Ousted Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts will release his first solo album in thirteen years on July 31st. Betts' fifth solo recording, Let's Get Together, will be come out on Back Alley Records, his own imprint with FreeFalls Entertainment.
Betts' new album will arrive just over a year after his May 2000 dismissal from the Allman Brothers Band, which he had been a part of since the band's beginnings three decades ago. At the time of his dismissal, the band cited "creative differences," but a statement suggested that he would return to the fold: "The band hopes that their good friend and brother will be back on the road with them in the fall." At the time, ABB drummer Butch Trucks added, "Ain't no way we can fire Dickey."
At the time, Betts fired back with a lawsuit. "They're out there playing as the Allman Brothers Band, and they dropped me," he told Rolling Stone. "They're impersonating me, playing a lot of the tunes that I'm famous for playing. It's not the Allman Brothers Band -- I don't care what they say."
But Betts quickly settled into a new routine sans the ABB, putting together a new ensemble, the Dickey Betts Band, which includes guitarist Mark May, drummer Mark Greenberg, percussionist Frankie Lombardi, bassist David Stoltz, keyboardist Matt Zeiner and saxophonist Kris Jensen. The group toured last year and earlier this year reconvened to record Let's Get Together, and they are now out on the road again showcasing the album's eleven new songs.
The album is a treat for Betts fans, as the singer/guitarist's solo output has been spare the past two decades. After releasing three albums in the Seventies (1974's Highway Call, 1977's Dickey Betts and Great Southern and 1978's Atlanta's Burning Down), Betts released only one album in the Eighties (Pattern Disruptive in 1988) before being swept into the ABB's comeback run that began in 1990 with Seven Turns.
ANDREW DANSBY
(June 4, 2001)
