Last night I saw my third Betts show in a week.  Last weekend I caught he and his band, Great Southern, at Ridgefield with friends and last night I saw him at the Garde Theater in New London.  I avoided the ABB for seven years after that pig-fucking asshole Gregg fired Betts by fax but gave in last year based on the great reports about Derek Trucks.  And the ABB Mark VI IS a good band.  But Betts is the MAN.  He reminded me of that continously the last three shows and made the ABB seem limp in comparison.  Derek Trucks is decent, but no Betts and the ABB misses Betts sorely.  They have simply lost their edge while Betts has kept his.  Betts has an incredible new band...Andy Aledort and Duane Betts on guitar, Pedro Arevalo on bass, Mike Kach on keyboards and Frankie Lombardi and James Varnado on drums--one black, one white drummer, just like the ol' ABB.
I caught Plant and Krauss three weeks ago and, while technically proficiant (indeed near perfect) they lacked SOUL.  Betts has SOUL up the wazoo and bled beautiful music from his guitar all night long.  He also has a nice collection of very cute young female fans that I haven't seen at shows in a while!  Betts plays two sets spread over three and a half hours....about two and three quarters hour of music all together.  Betts announces the set break is needed to 'burn a couple'!  His band mixed up the setlists each night, but included all the Dickey classics.  'Statesboro Blues' opened all 3 shows, but after that the variety kicked in.  The versions of 'Blue Sky' were utterly transcendant.  Dickey always shines on that number.  He still starts it out with his Jerry tribute 'Franklin's Tower' tease before jamming to Venus and back!  Other familiar tunes played were 'Jessica', 'You Don't  Love Me (One Way Out)', 'Ramblin' Man', and 'Hoochie Coochie Man'.  Highlights of all 3 nights were 'In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed' (between 30-35 minutes long each night).  On that song Betts jams into the stratosphere in a manner only the late great Jerry G could match.  The band soars with him, those dualing (and 'trio-ing')  guitars had me grinning from ear to ear.  If you have to pick this summer, fuck the faux -ABB and catch the MAN--Dickey Betts!

this guy is a heavy hitter, period.
there is absoloutly nothing wrong with this man.
bets rules in the biggest way.

i think i saw him at the chance [in poughkeepsie] in the early 90's.

you don't fuck with dicky...

yup--dickhead Gregg's assertion that Betts was too fucked up to play is simply bullshit

thanks fer the review. always try to see him when he's in the area.

lotsajizz wrote on Jun 25^th, 2008 at 8:56pm:

yup--dickhead Gregg's assertion that Betts was too fucked up to play is simply bullshit

Dunno about that.
Wasn't but a couple years ago that I saw an extremely overserved Dickey fall on his face and cut his show at the Stone Pony short.

Glad to hear he's in fine form these days.
ABB ain't the same without him...

ouch!

did someone say abb?

left shoe shuffle wrote on Jun 25^th, 2008 at 9:09pm:

lotsajizz wrote on Jun 25th, 2008 at 8:56pm: yup--dickhead Gregg's assertion that Betts was too fucked up to play is simply bullshit Dunno about that. Wasn't but a couple years ago that I saw an extremely overserved Dickey fall on his face and cut his show at the Stone Pony short. Glad to hear he's in fine form these days. ABB ain't the same without him...

seen him at the pony. must have been a diff show cuz he signed autographs outside after the show. they confiscated my film that night inside. i was pissed. usually that place lets alot a stuff just fly.