Dickey Betts is 71 years old today. Betts is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. Recognized as one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time, he had early on in his career one of rock’s finest guitar partnerships with Duane Allman introducing melodic twin guitar harmony and counterpoint which rewrote the rules for how two rock guitarists can work together, completely scrapping the traditional rhythm/lead roles to stand toe to toe. Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Betts grew up in a musical family listening to bluegrass, country and Western Swing music. He started playing ukulele at five and, as his hands got bigger, moved on to mandolin, banjo and guitar. At sixteen and feeling the need for something a little faster, he played in a series of rock bands on the Florida circuit, up the East Coast and into the midwest before forming the Second Coming with Berry Oakley in 1967. According to Rick Derringer, the group called the Jokers referenced in Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo was one of Betts early groups. In 1969, Duane Allman had parlayed success as a session player into a contract with former Otis Redding manager Phil Walden. Walden planned to back a power trio featuring Allman, who needed to put together the rest of the band. When Allman organized jam sessions as part of his effort to recruit Oakley for the group, Betts sat in. During those jams twin guitar parts, influenced by the harmonized fiddle and guitar parts Betts had heard on bluegrass and Bob Wills records growing up, began to emerge and give the sound a unique flavor. Those harmonies gave the putative power trio an additional guitarist (the band eventually grew to six members) and Dickey Betts the opening for stardom as a co-founder and key contributor to the Allman Brothers Band. In addition to the harmonies, his melodic, country-esque lead guitar style contrasted perfectly with Duanes fiery, blues/jazz-based style. He also wrote songs including In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Blue Sky that became radio and concert staples. After the death of Duane Allman in late 1971, Betts became the bands sole guitarist and also took on a greater singing and leadership role. Betts, over the course of one nights traveling, practiced slide guitar intensively in order to cover the majority of Duanes parts. He went on to write such Southern Rock classics as Jessica and the Allmans biggest commercial hit, Ramblin Man. Betts is currently living in Sarasota, Florida. Here, Betts and Great Southern perform a 26 minute set at Rockpalast in 2008.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 10:28:14 +0000
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