Join @thebuzzknight for this Classic Replay with Devon Allman. He is the son of Gregg Allman and is currently out touring with the Allman Betts Family Revival, coming to The Orpheum Theatre in Boston on 12/5.
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Taking a Walk. I would sit in with the Allman Brothers and I tell you what, you know, having to stand between Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks or Warren Haynes and Dicky Betts, you know, and play on one Way Out or something. These are like the Jedi Masters of guitar. You know. The only thing you have when you're in that situation is that you have you. There's only one you in the universe. You know, you can't be Robin Trauer, Jamie Hendrix. You know I could only be Devin Almon.
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, the show where your host Buzz Night talks with musicians about their careers, their passions, and their latest projects. Today he speaks with a member of Rock Royalty. Devin Alman is the son of Greg Almon. He's releasing his first new album in eight years, called Miami Moon on Create Records. Buzz speaks with Devin Almond on Taking a Walk.
Devin Almond, thanks for being on the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Man, and what a pleasure. Thank you for having me and happy Monday morning, same to you.
I want to start with this.
I had the opportunity one time to ask the great Bill Graham the greatest show he ever saw. His response was, it was the Almond Brothers at the Fillmore East. It was an eleven thirty show. The band played till the sun came up, and the sun came through.
It was just like church, was his comment.
I wanted to get your comment on that and then ask you about some of your favorite venues that you're looking forward to playing, especially with the Almond Bets Revival tour.
You know, I've actually talked to people that were at that Fillmore show and they talk about the magic that happened that night, and you know how it kind of made time stand still, and you know that they have really vivid memories of you know, of it, you know, going so late and nobody cared. You know, you don't hear about that these days. You know, when I hit the stage, my tour manager will say, hey man, it's an eleven o'clock curfew and if you go over it's a five thousand dollars fine. You know, you'll hear about these things. It's such a tight ass vibe when it comes to city ordinances, noise ordinances, you know, and I get it. They've overhauled some of these communities, neighborhoods to have a lot of residential but you could never get away with that these days, man, So they were really in a golden era for rock and roll, and yeah, I wish I would have seen some of those shows. I wish I would have seen Hendrix and Cream and obviously the Allman Brothers with Dwayne. But with that in mind, you know, got to be grateful that we're still able to do this in their honor, really honored, a true honor to step on the stage at the Beacon where they made so many memories and played so many shows and play their music. It's not lost on us. This is not something that's it's just not lost on us. When we hit that stage, we know the gravity of the situation, We know the gravity of that songbook, We know the gravity of the people that have spent literally the best times of their lives in that room. So the Beacon is very powerful for our families and the memories and the fans. We can't wait to be there again. The Ryman has become special for our revival tour in Nashville just because of you know, as a consequence of time that Nashville has finally become what it was supposed to become, a musical mecca that was not just relegated to country and Western music, but all forms of music, jam bands, Americana, blues, and it's really stepped into the light as such, and and The Ryman seems to be that kind of beating art of that community, and it's really brought in some great people to jam with us. So the Ryman's been kind of a who's who of who will show up for us, kind of kind of become our beacon in a way. Last year we were completely floored and honored to have Jason isbel sit in and Sierra Ferrell come out and really lift the vibrations of what we do in honor of Dickey Betts, Greg Almon and the whole all My Brothers band. So it's always a pleasure. It's at the end of the year, this revival tour. It's always three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is the eighth year and we're just honored to do it every years. It's also a big reunion for all of us, you know, I go the whole year. He as shit, you know, and it's like, oh, Luther Dickinson, get you know, giving him the biggest hug. Jimmy Hall. You know these cats that I haven't seen all year because we're all, you know, doing what we do.
Fillmore West not a bad place to play either, I would think, huh yeah.
You know. The revival started eight years ago at the Fillmore. It wasn't a tour, it was not multi city. It was just one night. It was Dad's seventieth birthday. He had passed earlier in the year, and it was just a party in his honor. So that one show at the Fillmore West is what birthed this whole thing. Nobody saw this coming. This was never planned out. It was a birthday party for Dad, and the Fillmore called a week later and said, well that was fun. Can we do it again next year? And you know, here we are.
