BY JERRY FRIEND Duane Betts, born on April 16, 1978, is the son of guitar player, Dickey Betts, co-founder of the legendary Allman Brothe...
BY JERRY FRIEND
Duane Betts, born on April 16, 1978, is the son of guitar player, Dickey Betts, co-founder of the legendary Allman Brothers Band. Duane was named for Duane Allman, Dickey’s bandmate who was killed tragically in a motorcycle accident in 1971.
In his youth, Betts learned to play drums, then at the age of twelve he picked up the guitar. By the time he was sixteen he was invited to play on stage with the Allman Brothers Band for a performance in Colorado, and later that summer got to join them at their performance at Woodstock ’94 music festival.
In the early part of his journey as a performer, Duane played with several groups where he met other musicians that have revolved in and out of different band as his career developed. He played with another son of an Allman Brothers Band member, Berry Duane Oakley, in the group Backbone69. Unfortunately, that band ended up dissolving after it suffered the loss of their lead singer in a car accident.
During the next two decades, Betts played with various groups and artists in projects where he was mostly a sideman, playing guitar, touring and even joining up to play with his father’s band Great Southern after Dickey left the Allman Brothers band.
Duane formed a quartet, called Duane Betts and the Pistoleers in 2017 with his current guitar player Johnny Stachela. The band was a vehicle for Betts’s solo repertoire as well as covers of blues and rock songs.
Betts released his debut EP, Sketches of American Music, on April 26, 2018, along with a video, directed by Austin Lynch, of the record's first single, "Taking Time."
The six-song set, with sessions produced by Steve Cropper (Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and Marc Ford (Black Crowes), and executive produced by Betts, contains five originals co-written by Betts and songwriter Stoll Vaughan, as well as a cover of Dickey Betts's "California Blues."
Around this same period of time Betts, joined with Devon Allman, the son of another ABB member and one of the most the iconic voices of Southern rock, Gregg Allman. Duane joined The Devon Allman Project as a guest player while Devon’s band opened up for his father’s tour. This led up to the two sons co-founding the Allman Betts Band which eventually released two records, and extensive touring before the group announced an indefinite hiatus in 2022.
After decades of playing guitar in the shadows and touring with various artists, Duane was ready to step into the limelight by prioritizing recording his own music and to finally sit down and record a full length release.
“It felt like the right time to make something that was entirely my own vision," he says. "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." “I wanted to make a record which would really capture that old school Florida vibe"
Fortunately for Betts, the stars aligned as he solidified this vision and picked his “dream team” to accomplish this goal. He assembled his band from artists that he had crossed paths with on the road over his decades of playing.
To choose his bass player he reached all the way back to one of his first groups, Backbone69, where he played with Berry Duane Oakley, another native of Southwest Florida with strong ties to his Allman Brothers family roots. He wisely has kept his Pistoleers’ sideman, Johnny Stachela, an amazing slide guitar player, as he transitioned to play more of his original music. For the keys, he brought in John Ginty, a popular session player who helped found Robert Randolph and the Family band, who is widely respected in both the studio and the jam band scene for over the last thirty years and has played on hits with artists like Santanna, Matthew Sweet, Ryan Adams, Charlie Mars, Jewel, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Neal Casal. On drums, Betts chose Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Tyler “The Falcon” Greenwell.
Betts was invited by Susan Tedeshi and Derek Trucks to use their Swamp Raga Studio located in an idyllic Florida river marsh setting outside of Jacksonville, which fit perfectly within Duane’s vision for the release, which was ultimately titled Wild and Precious Life.
"We set up as a band, tracked everything live, and kept whichever takes had the magic," says Duane, who co-produced the album with Stachela and Ginty. The release offers up a timeless version of American music — a mix of blues, rock, folk, and country that could've blanketed the FM radio airwaves during any number of decades. It's a modern album inspired by some of the best parts of the past, full of sharply crafted songs written in a state of deep reflection and Duane's journey toward sobriety.
The sessions for this recording brought together an incredible band of musicians and features guests like Derek Trucks, who played guitar on “Stare at the Sun”, Marcus King, who swaps guitar solos with Duane on “Cold Dark World” as well as Nicki Bluhm, who adds vocal harmonies on “Colors Fade.” But since some of the musicians that appear on the record weren’t available to also tour with the band, we saw Pedro Arevalo play bass, and Vince Fossett Jr on drums touring with the group this Fall.
The show at the Rialto Theater in Raleigh was a perfect blend of songs from this record with a few classic covers thrown into the set list that satisfied some the crowd with ABB covers like Dickey Betts’ “Blue Sky” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.”
Local singer songwriter Ranford Almond opened up the show with a duo set that included Julian Sizemore on keys. Both Greensboro musicians delivered a well-received set that warmed up the crowd for Betts, who graciously thanked them for their performance and reminded the audience of the fact that his name was spelled with a “D.”
SETLIST
"Downtown Runaround"
"Shinin’"
"Colors Fade"
"Saints To Sinners"
"Honky Tonk Heroes"
"Blue Sky"
"Stare At The Sun"
"Taking Time"
"Cold Dark World"
"Rivers Run"
"Liz Reed"
"Waiting On A Song"
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- JERRY FRIEND
Jerry Friend has spent most of his life chasing the joy that live music brings. Originally from Florida, he’s been in North Carolina the last 23 years after he settled in Burlington, NC. A systems administrator by day. In his free time, he enjoys photographing live performances by artists at clubs, concerts and festivals. His goal is to try to capture those experiences through his lens and be able to share these images with others. As a fan of artists that span diverse music genres, you might find him at shows that include Bluegrass to Jazz, Jam bands, Alternative Country to Electronic Dance Music, Rock and even Pop music. He loves to travel to festivals, in the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic. He also enjoys collecting show posters and vinyl records.
Read Jerry's posts here.
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