At one point during the making of his new album “Miami Moon,” Devon Allman found himself showing bass parts to George Porter Jr., the pioneering bassist from The Meters. He also brought vintage keyboards into the studio for Ivan Neville, another New Orleans legend.
This is all to say that Allman knew what he wanted, he knew who could deliver it, and he knew where to get the sounds: Criteria Studios in Miami, where everything from The Eagles’ “Hotel California” to Black Sabbath’s “Technical Ecstasy” were recorded, as well as some classics in Allman’s bloodline: The Allman Brothers Band’s “Idlewild South” and “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominos, Eric Clapton’s band with Devon’s late uncle Duane.
“In today’s world where you can make a record in your basement or bedroom, there’s something lacking there, and that is real drum rooms that have stories in them, actual history,” says Devon, the son of the late Gregg Allman, who was the lead singer and organist for the Allman Brothers and had a formidable solo career. “There’s no history of a basement. No great artists recorded in a basement.
“There’s always been a connection with me in Miami, because that was the city where Dickey Betts had me sit in on ‘Midnight Rider’ and that’s where I figured out, do I want to be a musician for my life? So Miami’s always had a little sexy appeal and in the history of my life.”
The album grew from writing sessions with Devon Allman Project guitarist Jackson Stokes on a tour bus while the band was on the road with Samantha Fish in 2022.
“I wrote this record on bass, which was a different kind of thing for me. I didn’t really think about chords and chord voicings. I wanted to write something that really bounced.”
The result is a slick, funky collection of songs that stand apart from Allman’s previous work without diverging too far from it. In addition to Porter, Neville and Stokes, “Miami Moon” features drummer Adam Deitch from Lettuce and long-standing saxophone standout Karl Denson, who tours in the Rolling Stones.
The Devon Allman Project is on tour in Europe, and a glance at Setlist.fm shows the band has been sprinkling Allman Brothers classics like “Melissa” and “Midnight Rider” into its Europe sets alongside “Miami Moon” material.
“It would be really wrong for us to step foot on stage and not celebrate our fathers a little bit,” says Allman. “I’ve always said that it’s about striking a balance.”
Later this month, he’ll hook up with the all-star Allman Betts Family Revival, an Allman Brothers tribute show that is entering its eight year and includes the late Dickey Bettts’ son Duane as well as Luther and Cody Dickinson from the North Mississippi Allstars, Anders Osborne and Jackie Greene. The shows on Dec. 6 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester and on Dec. 7 at the Beacon Theatre will include Sierra Hull, G. Love and Robert Randolph. Slash, Jake Shimabukuro, Maggie Rose, Grace Bowers and Donavon Frankenreiter will join the band at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Dec. 16.
Allman and Betts also lead The Allman Betts Band, the well-received original group that has released two studio records, including the standout 2020 double album “Bless Your Heart.”
Allman called that band “a really good home base that we can always kind of activate when we want to. If we want to take a year or two for ourselves, we can. … I think it’s in a really sweet spot. We’re not clobbering it over the head.”
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