It's like a responsibility though, right, I mean, it feels like it really is.
It is now for sure. You know, ultimately there's a lot of people that can pick up parts of this songbook and go do it justice and give it a lot of love and people that are connected to it. Dwayne Betts and I grew up on the tours. We grew up listening to this music and listening to the masters that made it, and it's meaningful to us. When I start Melissa or when Dwayne counts off Blue Sky, It's it's heavy, man, It's it's really, really, really fucking heavy. It's it's so bittersweet because Dwayne and I, and I think I can speak for him. On the one hand, we're so honored to recreate this music, you know, and we have our own careers and our own records, so when we get to do this, it's special. But on the other hand, we just wish our dads were here to play Melissa and Blue Skuy, you know. So it's very it's it's a delicate balance there, and it's emotional.
Major congrats on Miami Moon. It's fantastic.
Can you take us back to when you went to school observing as a fly on the wall recording session with the Almonds with the legendary producer Tom Dad.
Yeah, so I never got to see them work at Criteria where I made Miami Moon. Criteria for those that don't know that, the famous studio in Miami, Florida, where where Da Peach was done, where Derek and the Domino's made Layla parts of Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the Beg's those songs we all love, part of Fleetwood Mac Rumors. The list goes on and on. It's a special place. All My brothers also made Seven Turns their comeback record, but their next record, Shades the Two Worlds, was made at an equally important historic studio, Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where all your favorite zz top from Shark dress Man to you know, all the first six records or whatever, they were all done at Arden and I got to go down and watch Tom Dowd produced that album almost on the daily because I lived in Memphis and I had a you know, kind of fledgling rock band. We were trying to be, I don't know, something like Aerosmith or some shit. We didn't know shit from Shinola. We were seventeen years old. We were sneaking into clubs, trying to act like our favorite rock stars, you know. But I as much as I was trying to fit into a groove like Aerosmith or whatever, who just announced the retirement which was so sad to me, But I digress as much as I kind of was seventeen years old and trying to, you know, be Steven Tyler or whomever. I had the sense enough about me to go and watch Tom Dowd producing Almond Brothers, and and I knew that it was a heavy thing to to watch and to kind of take in. It was special, And you know, I can't say that I necessarily picked up a bunch of production tricks or whatever, but it was really cool to see that he was absolutely a member of the band. While they were in there, everybody was looking to him. Hey man, should we double that intro? They'd look at Tom, hey man, should Warren go to slide right there? They'd look at Tom. You know, he was the trusted magnetic north of those recordings. Their their love for him knew no bounds. You know. He was a dad, he was a head coach, he was a you know, he was a barometer, he was he was everything for them. So that was that was powerful to watch.
If the walls at Criteria Studios could talk, what what would they be saying?
And did you feel those vibrations when you recorded Miami Moon?
