Reflections on a new composition of mine: Dickie Betts’ Dream

And a stroll to MSG to see "The Brothers"

What are some of the greatest bands of all time?

Miles Davis’s second quintet, John Coltrane’s quartet from a Love Supreme, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Paul Motian’s trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, late 1940’s Bill Monroe, The Beatles, and… the Allman Brothers.

I saw “The Brothers,” at Madison Square Garden a couple of weeks ago. This is a group containing the sole living member of the Allman Brothers band, Jaimoe, along with those who joined the parade along the way and carry on the Allman legacy, notably, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes and Oteil Burbridge.

Derek Trucks BLOWS MY MIND. One the most stirring, moving, melodic players ever.

Such journeys down memory lane can be dangerous. But the band was spectacularly good. With drummer Joe Russo taking Butch Trucks’ chair, percussionist Marc Quinones, Chuck Leavell on piano, and Reese Wynans on Hammond B-3 there was a huge sound, passionate, fiery musicianship, galvanizing jams galore, and not a shred of noodling. More than anything what it brought to mind was the power of this era of music.

The late 60s and early 70’s were a time of hope, innocence, protest, awakening, war, a time of serious drug use. The music that came out of that period is indisputably some of the best of our lifetime. What I heard at Madison Square Garden reminded me of that. This music was created to mean something. It wasn’t just idle entertainment, rock ‘n’ roll tomfoolery, winks and nods, hair and clothes. Southern musical heritage of all kinds, that place where blues, rock, country, and jazz all meet and point towards the stratosphere.

Lately I’ve been playing the piece I wrote dedicated to one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers, guitarist Dickie Betts. It includes Nels Cline and is on the new double album set of guitar duos, Guitar Talk Vol. 2. It’s one of my favorite pieces on the collection. It’s a tricky thing writing a dedication.

For sure I didn’t want it to sound like Betts’ own music. I called it Dickie Betts’ Dream because I wanted to create an otherworldly landscape in which he floated above the trials of earth, and looked back down on the beauty and the tragedy in his life, and the powerful mojo of his music. I guess that might sound a bit heavy-handed. But the piece isn’t (I don’t think.) It’s a tapestry of pretty chords, floating, then driving forward with some of that Ramblin’ Man energy, until finally dissolving into a blue haze. I sampled a late-life interview I found with Dickie and laid pieces of it on top of the tapestry. He says, “We had no idea what he had,” referring to the early creation of the Allman Brothers, a hugely talented group of individuals, not quite yet aware of the power of the sum of their parts.

How many of us “know what we have?”

You look back in amazement at the tumbling of the decades—how often have you whispered, “I had no idea…”

PLEASE NOTE: I will be performing this piece and more with the Guitar Choir at Barbes in Brooklyn this Wed. with Steve Cardenas, Marvin Sewell, and Anthony Pirog.

376 9th Ave. in Brooklyn, 8pm

There are links to the audio of the show below.

Side note:

I had the opportunity, amazingly enough, to speak to Jaimoe on the phone recently. The rest of this post, alas, is behind a paywall…please subscribe!