Allman Betts tour!

The band opened as it has most of the tour with Cocaine Airboat, then two other originals. Took a little while to warm up. Devon played guitar the whole time; I had assumed he'd be keyboard. He likes to do a lot of "rock star" moves up there. During the show he played an acoustic and a monster electric 12 string flat body along with other flat bodies.

About the third song we had a good session of Duane and Johnny Stachela, another lead guitar, doing the famous ABB double stop technique. The organ player was very good and has a long history, even subbing for Greg back in the day. And the dual drummers filled the back and bottom the way the GD and ABB knew how.  They really worked the Three Guitar Attack.

Then it perked up with I Ain't Wasting Time and Devon's voice makes you remember Greg but he has his own style, too, so it's not just a cover. Then Blue Sky couldn't be beat; Duane sings like Dickie but not as strong.

Devon led a nice long guitar jam with Duane off stage. Then These are the Good Old Days and into Jessica, a great version with a trademark long ending.

Tonight's cover song was Purple Rain--not my favorite but it worked well. A couple more originals, then encore "Trouble No More" with Berry leading the vocals--well done.

One each of the last two songs they brought out the opening guitarists, separately, which was fun and they both play very well. That also ramped up the L/S "Three Guitar Attack" to four lead guitars.

Duane's guitar playing is rather stiff and not that impressive. Even to be fair, and not compare him to Daddy-o, he's not as good as Haynes, Trucks, Krasno, King or so many others; he's cover band quality. The guitar work was carried by Johnny Stachela, who made me think a lot of Krasno--not just the hat. He was superior. It really showed in one song when he took a lead slot and Duane immediately followed, and didn't rise to the level.

First opening act, Jackson Stokes, was pretty good and Stokes has good chops on the red hollowbody. And how can you miss with Life During Wartime? We may see them around.

The second act was J T Silas, from Nashville, who showed an amazing range of style from Lightning Hopkins to Robin Trower/Hendrix to (unfortunately) Space/Drums. He really brought it home when he sang Joe Cocker's version of Little Help from my Friends. And he shined jamming with AB.