I don't think those things could be repeated. Yeah, yeah, you know when we walked in, you know, I went to I went to actually tour the place first because I wanted to feel those vibrations, and you know, walking into the main cutting room, I was just like, wow, like there's there's a weight there. For sure. I always feel that in studios. I went and toured Electric Lady, Uh not too far, you know, a year ago, considering making a record there as well, and yeah, I feel it, you know. We we made the two Almond bet Span records at Muscle Shoals and I could feel it there. It's a vibe, you know. I think, I think the the electrons and shit that, you know, get trapped up in the walls and I don't know, I can feel that stuff. But once that's kind of you know, That's why I wanted to go tour at first. I didn't want to feel that on a workday. I wanted to go check it out, take that deep breath, feel it, live with it, sit in there for a couple hours, you know. I talk talking to Trevor that runs the place, and then like, okay, and I'll see in a few months, let's make a record in a few months. So I kind of got that shit out of the way that heavy, you know, And so when we got in there, I hired a really amazing band I got George Porter Junior on bass, whom everyone knows from The Meters and his current band the Running Partners, Ivan Neville who plays with Keith Richards and dumps the funk on keyboards. Adam Deitsch one of the hottest drummers on the scene today who plays with Lettuce. He's one of the funkiest, Carl Denson on saxophone, Jackson Stokes on guitar from my band, and then Tom Hambridge, who produced it has won the last few Grammys, uh, the Blues Grammys with Kingfish and Buddy Guy and Tom. Tom Hambridge and I have been making records together for for a minute. I think we've done three three albums together. And we just we set up in a circle. We just jammed, you know. We ordered in Cuban food and watch the NBA on breaks and screaming at the TV, you know, at the slam dunks and uh. And we had a lot of fun. Uh. And it was a it was a very just enjoyable time. And and and once you kind of got in that circle and you're and and and you're giving the tunes a run, then all that that heaviness kind of goes away because you're really you're you're working, you know, but at the end of the night, you know, and we've got to shuttle back to the hotel, and you're thinking, damn, like we're getting to add to that that history. You know. I'm so grateful it's still open. I'm so grateful Electric Lady is still open, and Ardent Studios is still open at Criteria Studios. And in an era where you can go into your bedroom with a laptop or your basement and make a kick ass hit record, that's all the more impetus for me to want to go to a historic studio soak in the vibrations from the masters. And you know, it's a hell of a lot more expensive, but I can think of no better way to spend a budget than to do a record how they used to be done.
Some of the tracks on there that I particularly love. I love white Horse Cool is sensational. I love also the theme of two particular songs, and I wanted to get your take on this theme. Sure, take time to taste it, yeah, right, and then you got to make it through the world. Yeah, I see the fact that you're trying to bring a sense of optimism in dark times is that to say.
For sure, you got to make it through the world as an old Van Morrison deep cut, and I kind of discovered that near the tail end of that whole COVID you know shit, and I was like, man, that's a nice message for these times. You got to make it through the world. You gotta plow on through. You gotta pull yourself up by the bootstraps and have good community and positive, you know, a positive outlook. And so that song was actually kind of the first one where I was like, that's a great message. I'd like to build a record around that, Like I want to cover that song and build the record around that, And I was even considering naming the record you got to make it through the world. Then, with that as kind of the I don't know, kind of the entry point to make on the record, then I started to write the record. It still stayed very optimistic, but it had a new life. I saw colors, I saw hot pain, I saw I felt Miami and palm trees and you know, a little sexiness, a little jazz, a little Curtis Mayfield and these things that I had really kind of squashed as inspiration and influences before. I really just let the floodgates kind of be open and say, you know, this is who I am. I don't have to make a record that fits in a blues rock category, so I can go play blues festivals or do whatever like. I love doing that. That's a big part of who I am. But I have this whole other side of me musically that really you know, Curtis Mayfield, I have a Curtis tattoo awesome, you know, and balance out my Leyla tattoo. You know, so Curtis Mayfield shot today The Cure, the alternative rock band The Cure. I think those are some influences that might surprise people that show up on this record.
I love that. That diversity is so fantastic.
We'll be right back with more the Taking a Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
You know what's amazing to think about that, I'm sure the forefathers, the Almond Brothers, forefathers are looking down smiling. Is the tremendous Almond community, you know, the Almond Bets community, the Tedesky Trucks community. These amazingly passionate, incredible musicians who are still out.
Giving joy to the world. Is really something to behold.
Yeah, it's you know, just really grateful that you know, as we march further into the new millennium, I mean we're you know, we're almost at a at a quarter century d you know, we're almost at twenty twenty five and to you know, to be at almost the year twenty twenty five and have this music still be vital and I have an audience and you know, is beautiful, So very very grateful.
What themes do you find yourself drawn to when you're writing lyrics and how.
Do you ultimately choose those subjects.
