Last Friday, Duane Betts released the first full-length studio album under his name. For a music artist who has been active for approximately 25 years, it’s been a long time coming, but the wait turned out to be very worthwhile. Wild & Precious Life puts Betts on the map as a solo artist.
When your father is Dickey Betts, guitarist and co-founder of The Allman Brothers Band, I guess the desire for music is in your genes. Duane recently told American Songwriter that after he had started learning the drums as a 5 or 6-year-old before switching to guitar around the age of 13, he never considered doing anything else but music. Evidently, nobody objected, so he stuck with it.
In 1994 as a 16-year-old, Betts joined the Allmans for a couple of gigs onstage. Four years later, he became a member of roots rock group Backbone69 and recorded their eponymous debut album with them the following year. After the band’s breakup in 2001, Betts co-founded rock group Whitestarr, together with his former Backbone59 bandmate Alex Orbison, the son of Roy Orbison.
In 2005, Betts’ father asked him to join Great Southern, the group Dickey had formed after his contentious departure from the Allmans in 2000. In 2015, Duane Betts became a touring member of folk-rock band Dawes. In April 2018, he released his first solo effort, an EP titled Sketches of American Music. Toward the end of the same year, he formed The Allman Betts Band, together with Devon Allman, a son of Gregg Allman. They released two albums in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and currently appear to be on hiatus.
Noting his EP, Betts explained to American Songwriter he wanted to put out a full-length album but the time needed to be right. He began writing songs for what would become Sketches of American Music during the pandemic in the summer of 2020. More songs followed in the beginning of 2022. In March of the same year, the recording sessions began at Swamp Raga Studio in Jacksonville, Fla., owned by Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.
To make the album, Betts put together what he calls on his website “his dream team of musicians”: Allman Betts Band members Johnny Stachela (guitar), Berry Duane Oakley (bass) and John Ginty (keyboards), as well as Tyler Greenwell, one of the drummers in Tedeschi Trucks Band. There were also a few guests: Marcus King (guitar), singer-songwriter Nicki Bluhm and Derek Trucks (guitar).
Let’s check out some music! Here’s the magnificent opener Evergreen, which was co-written by Betts and Devon Allman. All it took for me to know I would dig this tune were the first few bars and that beautiful harmony guitar action. The jam-like instrumental part starting at around 2 minutes into the song is really sweet. And just after you could really picture the Allmans playing this song, Betts surprises you with some trumpet at around 3:43 minutes, which according to this Glide Magazine review was played by John Reid.
Waiting On a Song is another tune that grabbed my attention right away. Solely written by Betts, it first appeared on April 19 as the lead single, coinciding with the announcement of the album. An article in Garden & Sun, to which Betts’ website links, calls it “a breezy summer jam with an earworm melody and a guitar solo with more sizzle than steaks searing in a cast-iron skillet” – jeez, I never could have come up with that clever second half of the sentence!
Colors Fade features the aforementioned Nicki Bluhm on harmony vocals. The song was co-written by Betts, Johnny Stachela and Stoll Vaughan. And, yes, there’s more of that beautiful guitar harmony playing and some slide guitar action. Gorgeous tune!
Did I mention Derek Trucks? Check out Stare at the Sun, another single that was released ahead of the album on May 23rd. American Blues Scene reported the title of the song, which Betts co-wrote with Vaughan, came from something Trucks told Betts about his father’s guitar-playing: “He’s a player that’s not afraid to stare directly at the sun.” Apart from the great guitar interaction between Betts and Trucks, I love the keyboards in this tune.
Frankly, I could go on and on here. Another excellent track I included in my latest new music post is Cold Dark World, which features guitarist Marcus King. Let’s end it with an instrumental titled Under the Bali Moon. The track is credited to Betts and drummer Tyler Greenwell.
Wild & Precious Life was recorded to two-inch analog tape during a series of live-in-studio sessions at Swamp Raga Studio. Betts served as executive producer. Bobby Tis handled engineering duties, while mixing was done by seven-time Grammy winner Jim Scott who in addition to Tedeschi Trucks Band previously worked with the likes of Tom Petty, Wilco, The Rolling Stones and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Summing up the album, Betts stated on his website, “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.” Here’s a Spotify link to the entire opus:
Sources: Wikipedia; Duane Betts website; American Songwriter; Glide Magazine; Garden & Sun; American Blues Scene; YouTube; Spotify
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