for fans of the allman brothers band, this is something worth checking out. featuring gregg allman’s son devon, dickie betts’ son duane, and berry oakley’s son berry jr., this is an impressive outing of mostly original songs that slot strongly in the southern rock framework – a swampy mix of blues, country and gospel. the only cover is a take on tom petty’s ‘southern accents’. although they have known each other since their teens and have crossed paths musically many times, the potential of their fused legacies did not really reveal itself until 2017, when devon put together a concert at the fillmore in san francisco to memorialize his father after his death. it was essentially the debut of his new band, the devon allman project. duane betts made a guest appearance, and then his band served as the opening act on their tour. duane would join devon’s band for a few songs, and then do some allman brothers covers for their encores. it became clear to them that it was time to take it to the next level, and so they started thinking about making an album together.
recorded in 2018 at the legendary muscle shoals sound studio in muscle shoals, alabama and produced by grammy award winning producer matt ross-spang (jason isbell, margo price, john prine, elvis presley), it was cut live to analog tape on vintage recording gear – no computers or digital editing.
without a doubt my favorite cut is a nearly nine minute ‘autumn breeze’, a mostly instrumental and uniquely allmanesque offering that is reminiscent of a live ‘whipping post’ or ‘les bres in a minor’.
the band’s first performance was march 26th, 2019 – fifty years to the day that their fathers first performed in jacksonville florida. they are touring heavily this summer, and will be here at the house of blues august 27th. see you there.
this is bruce’s first album in five years, and it has a sound like nothing else in his immense catalog. he is the first to acknowledge that he drew his inspiration from the ‘countrypolitan’ style of glen campbell and jimmy webb in the late sixties. the overall composition is a mixture of bruce’s typical characters and themes, embellished with a backdrop of music that evokes the expansiveness of the american west, and dressed up with lush strings in many parts.
the string arrangements can be a little over the top sometimes, but that is really my only cautionary advice when approaching this new output from him. the songwriting is right up there with some of his best, and his vocal delivery is still spot on, considering he is approaching 70 this fall.
maybe my favorite track is the shortest, and starkest. ‘somewhere north of nashville’ is a tale of a failed songwriter who wonders if all the sacrifices he made chasing his dream was really worth it. a realization of how quickly you can lose everything.
the title of ‘western stars’ is a phrase that comes from ‘ulysses’, a nineteenth century poem by lord tennyson that springsteen has drawn from before. the poem is narrated by a hero approaching old age, returning from a long journey only to realize he really rather prefers being on the road. and so he heads out one more time.
i first saw kingfish when he was the opening act on one of the stages at the inaugural pilgrimage music festival in nashville in 2015. he was only 16, and he put on a helluva show.
born in clarksdale, mississipi, one could say that he was raised at the crossroads of the blues. legend has it that robert johnson sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of highways 61 and 49 there, and muddy waters grew up at a plantation nearby. his mom is cousin to country music legend charlie pride, and his family still sings at their church. at 16, ingram won the rising star award from the rhythm and blues foundation, and buddy guy has called him the ‘next explosion of the blues’.
now he has released his first album, on legendary blues label alligator records, and it is a great showcase of his prodigious talent. every track offers a different blues style, from slow acoustic ballads to hard driving chicago rockers. six songs feature keb mo on resonator guitar, and buddy guy joins him on guitar and vocals on ‘fresh out’. it was produced by tom hambridge, buddy guy’s producer.
he will be at the kent stage in two weeks. see you there.
as promised, i thought i would recap my recent visit to new orleans, where i attended the 50th anniversary of what is considered to be one of the more important and comprehensive music festivals in the country. i first had the opportunity to experience the new orleans jazz and heritage festival last year, but only attended two days. being the fiftieth anniversary this year, mrs. redeyegin and i decided to return with our good friends jim and tracy and make a week of it and see the entirety of the second weekend’s offerings.
we kicked things off wednesday night with a free music event at lafayette square featuring trumpet mafia and deacon john, and then headed off to dinner in the french quarter.
the second weekend of the festival started thursday morning, and local favorite cowboy mouth opened the festival on the stage that the rolling stones were supposed to have played at later that day. but since they had to cancel due to mick’s health, we got to hear cowboy mouth do a cover of ‘you can’t always get what you want’, which seemed appropriate. i then headed over to the cajun/zydeco stage for a while, took a tour of the whole venue, then caught a bit of widespread panic’s set before closing out the day hearing mavis staples in the blues tent. she shocked me about halfway through her set when the band broke into the talking heads’ ‘slippery people’. trombone shorty joined her for a bit as well.
friday opened with a couple of local favorites – the iguanas and honey island swamp band. if you are not familiar with them, please check both of them out. once again i headed over to the cajun/zydeco stage, and then went back to the blues tent for the night. first off was sonny landreth, and then los lobos. the latter was celebrating being together for 45 years, and essentially did a 90 minute retrospective on their career. they started with a few all acoustic traditional songs (i think they did nearly everything from their ‘acoustic en vivo’ album), worked their way through their ‘hits’, and then finished with a rocking version of ‘bertha’.
saturday looked questionable for a while, as a major storm passed through the area just before lunch. we got there around two and started off with a band from the republic of congo – jupiter and okwess. they might have been the winner in the category of ‘best band i saw that i had never heard of before’. we then caught some of marcia ball’s set, before heading over to hear jerry douglas and the earls of leicester bluegrass band. once again, i finished at the blues tent with robert randolph and the family band.
sunday was maybe the best overall lineup. i started the day with george porter jr., the only act i saw that was one of the original performers at the 1970 jazz fest. jon cleary was next up, and then little feat, also celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. it was probably not the liveliest set they ever did, but it was great to see them again, and it made mrs. redeyegin very happy. the radiators got back together for the occasion, and they were in great form. i caught a quick glimpse of terrance simien back at the zydeco stage, and then finished off the day, and the festival, with the mavericks. i am glad i did, and have resolved to make myself more familiar with that band.
what a great event. i want to thank my friends kevin and sean for talking me into going last year, and ‘showing me the ropes’. i am so glad that i finally ventured down to experience something that i had yearned to do for years. there is a very good chance i will be down there again soon.
and of course, it is hard to talk about the music of new orleans without a little professor longhair (more on him very soon):
heading to new orleans this afternoon for so we can attend all four days of this weekend’s festival, the 50th anniversary of this great event. i hope to recap all we see once we get back, but in the meantime i will likely be posting on my twitter account during the day. if you don’t already follow me on twitter, please feel free to do so at @redeyeginblog .