I think there's a lot on Miami Moon. There's a lot of romance. There's a lot of kind of romanticizing your life really, you know, savoring the moments that you have. You know, hitting age fifty for me was like wow, you know, certainly by no means slowing down, if anything, I'm actually going a little more hardcore lately. But I think savoring those moments and really respecting the time that you have with loved ones and you know, trying to inspire, you know, believing in yourself. I think there's a lot of that on this record. You know, Whitehorse is about hey man, you can't wait for shit to have and you got to go make it happen. You've got to believe that that you can, that you can go and achieve things. You know, and you're not. You're you're only as stuck as you think that you are. So a lot of that is like kind of self reflective. But you know, there's also obviously, you know, people in our lives that we see and we see them stuck and it's like, hey man, snap out of it. You're you know. So I think there's a lot of that, you know, there's a lot of just positivity for progress in people's lives and love.
Is there something in particular that your father's passing taught you.
Well, that's a rabbit hole, man, something that is passing taught me. I mean, you know, Dad, he really gave his whole life to music, and as beautiful as that is, you know, he didn't leave as much time for family. And as much as music means to me, family is always going to be more important, you know. And I'm not saying that he you know, but like an example, I just got done with like our our twelfth father son vacation with my son. You know, I never went on one vacation with my dad, and I don't have any bitterness about that. I just have a sadness Like man, I, you know, I wish he could have experienced that side of life. He kind of hid behind the music and he kind of hid behind the creativity, whereas I love unplugging from that rock and roll world for a week with my son and going We've done crazy shit. We've we've ridden camels out into the Sahara Desert in Morocco. We've hiked glaciers in Alaska. We've ridden the bullet trains in Japan, like, you know, we've we've seen the Grand Can and we've we've you know, we've four wheelers in the Sedona Desert, like whitewater rafting outside of Seattle. Like we've done incredible shit that if you would have told me I'd be doing all that stuff with my son, like when I was a kid, I would have thought, well, you're crazy, Like that's that sounds like the life of fucking Indiana Jones or some shit, you know. Truly, Like, so we come back from these vacations. I just got back from the Japan one with my son, and I think I did learn a lot from dad's passing about that, like, savor these moments, man, this is it. You know, I want my kid to do that with his kid.
Yeah, your father worked it, man, Like I uh yeah, I was working in rock radio for much of my career, and you know, he went out and worked it to get airplay and you know, meet the program directors and everything. One of my most unbelievable experiences I have to share with you was somewhere in the Mumble this mid eighties, there was a rock programmer's convention. It was this guy Lee Abrams, who I'm still friends with, who he consulted a bunch of radio stations and got all the programmers together and one night Epic had a suite and I freaking saw your dad playing with a keyboard for forty minutes for programmers. And it's one of those moments I'll never forget in my life.
Man. You know.
So he worked it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah he did, man, for sure. I mean he lived it, you know, and you know I do too. I definitely spent a lot of time on the road, and you know, I've started my own record label. I've had it going for about five years. I've signed three different artists and I finally made the decision, the big leap to put my own records out on this thing. And it's a labor. I love it's it's a lot of work, it's a lot of time on a computer. It's a lot of time with my team trying to figure it all out. You know, there's big learning curve there. So definitely, I'm I'm I'm as passionate, you know, with the business and with the music and all that, but yeah, I like to I like to unplug from it and and you know, and be with my wife and be with my son and uh and get that that family time in.
When you think about unheralded Allman Brothers albums or songs, is there anything in particular that pops out to you.
I mean, Dreams has always been my favorite song, and Seven Turns is probably like one of my dark horse favorite records. I just I love it. I think there was a new enthusiasm for them being back together. It was a crisp production without being you know, overly. I think it come out in ninety nineteen ninety, but it didn't have that you know eighties sound that you know, kind of kept going through at least ninety and ninety one, you know, the kind of over reverberated, like, you know, kind of schlocky eighties production. I love seven Turns a lot. I think people might be surprised that that's one of my favorites.
It's a great one, you know.
You know which one I think deserves more recognition is no One to Run to?
Yeah?
What a great song, my god?
