When Duane Betts and Devon Allman decided to join musical forces, the collective heft of their last names served as an additional member of the Allman-Betts Band. Their dads, Dickie Betts and Gregg Allman, had co-founded the Allman Brothers Band.Duane Betts joins John Floridis by phone for a conversation about the band's most recent release, Bless Your Heart. The seven-piece thinks of this album as their "bonfire," built for the summer of 2020 and beyond. It's a double album follow-up to their 2019 debut, fueled by road-forged camaraderie and musical intensity, reflecting the individual and collective experiences of seven musicians, all of them drawing inspiration from the band’s symbolic hometown - a place Devon Allman calls “the United States of Americana.”
“Now we know how the band plays. We know to trust each other’s instincts. The dynamics have a flow to them: when to step back, when to push forward,” says Allman. Adds Betts, “Once we got rolling, the floodgates opened.”
(Broadcast: Musician's Spotlight, 3/23/21 and 7/6/21. Listen on the radio Tuesdays, 7 p.m., or via podcast.)