much to the consternation of producer Tom Dowd. Dowd convinced the band to banish the horns for the second night and chose different versions of songs or edited out most of the guests’ contributions, which can now be heard — and mostly prove Dowd’s point.

The final performance captured on the collection came a few months later, on June 27, 1971, the closing show of the Fillmore East. It includes promoter Bill Graham’s entire, ecstatic introduction, which concluded with “We’re going to round it out with the best of them all, the Allman Brothers Band.”

We spoke with compilation producer Bill Levenson about the release.

GUITAR WORLD: This set has been talked about for so long. Do you think it came out the same way it would have if you had done it any time in the last 20 years?

The main difference in the last year or two was the Blu-ray and Surround Sound. I don’t think we would have done that in the Nineties when we were first talking about it. I think that’s what doing it in 2014 brought us — a Blu-ray set.

And I’m very excited about the Surround Sound. The goal was really to put the listener in the 10th row of the Fillmore, with everything in front of you and the reflections and the audience behind you. I grew up in New York and went into the Fillmore. It had a distinct sound, a fabulous sound, and you can feel the auditorium in any album recorded there. I was trying to recreate being in the Fillmore, and I do think we were able to capture the magic of what was in that hall.

”

Among other things, you finally brought us the sax stylings of Juicy Carter, which we’ve only been able to hear dabs of before. It’s really interesting but not hard to hear why Tom Dowd was upset about his sudden appearance during a recording.

Yes. What really made it work was just to find the place in the mix where it was forward but not too forward, dissonant but not too edgy. To be honest, there are moments where we buried him because he was went off in really dissonant tangents. It’s still there; you hear if you listen, but he’s been pulled back. During these times, he was playing two saxes at once — baritone and saxophone — and some of the playing gets really out there.

It was really the magic of the fader.

This set scratched a lot of our itches, but a big one that remains is the first show, Thursday, March 11, which Tom Dowd said he recorded and which apparently featured a full horn section.

Thursday night is the blind spot for all of us. I’ve picked through the vaults hundreds of times, and there’s not even a hint of it existing, not even a reference somewhere. The only time it’s even mentioned is in a Tom Dowd interview, and he’s no longer with us to ask. But I am certain that there’s no tape, not even a tape that’s taped over … I just used everything we had.

Alan Paul is the author of the best-selling book One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. You can read an excerpt about the recording of At Fillmore Easthere.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the premiere of an exclusive video of the Allman Brothers Band's live performance of "Midnight Rider" from their storied 1992 tour.

The clip is from an upcoming archival DVD release from the band, Live at Great Woods, which will be available February 18.

That same date, fans of the band also will be treated to a new two-CD set, Play All Night: Live at the Beacon Theatre 1992, and a new Allmans biography by Alan Paul — The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. You can check out Guitar World Editor-in-Chief Brad Tolinski's review of One Way Outright here.

Recorded before a crowd of nearly 20,000 fans at the Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and featuring a set of favorites, Live at Great Woods features, for the first time on DVD, the original long-form video version of this show with no interviews edited into the main feature.

Meanwhile, Play All Night: Live at the Beacon Theatre 1992 showcases the band’s first time playing an extended run at New York City's Beacon Theatre.

Both releases feature founding members Gregg Allman (vocals/keyboards), Dickey Betts (guitar), Butch Trucks and Jaimoe (drums) plus a trio of talented up-and-comers: Allen Woody on bass, Marc Quinones on percussion and Warren Haynes on guitar. The hiring of Haynes, a little-known guitarist who’d toured with Betts, was genius; his approach evoked the spirit of the late Duane Allman, drawing a clear line from the band’s past to its future.

Play All Night features new liner notes by John Lynskey, editor of Hittin’ The Note, the official ABB magazine, plus onstage photos by Kirk West (See the photo gallery below). You can see the track lists from both releases below.

For more about the Allman Brothers Band, visit allmanbrothersband.com.

The pre-order the new releases, check out the links below:

Play All Night: Live at the Beacon Theatre 1992
• iTunes
• Amazon
• Hittin' The Note

Live at Great Woods DVD
• Amazon
• Hittin' The Note

[[ Guitar World’s Blues Greats Subscription Offer: Get one year of Guitar World plus a new digital EP, 'Legacy Recordings Presents: Blues Greats! Past & Present,' featuring “Get On With Your Life" (Live) by the Allman Brothers Band! ]]

Play All Night: Live at the Beacon Theatre 1992 2CD

• DISC 1
• 01.Statesboro Blues
• 02.You Don’t Love Me
• 03.End Of The Line
• 04.Blue Sky
• 05.Nobody Knows
• 06.Low Down Dirty Mean
• 07.Seven Turns
• 08.Midnight Rider
• 09.Come On In My Kitchen

DISC 2
01.Guitar Intro / Hoochie Coochie Man
02.Jessica
03.Get On With Your Life
04.In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
05.Revival
06.Dreams
07.Whipping Post

Live at Great Woods DVD

01. Statesboro Blues
02. End Of The Line
03. Blue Sky
04. Midnight Rider (Presented here exclusively)
05. Going Down The Road
06. Hoochie Coochie Man
07. Get On With Your Life
08. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
09. Revival
10. Jessica
11. Whipping Post

All photos: Kirk West

The March 2014 issue of Guitar World magazine is available now: Eric Clapton's 50 Greatest Guitar Songs, How the Layla Sessions Almost Destroyed the Allman Brothers Band, Mike Bloomfield, Johnny Winter and More! It's available at newsstands and at the Guitar World Online Store.

