Although Duane Betts is already well-known as a guitar player, having toured with Dawes a few years ago, was in Backbone 69 with Cisco Adler and Christopher Williams, and has jammed with the likes of Gov’t Mule, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and his father Dickey’s old band, the Allman Brothers, he is ready to make a bigger breakthrough in 2018. With several projects in the mix, Betts hopes to become a more all-around artist, rather than just a sideman or a jam buddy playing the music of his father.
First, up for Betts is a world tour with his friend Devon Allman that kicks off this spring. “We share an incredible legacy and it’s truly an honor to renew that bond our dads created to a new generation of their admirers and those that have loved the music we’ve made on our own,” Allman told JamBase last year. Each will play a set of their own before coming together at the end to play some old favorites. “I’m really looking forward to it and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Betts reiterated to me last week while he was in Florida visiting his dad.
Betts started the year being heard on Frank Hannon’s solo covers record, From One Place To Another, but come tour time, he hopes to have his own record ready to roll. For the guitar player who was more attracted to the drums in his youth, once he revisited the six-string in his early teens, he was finally hooked and the skins were left to sit dormant while his fingers found another way to make music. As his skills progressed, he was brought onstage with his father and eventually found himself in a band with other famous progeny in Backbone69; aside from Adler and Williams, Berry Oakley Jr and Alex Orbison were also in the band which released one album and disbanded following the death of Williams in a car accident in 2001. In 2015, Betts began a stint with Dawes as a touring guitarist for almost two years.
Glide caught up with the younger Betts, who was nursing a cold – “I woke up ache-y and cough-y” – to talk about the upcoming tour.
You’re doing a tour with your old friend Devon Allman this year. Can you tell us more about those shows?
Sure, he and I are basically just touring together. I’m going to open up the show and do about a thirty-five minute set and play some of my stuff. Then he’s going to play for a while and then at the end of the show we’ll both play together and do some of the familiar stuff. That’s basically what we’re doing. Some of the earlier shows were more or less me sitting in with his band as a special guest, like the one we did just a few days ago in Boca Raton with Gov’t Mule. I came up about half-way through the show and stayed up to the end of the show. But that’s a little bit different than what we’ll be doing this summer. But it’s us together, nonetheless.
Who gravitated to who first about doing this?
Well, we had been talking about it for a while. I mean, we’ve known each other, obviously, for a long time and we were both doing stuff. Then he wanted to do something and I was playing with Dawes at the time. So it just kind of worked out this year to where it just made a lot of sense to do it. I’m coming out with my own stuff for the first time. I’ve been a guitar player my whole career but I just started singing more or less in the last five years or so and I’m going to be releasing some of my material with me singing. So it made a lot of sense, with that in mind, for me to come out strong and take advantage of the opportunity.
Why didn’t you put your voice out there before?
I was always in bands that had singers so I never really took a lot of interest in it. It’s really a different thing, difficult to sing, but I just started doing it and then I kind of woodshedded and did a bunch of gigs in bars and stuff and I’ve gotten better at it. So yeah, I’m excited to put some music out.
And you think we can hear that this year?
Oh yeah, definitely, absolutely. I’ll put it out like right around the time we go on the road. I could probably get it together quicker but I kind of want to put it out around the time we go on tour in March or April.
So everything pretty much is ready to go?
I’ve kind of kind of been working on stuff, on and off, for the last few years. I’m just kind of putting together the stuff that I’ve recorded. I think I’m going to do an EP. I have a few songs that are ready to go and then I just have to pick another song. But I want to put something out to get the ball rolling and then maybe do a full-length record, or start it, and maybe that would come out towards the end of the year.
Getting back to the tour, you and Devon have made a lot of people happy by doing this. Do you feel that excitement from them?
Yeah, we feel it. I knew it would make people happy and you want to make people happy but you want to make yourself happy too. With this kind of coming together naturally and organically, it feels really good and the right time to do it rather than forcing it or doing some kind of contrived project. I mean, if we do something, we really don’t have to do much to get the interest of the base, you know. The base of those fans will become interested and that’s great but we both make our own music and he makes records and I’m making a record and with that having been said, then it’s okay to play a few of the classics that our dads did together.
Will you and Devon get a chance to collaborate on any new music? Is that a possibility?