Oh no, no no One? Yeah? Yeah, so I think it's no One Left to run with? Yeah, But the line the lyric in the song is nobody left to run with? And I always found that strange that the titles no one left to run with, but they sing nobody left round with, nobody left too wrong with it all. That's just wild. I remember when we were learning that song for revival, and I would always do that with Jimmy Hall, was kind of a duet. I was like, wow, that's kind of it's kind of odd. You know, why didn't they just call it nobody left around with? You know?
Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, really, that's right.
And I don't know if that was like a printer fuck up, like you know, and they just were like I keep it, or if that was intentional. I still don't know. I should ask Warren Haynes. Warren might have a take on that. I think I will. I'm gonna text him.
That I love it like I spurned it on.
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna text him right now. It wouldn't it be neat if during the interview he comes with an answer.
He probably will?
Right, Hey, Warren, Happy Monday. Brother, got a quick question for you. But see what he says. It would be funny.
That's awesome.
So yeah, man, But you know, you know what a what a career? I mean, that's I went for. You know, I didn't even meet my dad till I was like sixteen. I met him outside the Fox Theater in Saint Louis, Missouri. He was there, he was playing with I want to say it was thirty eight special on the just before the Bullets Fly tour in eighty eight. I was sixteen. Hit the bus pulled up, he walked off. That's the first time I ever saw my dad with my own eyes. And went into the venue, Fox Theater, into the dressing rooms, and he was he was pretty nervous. And we sat there and we chatted for a while, and I watched him play and you know, and thus the relationship was born, and we always had more of a of a I don't know, like a brother relationship. And there was points in time where my dad said, hey, did you ever think when you met your dad that you'd be the dad? Because he'd called me for advice and shit, like, he knew I have my head on straight, you know. And he you know, he obviously had his crazy decades and stuff. So we had a real unique relationship. He knew that I would always tell it to him straight. You know, I wasn't there to kiss his ass. I might have a viewpoint that he didn't like or didn't want to face, but I would always tell it to him straight. And you know, there was a lot of mutual respect and a lot of love there. He uh, you know, he sorely missed for sure. But I you know, I take solace and like the you know, the music lives on. It's it's it's really nice when I walk into a place and I hear you know, Midnight Rider, or I'm watching TV and you know, one way out comes on or whatever, and it's like, okay, hey dad, how you doing.
And you had written him a very simple letter, right yeah, yeah, like, like, what was the contents?
Can you reveal of that line?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. You know, as a kid, it's tough to grow up without your dad. Well, where's my dad? All my friends have a dad. Where's my dad? And then I figured out pretty early on that my dad was famous and that that was a mind fuck, you know. You know, my mom blessed her heart and she passed five months before my dad, so I lost them both real real quick together. My mom said she could have shit talked him a lot, but she said, hey, man, your dad's a good guy. You're going to meet him someday. You guys are going to get along great. And that was it, and she always was positive about it. And I don't know, man, I just kind of I went through life. You know, I had a normal upbringing. I played soccer, I ate McDonald's, I went to the movies. You know. They even changed my name to my stepdad's name for a few years, which I wasn't real crazy about. But when I met my dad, yeah, I think I was fifteen, I saw, I actually saw a video of him, a music video on MTV, and I thought, well, this is stupid, Like I should reach out you know, I just enough, you know, enough of not knowing. So I just wrote him a simple letter and it said something like, hey, man, I'm your kid. I live in Alabama. I was living in Mobile at Alabama at the time. I'm a sophomore in high school. I play guitar, I like Ozzy Osbourne. Here's my phone number. It was like it was the dumbest shit letter you could ever wade. But it was really indignative. I mean, I was fifteen years old, you know, and sure as shit. I come home about a week later and my mom, you know, was like, Davin, get down here. I run downstairs. I thought she had gotten hurt, and I go, Mom, what's what's wrong? And she's just looking at me like she's seen a ghost, with her arm outstretched with the phone saying it's your dad on the phone. And I was like, get the fuck up here. You gotta be kidding me. And he was. He was nervous, wasn't, Yeah, man, he was. He was nervous. And I said, well, Mom, you know, I'm gonna take it upstairs. So I went up to my room and I picked up the phone and I go hello, and he goes, hey, demn it's your dad, and I was like, oh shit, what the fuck? And I'm like, hey, hey man, you know how you doing. Where are you right now? I'm on tour. I met wherever he was, you know, and and we we talked on the phone for about oh god, man, it must have been about two hours. I remember my ear was hurting. I was like, but we talked a lot about music and a lot about guitar, and it was wild. It was really wild, you know. And then he was like, Hey, I'm going on tour, you know, you should come to the show so we can meet. And you know, a few months later, that's when I met him at Fox Theater in Saint Louis, and it was kind of off to the races.