Former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts will perform a pair of rare intimate shows at New York City's Iridium Jazz Club on Monday, August 20, as part of the club's Les Paul Mondays series.

Betts will honor the Iridium's patron saint, Les Paul, by performing with his trio at 8 and 10 p.m. General tickets for the shows, which also mark the latest installment of the monthly "Guitar World & The Iridium Present" series, go on sale July 12, but the Iridium's Facebook fans can take part in a pre-sale for the best seats in the house today by heading here.

Betts joined the Allman Brothers Band as second lead guitarist and singer in the late '60s, with songwriting credits including "Revival" and "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed." After Duane Allman's death, he stepped up to front the band with Gregg Allman and shared writing/vocal duties on their biggest hit, "Ramblin' Man." Betts' iconic solo on "Jessica" ranks No. 47 on Guitar World's list of The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time. Betts also fronts his own group, Dickey Betts & Great Southern.

Since Les Paul's death in 2009, Paul's Trio -- guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Nicki Parrott and pianist John Colianni -- has carried on his legacy, performing every Monday night with special guests that have included guitar heroes from a variety of genres, including Jeff Beck, Mick Taylor, Steve Miller, Zakk Wylde, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Johnson and Robert Randolph.

IridiumLive, the club's new record label, captures the magic of these and other special performances at The Iridium with their state-of-the-art 32-track HD studio. "Les Paul is in our DNA and stands for excellence," says own Ron Sturm of the club's dedication to audiophile quality live and recorded sound. The label's first release, A Jazz Tribute to Les, features the Trio performing with Nels Cline of Wilco, Stanley Jordan, Bucky Pizzarelli and Jane Monheit.

In Paul's honor, the Iridium seeks to balance living legends like Betts with genre-defying trailblazers, like Maria Muldaur (7/17-18), Greg Ginn of Black Flag (7/29-30), Albert Lee (8/10-12) and Stanley Jordan (8/16-19). A portion of the door from each Les Paul Monday show goes to benefit The Les Paul Foundation, which pays tribute to Paul's memory by supporting music education, engineering and innovation.

WHO: Allman Brothers Guitarist Dickey Betts
WHAT: "Guitar World & The Iridium Present"
WHERE: The Iridium, 1650 Broadway (at 51st Street), New York City
WHEN: 8 and 10 p.m. August 20
PRE-SALE: facebook.com/iridiumjazzclub
TICKETS: theiridium.com

For a complete calendar of events at the Iridium, head here.

Longtime Guitar World writer and editor Alan Paul has released One Way Out: An Oral History of the Allman Brothers Band. The Ebook is available exclusively through Amazon Singles for $2.99.

“It’s their story in their words,” Paul says. “I went through hundreds of hours of interviews, pulling out the quotes to tell the tale of this American institution.”

Most of the interviews were originally conducted for Guitar World, but the book includes many never-before-published quotes from band members Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Butch Trucks, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, the late Allen Woody, Jack Pearson and Jimmy Herring, plus friends and associates like Eric Clapton, Tom Dowd, Phil Walden and Billy Gibbons.

One Way Out is the most complete exploration of the Allman Brothers' music yet, tracking the band’s career from their 1969 formation through their historic 40th anniversary star-studded Beacon run, right on up to today. It includes the most in-depth look at the acrimonious 2000 parting with founding guitarist Betts; an intense discussion of Betts and Duane Allman’s revolutionary guitar styles; and thorough behind-the-scenes information on the recording of At Fillmore East, Layla, Eat A Peach and other classic albums.

“I learned a lot reading One Way Out,” says ABB bassist Oteil Burbridge. “If you want to know the real deal, read Alan Paul.”

One Way Out also includes: A highly opinionated discography with short reviews of over 50 albums from the ABB, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Gov’t Mule, Derek Trucks Band and more; a list of Essential Southern Rock Albums; and an excerpt from Paul’s lauded book Big in China, which is being made into a major motion picture by director/producer Ivan Reitman.

“Alan Paul is one of America’s foremost experts on the Allman Brothers Band,” says E.J. Devokaitis, curator and archivist of the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House. “For the past 20 years, he has written informative, comprehensive articles on the band, and he truly understands the essence of their significance. It’s great to see him release this chronicle.”

For more information about One Way Out: An Oral History of the Allman Brothers Band, or to order, visit amazon.com.

Dickey Betts and his Great Southern Band have just signed on to headline the Dan Toler ALS Support Benefit Festival. The festival will take place on November 12 and 13 at Herschberger Ranch in Sarasota.

"Dangerous" Dan Toler is of course a former member of Dickey Betts & Great Southern Band, playing on classic albums like Dickey Betts & Great Southern and Atlanta's Burning Down. Toler also spent three years in the Allman Brothers Band, playing alongside Betts from 1979 to 1982, and eventually becoming part of Greg Allman's solo band for the 1986 album I'm No Angel.

The festival will raise funds for Toler's battle with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,) better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.