Dickey Betts, Live from the Lone Star Roadhouse New York City 1988. This recording preserves a January 1988 concert by rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist Dickey Betts, who died this past April. The set culls material from the Allman Brothers, which Betts co-founded, and Pattern Disruptive, a solo album that he issued about nine months after the show. The program, which clocks in at more than two hours and originally aired on New York’s WNEW-FM, features guests such as Rick Derringer, Mick Taylor, and Jack Bruce. This two-disc, 17-song album represents the first release of a complete recording of the show, which was previously excerpted on a single 10-track CD.
Much of the music could be mistaken for an Allman Brothers performance, which is no surprise since that group’s repertoire and sound owe a large debt to Betts. As you may recall, he handled lead guitar on many of their most famous recordings and wrote and sang their biggest hit single, “Ramblin’ Man,” which rose to No. 2 on the charts. Moreover, Betts’s band includes at least two other players with a strong affinity for the Allmans: Warren Haynes and Johnny Neel, both of whom joined that group when it reunited in 1989.
“Ramblin’ Man” isn’t here, but Live from the Lonestar Roadhouse does feature superlative readings of several Betts-penned Allmans favorites, among them “Blue Sky,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” “Jessica,” and “Southbound.” Also featured are sizzling versions of such other Allmans classics as “Statesboro Blues” and “One Way Out” as well as Betts’s instrumental “Duane’s Tune,” a tip of the hat to the late Duane Allman.
Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters, The Ones That Stay. “Smokey hotel restaurant somewhere in New England / Waitress asks me what I want, I tell her I’m still thinkin’.” Those are the first words Amanda Anne Platt sings on The Ones That Stay, her group’s seventh full-length studio album, and they exemplify her focus on storytelling and ability to include just enough detail to sketch a picture that listeners can complete with their imaginations.
The folk/rock CD, which the Asheville, North Carolina–based group recorded live in the studio, finds Platt’s effusive vocal work backed by guitarist and pedal-steel player Matt Smith, bassist Rick Cooper, drummer Evan Martin, and keyboardist Kevin Williams. Their set includes 11 country-influenced Platt originals plus a cover of “On the Street Where You Live,” the Lerner and Loewe tune from My Fair Lady. Like that number, the singer’s self-penned songs sometimes exude joy. But there are lots of dark undercurrents here, in lines about melancholy, drinking, and failed romances.
Teni Rane, Goldenrod. Folk/Americana singer, songwriter, and guitarist Teni Rane makes a strong impression with Goldenrod, her first full-length CD.
A compelling jazz-influenced vocalist who sounds redolent of Ashley Riley, she delivers a 13-track program that features 12 of her own songs (including one that she co-wrote). Rane says they explore “what it means to make progress through life without erasing the lessons and emotions of the past and present.”
Her introspective, reflective lyrics employ imagery that comes largely from nature. “Goldenrod sway as leaves tumble and play” in the title track, for example, while “Caramel” conjures up a “full moon fall night” and “Firefly” limns a summer evening that “will soon be gone with the coming of the dawn.”
Grammy-nominated Dave Eggar provides prominent moody accompaniment on cello and piano; additional backup comes from Phil Faconti (guitars, ukulele), Roger Gustaffson (bass, steel guitar), and the singer’s husband, Jonathan Shumaker (bass).
Various artists, That’ll Flat … Git It! Vol. 47 – Rockabilly & Rock ’n ’ Roll from the Vaults of Starday Records. This latest volume in a long-running series on vintage rock and rockabilly from multiple labels focuses on releases from Texas-based Starday Records, as will a forthcoming companion disc. Starday served up a ton of such music during the 1950s and 1960s, and that wasn’t even its main claim to fame: it would take many more discs to document the label’s contributions to the country genre, which embrace such artists as Willie Nelson and Lefty Frizzell.
Starday’s rock and rockabilly roster isn’t nearly as well-known as those acts. Of the performers on this CD, only George Jones (credited here as “Thumper Jones”) is famous, though Link Wray’s records enjoy a cult following. The other names here, such as Cousin Arnold & His Country Cousins, Lloyd McCollough, and Truitt Forse, will likely ring no bells with most music fans. You’ll probably remember them after you hear this 33-track collection, however.
Accompanied by a 36-page booklet that offers detailed information about all the featured artists, the CD is dominated by tracks that date from 1956 and 1957 and serves up one wild, hard-rocking performance after another. Highlights include Rudy “Tutti” Grayzell’s “You’re Gone,” which sounds reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s Sun sides and Buddy Holly; “My Heart Gets Lonely,” by Eddie Skelton, who seems like a rock-leaning version of Frizzell; and Slim Watts’s rhythmic “Tu-La-Lu,” which was written by J.P. Richardson, better known as “Chantilly Lace” singer The Big Bopper.
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
