Artist:     The Dickey Betts Band

Album:     Ramblin’ Man: Live at the St. George Theatre

Label:     BMG

Release Date:     07.26.2019

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Dickey Betts—who, with Duane Allman, designed an enduring style of rock guitar harmony in the original Allman Brothers Band—came out of retirement in the spring of 2018 and began an abbreviated tour with his reconstituted Dickey Betts Band. This attractive Blu-ray/CD package captures a Staten Island, New York performance (the CD omits two of the songs). The set, comprised mostly of Allman Brothers classics, offers few glimpses into Betts’ brilliance, but surely celebrates it with a fervor.

Dickey Betts wrote beautiful songs, from sinuous, jazzy instrumental opuses to country-flavored slices of American life. He played them with a silky, complex flair unmatched by any, and sang with appealing Dixie tunefulness. The set here begins powerfully with the steamy Allmans instrumental, “Hot ‘Lanta,” showcasing a band—Betts and his son Duane Betts on guitars, keyboardist/singer Mike Kach, bassist Pedro Arevalo, slide guitarist Damon Fowler, and drummers Frankie Lombardi and Steve Camilleri—valiantly and joyously in the moment. The younger Betts and Fowler each play scintillating solos. But when Dickey steps up, that tone of his is there, but his guitar playing lacks the bulk of the sparkle, inventiveness, and drive associated with him. When he sings “Blue Sky,” one of his all-time best, the excitement in the room is palpable—simply by virtue of the man of the hour’s presence. Betts’ voice is thoroughly shot by age. Yet, it’s the voice of a man with the courage to get up and please his fans.

This band certainly knows the music pat, and they rock. Mike Katch on piano takes a solo in “Blue Sky” that shines brightly, without being at all derivative. Dickey Betts follows, sitting down at first, and then standing up and standing out. Kach plays Gregg Allman’s role, singing a thundering “Whipping Post,” as well as his own “My Getaway.” Allman’s son Devon, a special guest, steps up to poignantly deliver his late dad’s “Midnight Rider.” Dickey Betts’ signatures “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” “Ramblin’ Man,” and “Jessica” are equally pleasing, and equally problematic.

Ultimately, the Dickey Betts and Allman Brothers Band legacies and this fine band carry the day.

—Tom Clarke