{"id":3805,"date":"2021-05-06T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/315music.com\/?p=3805"},"modified":"2021-05-05T15:51:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T19:51:25","slug":"315-flashback-devon-allman-interview-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/06\/315-flashback-devon-allman-interview-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"315 Flashback: Devon Allman Interview (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: The author interviewed Devon Allman on the eve of his tour with the Duane Betts Project in 2018. During this interview, talk of an Allman-Betts collaboration was discussed, the beginnings of the Allman Betts Band, who will return to Central New York at the Apple Valley Park in Lafayette on June 19. This interview was originally published by NYS Music. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Timing Is Everything: Devon Allman Discusses Teaming Up With Duane Betts, BBQ, The State Of Music Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Devon Allman Project begins a swing through New York Tuesday, July 24, with a stop at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. This is followed by dates in Rochester, Albany, Baldwinsville, and Pawling. The man with the legendary Allman Brothers bloodline has teamed up with another Allmans progeny, Duane Betts on a tour that has both men joining forces to display their own projects as well as pay tribute to their fathers\u2019 legacies. NYS Music recently sat down with Allman to discuss the tour, being a father and the state of music today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"959\" src=\"https:\/\/315music.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Devon-Allman-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3806\" srcset=\"https:\/\/315music.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Devon-Allman-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/315music.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Devon-Allman-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/315music.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Devon-Allman-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/315music.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Devon-Allman-1-768x767.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mike Kohli: <\/strong>So is the band starting to gel yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Devon Allman:<\/strong> Oh yeah, we rehearsed really hard six months prior. We were doing three to five days a week rehearsal for six months. I wanted us to come out already primed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> You\u2019re working with Duane as well on this tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>Yeah, he\u2019s got a new EP out. He was in his dad\u2019s band for years and a band called Dawes for maybe a year or two. So this is like the first time he\u2019s come out and done his own stuff, fronted his own band. It\u2019s exciting. He\u2019s great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> You\u2019re sharing a rhythm section?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s an eight-piece band at the end of it. It\u2019s a brilliant thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Doing the tour with Duane Betts, a guy you kind of grew up with. This is something you guys, in a way, dreamed of doing, correct?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>We were hanging out with our dads. Their band was experiencing a pretty big renaissance. But that\u2019s where we made our first bond just from being on that tour. I don\u2019t think when we were kids we really had dreams of playing together, but as we grew into adults and started touring and making records, we talked about it. We knew it would be special. And that\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about. We don\u2019t want to go out there and be a tribute band. There\u2019s only one Allman Brothers. But we can certainly do our part to help keep some of their music alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> What was the trigger that made you guys decide, \u201cWe need to do this together?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> It was just timing. I lost both parents inside of five months. I took a year off. I didn\u2019t have the heart to go and perform. So I kind of rallied around my family. I spent a lot of time around my siblings and my son. Duane was wrapping up with Dawes. I knew I was going back out there. And I wanted to go back out there in a bigger fashion. So it made sense to team up. Timing is everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> So you\u2019re going to be in Syracuse soon. You make your home in St. Louis, right? That\u2019s a big BBQ town. (Laughs). Are you a partaker of the BBQ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> So they say (laughs) I mean, I go back and forth with being a carnivore and not being a carnivore. St. Louis is really a big baseball town and a good blues town. And we have our own pizza. A lot of people don\u2019t realize there is a St. Louis-style pizza and it\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Well, if you\u2019re in a carnivorous stage while you\u2019re up here, be sure to check out some of our BBQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>Is that where Dinosaur is? Oh yeah, I\u2019ve partaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Devon Allman (w\/Duane Betts) - Band Intros\/One Way Out - 4\/17\/18\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AcC-GpFO5iw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Did you always feel that pull to become a musician? You were obviously exposed to music at a young age. Did you want to become a musician right off the bat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>I fell in love with music when I was four years old. My mom used to spin a lot of vinyl. I was infatuated from then on. I saw my first concert at nine. I saw Cheap Trick. When Rick Neilsen pulled out that five-neck guitar, I mean that was it. The epitome of cool. I have to get in on this immediately. I started playing guitar at 13. I had dreams of it but I really never thought I\u2019d get to do what I do. I just thought it was an untouchable magic act to tour and make records. I got lucky and I got to do it. And I put a lot of work into it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK: <\/strong>You\u2019re producing too, right? Also started your own record label?