And you opened for the band frequently right over time.
Yeah, Like later on, probably starting around ninety three ish, I would go out on stints where I would open for the Greg Almond band, you know, my band at the time, kind of the band Doujour different iterations, would go out and support him, and then I would sit in with his band as well and kind of learn the ropes. I always used to just sing Midnight Rider, and then I became more of a guitarist, and I think I graduated to one Way Out and after some time I graduated to one Way Out and taking one of the solos, you know, and it was I kind of got this like piecemeal, like step by step. Near the end, I was I was featured on Dreams and had a solo in Dreams, which was incredible. And then I would sit in with the Almond brothers and I tell you what, you know, having to stand between Warren Haines and Derek Trucks or Warren Haynes and Dicky Betts, you know, and play on One Way Out or something, was like shit, holy shit, these are like the Jedi Masters of guitar. You know, what the fuck do I? You know, the fuck do I got compared to these guys. So, I mean, you know, the only thing you have when you're in that situation is that you have you. There's only one you in the universe. You know. You can't be Robin Trauer, Jamie Hendrix, you can only you know, I could only be Devin Almon. I can only play the licks and the feel and the touch and the way that I play and just hope for the fucking best, you know, like if I can just do the be the best me I can be in that moment. Then hopefully I'll survive this, you know, head cutting that I'm about to receive. You know, but you know both of those cats, they are all those cats, Dicky and you know, rest in peace man. Dicky was was such a force. Dicky was one of the cats that really helped me to believe in myself, like even more than my dad and I got you know, I got to hang with Dicky quite a bit and telling that over the last ten years. But yeah, man, you know, you get thrown into the fire and you try not to, you know, get burned to a crisp well.
In closing, you clearly have been mentored by some of the greatest. Are you mentoring yourself some of those coming up in the wings?
Yeah, I mean for sure, Like we you know, I've signed some younger artists. You know, we always keep a lookout. There's a kid down in Florida, Champ Jackson, who's coming up. You know, we've had him sit in. Grace Bauers is a phenomenal young talent. She just turned eighteen, but she sat in with us on the revival in Ryman at the Ryman theater three years ago when she was like fifteen years old. So we always you know, that's a big part of the revival too, is the diversity is the key there. Like, you know, we want to celebrate that songbook of the Allman Brothers, but we want to be inclusive of younger artists, older black, white, male, female. You know, we want that diversity in there. We want it to be a show that really, you know, includes so it's not all you know, white guy, burning hot guitar players. You know, we want great singers and soul singers and Jimmy Hall, you know, and you know somebody Jimmy Hall seventy. You know, Grace Bauers is eighteen. You know, we want that spread for a show like that. So absolutely, you know, if we are the bridge, you know, you got the original rock stars of the Zeppelins and the Beatles and the All My Brothers and the Stones, you know, and you got these eighteen year old kids that are that are just now discovering Hendricks and shit. And you know, if people you know, like us are kind of a bridge to aid in getting some of those younger folks listening to the right stuff, then that's that's all we could hope for.
David Auman Rock Royalty. Dude, thank you so much for your time. Congrats on Miami Moon, which is sensational. Good luck on the revival tour, and man, it's an honor to talk to you.
What a pleasure.
Man.
Thanks for having me today.
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