It is definitely a possibility. I’m sure we’ll write something. I’m not sure what will come out of it but I know we’ll definitely grab a couple of acoustics. But I think we could write some good stuff together, definitely. Devon is a talented guy and so am I (laughs).
I always see you with an electric in your hand but do you write mostly with an acoustic or maybe on piano?
Normally, if I’m just sitting around the house, I’ll just pick up an acoustic. That’s kind of the way to go but sometimes it’s good to get a dirty sound and you can get different ideas going with an electric that you wouldn’t necessarily gravitate towards with an acoustic. So sometimes it’s good to just pick up a guitar, an electric, and plug in with a different sound or a dirtier sound and you’ll get more different stuff than you wouldn’t necessarily get from just picking up an acoustic. I don’t really play piano that much but I would like to learn that more.
Do you like being in the studio?
I like being in the studio as far as ideas and sounds but I’m not an engineer and I don’t know how to necessarily run all the equipment. But I like having an idea in mind and kind of going in and capturing like a really cool vibe.
You said you were playing your own set on this tour, so what songs are you going to be playing?
I’m going to play mostly my stuff. If I do any covers, it probably won’t be Allman Brothers songs, but I have a few ideas.
Are you going to do any Backbone songs?
That’s a good question. I want to have a number of songs to where I can rotate songs and not do the same songs every night. But you know, there’s actually one Backbone song that I’ve been doing that I would probably do. There is a song called “Autumn Breeze” that Christopher Williams wrote that I really love. It has a really nice jam in the middle of it and the lyrics are great. It’s a different kind of arrangement, a simple arrangement kind of, but the lyrics are really great. It just adds a different color to the set and I’ve been doing that one.
Was Chris a big inspiration on you and your songwriting?
Yeah, Chris was a big inspiration as far as just his spirit. He was a real special person, had a heart of gold and was like a brother. His lyrics, his writing, I’d say it was an influence but his sincerity was really his thing. His lyrics were pretty straight-forward but he was sincere and that’s what kind of made him special, is that he was authentic with it. My favorite songwriters are people like Bob Dylan and Neil Young and obviously people like that are where I draw a lot of inspiration from. But yeah, Chris was a huge inspiration.
I talked with Frank Hannon a few weeks ago and you’re playing on his covers trilogy. How early in the process did he get you involved?
I don’t know how early it was because I don’t know when it was he started but when he asked me to do it I said, yeah, of course. And we just knocked those two songs out in like a weekend, literally like the two or three days I was there. I really dug what he did, it was cool. I really liked his selection of “Under The Milky Way.” It’s a great song and I’ve always loved that song from The Church. I liked that he picked “Under The Milky Way.” It’s not as obvious a choice.
He said it was one of his favorite melodies
Yeah, it’s a great song and I really like I got a chance to play in a different kind of way. I like it when there’s something that I can play in a different kind of way than I might play on a different style of music.
He also told me that you play a mean guitar on the Stones song
Oh I guess I did play on that (laughs). I forgot about that one.
When you’re going to play a song that everybody knows, do you dissect it that much to see where you can put your personal touch on it? Is that something you consciously do?
For a song that everybody knows, I kind of didn’t. I kind of have like that vibe, that Mick Taylor/Keith Richards vibe down; that’s a big influence on me. So I just kind of ran with it. You don’t want to do it exactly like that but I think keeping it in that vein is important. I’ve heard the song a long time so I didn’t have to prepare for it or anything (laughs).
Did you play your normal guitar on it?
I think I played one of his and sometimes that’s the best stuff, when you don’t prepare too much and you just go, Oh, we’re going to record, and it’s as if you’re just kind of hanging out and, Oh, okay, I’ll play something, and then you play. Sometimes that’s when you get really great stuff.
You said Mick Taylor is one of your favorites. What about his playing do you like the best?
He had a way of playing that really fit with the Stones and he really brought it up another level. I mean, he’s just a great player and his vibrato, the way he bends the strings, his tone was great. He played a Les Paul and I loved the way he played in a major key, he did a lot of really nice pull-offs, you know. I just liked the way he played. It helped that he was playing in a band with great songs. He got to play over a lot of great songs.
You played drums mostly in your youth. What finally warmed you up to the guitar?