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s gonna launch this fall. I\u2019m excited about it. I want to give some younger artists a chance to develop a following, become bonafide recording artists. I haven\u2019t put a record out since Ride or Die. That one came out in, I think, late \u201916. I\u2019m definitely due. I\u2019m going in the studio this fall so I\u2019ll have a new record out in probably January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Is that going to come out on your label or are you going to shop it around?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> I\u2019ll shop it around. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> I have a son the same age as yours. Does he have any interest in music? Are you persuading, dissuading him in regards to music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> I\u2019m really letting him feel his way. He played piano for years and years and he played some guitar. I don\u2019t know. He starts college in the fall and he may end up playing music, he may not. I\u2019m not really sure. But I would never persuade him and I would never try to steer him away from it either. I think his love affair, his passion, his career, that\u2019s gonna be up to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Absolutely. This is a bit of a scary time for me. This is my first kid going to college. You just hope you did things right along the way, ya know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> I mean, I\u2019ve spent 45 years either being somebody\u2019s son or being a father to a son. That\u2019s all over, it\u2019s scary new territory. It\u2019s exciting, but it\u2019s also sad. I\u2019m gonna miss having my kiddo around every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> What do you listen to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> I spin vinyl at home, keeping my mom\u2019s tradition alive. I probably have 500 records. It\u2019s everything, man. There\u2019s Nigerian jazz to thrash metal to Miles and Coltrane. I like to listen to jazz when I\u2019m cooking. I cook a lot. Man, there\u2019s everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK: <\/strong>Any new artists that have been catching your ear lately?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>Yeah, man, Caroline Rose. She\u2019s a badass. She really is. She\u2019s a gifted songwriter and storyteller and singer. She\u2019s great. I love the new Lucero record. Always loved Lucero. They\u2019re from Memphis, friends of mine. I love just about everything from Jason Isbell lately. I love his records. He\u2019s a friend. There\u2019s good new music out there. You just have to dig for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Do you recognize a renaissance of outlaw country happening, in artists like Isbell and Sturgill?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s more a renaissance of organic music in general. Doesn\u2019t matter the flavor. I think people that really get into music are looking for something that is real. There\u2019s so much crap out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Do you think a lot of it has to do with the environment the country is in now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA: <\/strong>No, I think it has to do with the fact that somewhere along the way, it might have started with MTV, ya know, as soon as you could become a TV star by way of music video, I think people started wanting to get into music to become a star, not to make good music. And that\u2019s where it really started getting shitty. If somebody grabs a guitar and wants to tell you a deep story about something they\u2019ve been through, that\u2019s gonna hit you a lot harder than someone who grabs a guitar because they want to be on TV. I guess, since time immemorial in music we\u2019ve had that. There was bubblegum music in the \u201950s and \u201960s. So it is what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> So you have a good stretch of Upstate NY shows coming up, hitting up Woodstock\u2019s Bearsville Theater. Have you been to Levon Helm Studio?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> No, I haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Well, if you ever get the chance, that\u2019s like a church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> Yeah, I know. I\u2019m a huge freak of The Band. I just got their whole vinyl collection, every album. Amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> Speaking of Woodstock and taking in sites, do you ever get a chance to take in the towns that you\u2019re touring through or is it more a load in, play your show, head on to the next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> I\u2019m able to a little bit more now because we finally graduated up to a tour bus so we\u2019re arriving to the towns, waking up around 10:00 \u2013 11:00 on the bus, ya know have the whole day until you get called for soundcheck. I went and did a little guitar shopping in New Orleans, vinyl shopping, got to take my men out for sushi in NYC, try to make the most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> It\u2019s good to finally have a bit of that luxury, if you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MK:<\/strong> We\u2019ll see you on your upcoming Upstate dates. Thanks for your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DA:<\/strong> Thanks for your time today, I appreciate you. We\u2019ll see you up north soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Devon Allman Project is currently on tour with Duane Betts. New Yorkers have several opportunities to catch this unique show. Betts opens the show, performing music from his recent EP using Allman\u2019s rhythm section. Allman follows with a set of his own material and for the encore, all the musicians take the stage to pay tribute to the Allman Brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor&#8217;s note: The author interviewed Devon Allman on the eve of his tour with the Duane Betts Project in 2018. During this interview, talk of an Allman-Betts collaboration was discussed, the beginnings of the Allman Betts Band, who will return to Central New York at the Apple Valley Park in Lafayette on June 19. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4845,43,48,7,8,1],"tags":[4847,271,4893,1043,1121],"class_list":["post-3805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-315-throwback","category-blues-jazz","category-central-ny","category-interviews","category-jam-progressive","category-uncategorized","tag-315-flashback","tag-allman-betts-band","tag-apple-valley-park","tag-devon-allman","tag-duane-betts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/315music.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}