Dickey Betts Rocks the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield
Great Southern Tours the Berkshires
By: Charles Giuliano - May 21, 2009
It was home cookin and country pickin last night as Dickey Betts and his seven piece band, Great Southern, featuring his son, Duane, on lead guitar, rocked the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. Quality rock shows are all too rare in the Berkshires and the booking brought out an eager and appreciative, older audience.
There were a lot of big bellies and faded Allman Brothers t-shirts floating about. The bar seemed to be doing a brisk business and it was cool that you could bring drinks to your seats. So the gorgeous, carved and gilded Colonial seemed more like a Dixie road house and folks often came to and fro for beer breaks. The band was loud but the acoustics were perfect for rock.
Not to say it got rowdy other than a couple of dudes who seemed to think they were still at Woodstock. Maybe they were. But I don't recall seeing them there.
The nice part of attending a rock show with an audience is fortysomethings is that everyone stays in their seats. How often have I spent an evening on my feet trying to get a glimpse of the stage? Actually, the dudes sprang up for a Standing O only a couple of times all night. The guy next to us was poker faced. Hey man, lighten up. Rock 'n' Roll.
Looking hard at Dickey Betts, well, he got old. Still cranks. But it's been a while since I saw him with the Allman Brothers, back in 1970, when they first visited the Boston Tea Party. Hanging out up stairs between sets, there was a refrigerator full of beer, courtesy of Don Law, and some bones going around. They was a bunch of good old boys. Dickey was born Forrest Richard Betts in West Palm Beach, Florida, on December 12, 1943. The Allman brothers were also Florida boys.
The tour manager gave me a couple of copies of their first album. Their gig at the Tea Party was so successful that they were invited back to open for another act a month or so later. There were no gigs in between so they hunkered down in Cambridge where they hung out and jammed during concerts on Cambridge Common. Those were the same events where Jonathan Richman used to solo on "I'm Straight."
After that, Boston seemed to be a second home for the band and they returned often over the years. It was always great to hear Duane on lead guitar and a tragic loss when he died in 1971. Then Betts stepped up as lead guitar. He also wrote and sang some of the biggest hits for the Allman Brothers including "Ramblin' Man," which closed the show last night, as well as, "Jessica" "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Blue Sky."
If you closed your eyes during the set by Great Southern you could swear you were listening to the Allman Brothers. Not that Betts is trying to front a tribute band or play on their success. As a founding member of the Allmans it is legitimate to say that he was a key element in forging their sound and style.
There is a guitar rich, blues based sound, with tight harmonies and melodic lines, catchy hooks, rock solid bass and percussion. Overall, it is a very sweet and lyrical style of blues that kicks. When Betts plays that signature gold faced Gibson there is true eloquence and knowledge conveyed by thoughtful even melancholy lines. The playing now is so much richer and informed by hard times and life experience. He was often absent from Allman tours "for personal" reasons during the 1990s. He was fired, allegedly by fax, in 2000. Since then, he has regrouped and there was nothing sloppy about the performance. He did suck on a brew from time to time but the band looked too straight and tight to wander down a lonesome road.
Perhaps having his son Duane on tour means it is more about family. In some ways Duane is just like his dad but taller at times wavering like a bean stalk in a hurricane as he dig into bending blues notes with grimacing facial expressions during solos. He has chops but needs to expand his range and vision. His dad lays back and doesn't try to keep up with the kid's licks. Duane more than holds his own in the band.
After Duane Allman died Dickey became the only guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band where in Great Southern there are three guitars, with Andy Aledort, laying back and filling in nicely in the harmonies on full bodied rhythm guitar. A rasta haired guy, Pedro Arevalo, played bass. Mike Kach evoked Greg Allman on keyboards and vocals. Like the Allman's Dickey's band doubles down with a combo of Frankie Lombardi and James Varnado on drums and percussion. It made one think of Butchie Trucks on congas as a founding member of the Allmans.
There were various guys taking turns on vocals but mostly it was an evening of instrumental music. These arrangements stretched out as long jams with everyone getting plenty of room to solo. At one point the stage was left for Lombardi and Varnado to trade riffs.
Having seen the Allmans so many times over the years it was good to catch up with Dickey . Overall, he has released nine solo albums of which one "Night" (1982) was not released.
Last night I went to sleep recalling my most memorable Allman Brothers gig. It was during the Mar Y Sol rock festival in Puerto Rico. With a bunch of journalists we flew out of NY, landed in San Juan, and took a long ride into the jungle. Al Aronowitz wrote about it in the New York Post and quoted me extensively. We arrived in time for the Allman Brother set which closed the first night of the Easter Weekend event. The announcer said "They'll be back to jam tomorrow."
When the show was over, Kenny Greenblatt, of WBCN, and I looked at each other and just dropped down on the ground with thousands of other hippies. We used our bags as pillows. But were up with the first light. There was a haze that quickly burned off followed by the scorching sun. Looking around the stage was set up in a hacked out sugar cane field. Kids were scorched with sunburns and the locals were harassing the girls trying to take communal showers.
It wasn't a cool scene and with no shade, shelter, or creature comforts. So we decided to split. We hitch hiked to the airport and arrived there in the early AM catching up with the Allmans who were off to their next gig.
Rather than fly home to Boston we decided to head for another island. We went up to the counter with flights to the Virgin Islands. "When is the next flight" we asked. "Right now" was the answer as we boarded a six seater and headed low over the Caribbean. The pilot reached under his seat and passed us a bottle of rum. "Complements of the airline." A car met us and took us to a mountain top hotel with a harbor view. From there we phoned Danny Schechter the News Dissector at WBCN and filed our live report from the field. It was a tough assignment, but hey, someone had to do it.