Yeah, I played drums the whole time I was a kid and then, I don’t know. I was given a guitar when I was really young and I really didn’t like it. It was too difficult and I wanted to play drums so I played drums and got good at drums. Then when I was about thirteen I just started messing around with the guitar and I noticed I started getting better, and the switch was made (laughs). I just started kind of gravitating towards the guitar and before you knew it, that was my deal and I was kind of over the drums.
What was the hardest thing for you to get the hang of when you really started playing?
The vibrato, that’s really something that is hard to get to control, when you shake the string, to be able to control that properly and do it at different speeds and make it sound like a human voice; that’s kind of something that is really hard for people to get. It was hard for me to get. That and like holding down full chords. You start out, you just learn like a few chords and then you learn what you’d call a power chord, which is kind of like just a two-fingered shape. I don’t know, it all kind of comes when it comes, you know.
What is your main guitar right now? It’s a Gibson, right?
Yeah, I play mostly Gibson. I have some other guitars that I like to play a lot but my main one that I am playing right now is the Goldtop, my dad’s signature model, the prototype. He played it for a while and it’s just a really great sounding guitar.
On your Facebook, there is a picture of you with this big, beautiful red f-hole guitar
That’s a D’Angelico. I think they call it like an L9 or something. It’s basically like a 335 style and that’s a really cool guitar. Honestly, I haven’t been able to play it as much because when I play at a club or a one-off and I have to fly, I’m not going to bring a bunch of guitars. I just bring my one guitar. But if I’m on the road and I have a chance to have a few guitars with me, I would bring that out and find something to play it on.
What was your first big I can’t believe I’m here moment as a musician?
That’s a good question. Maybe the first time I played Red Rocks, the first time I played there where I wasn’t with the Allman Brothers. That was a really cool moment to come back to. I mean, there was a lot of stuff that happened when I was a kid where I was onstage at big festivals and stuff, but I’d say playing Red Rocks after being there like four or five times when I was a kid and playing on the stage with my dad, being able to come back there and play there with another band that had nothing to do with that was a really special moment for me, cause that’s my favorite venue in the world.
The first song that you obsessed over as a kid
When I was really young, I was listening to like Run DMC and Van Halen but I don’t know if there is like one song that I can pick. I went through a lot of phases.
What did you like about Run DMC?
I just liked that they combined rock and rap and like harder rock and it was kind of dangerous and it was new. And I’m talking like when I was really young. I liked some of the harder rock stuff and then I went through a metal phase and Guns N Roses, not that they’re metal, but I went through a metal phase like after that and then I got into the more alternative early-90’s stuff. I was obsessed with Smashing Pumpkins when I was like fifteen. Actually 13/14/15, around then, I really liked Smashing Pumpkins. When I heard the record Gish, I was obsessed with that.
What was the toughest song you tried to learn to play on guitar?
Well, when I was young I would study records I was listening to. When I first started playing guitar, I was learning like a Phish song and some of the Phish songs were pretty tough. I don’t know the names of them though (laughs).
I saw you played with Robby Krieger a few years ago
Yeah, I played with Robby a bunch of times actually cause his son is a friend of mine, Waylon, and we go way back. I played with him, I guess, two or three years ago but I had played with him like back in the late nineties, when I was like twenty and twenty-one. He’s always been a real sweet guy and I love The Doors.
With the music you play, and the music of the Allman Brothers so predominate in your life, are you more drawn to the blues aspect or the country music aspect of it?
I love the blues, authentic blues. I love listening to it and it’s basically the backbone of rock & roll – all blues and country are the back bone of rock & roll – but I would say there is some of that in there. But in the songs that I write, they aren’t bluesy songs per se. I don’t really sing like that but it’s definitely in my playing a lot. I love to play the blues but I wouldn’t say that I would make like a blues record per se. I love soul music, I love R&B, I love Jazz, I love blues, I love old country music. I mean, American music is definitely a part of me and it all comes out in your playing.
What fulfills you most as a musician?
You know, I think going out and trying to transmit something to make the people feel good. If you can get out and play your guitar and it brings any amount of joy to one person, then you sincerely feel that you did that; especially if someone says that to you afterwards. You feel like it was honest. Like, if you gave something and somebody else got something, then that’s where it’s at. If somebody says they like your song or they connect to it, that’s what it’s about.
