In memory of Dickey Betts
Ask most rock aficionados to name their 10 Best guitar players, or even Top 20, and chances are Betts’ name wouldn’t make many. Heck, he wasn’t even the best guitarist in his own band, The Allman Brothers. Although it’s kind of apples and oranges, Duane Allman was probably the best electric slide player ever. He could make you cry. On his penultimate side project, the first studio album of Eric Clapton’s Derek & the Dominos, he became the equal force on a double album for the ages, and their lead and slide interplay was breathtaking. Recorded in late summer — early fall 1970, a year later Allman was dead, from a terrible motorcycle accident.
The Allmans completed the brilliant Eat A Peach album Duane had been working on, with some live tracks, then “Brothers and Sisters” with some of Betts’ best songwriting (“Ramblin’ Man” became their biggest hit, and “Jessica,” written just after the birth of Betts’ daughter, is a gorgeous instrumental). There were no great studio albums after that (but some smokin’ live ones, mostly with Duane). Yet The Allman Brothers Band remained one of the best touring bands you could see, for another decade or more.
Dickey Betts. He was powerful and note perfect, and they weren’t even The ABB until Betts joined in 1969. The two brothers, Duane and Gregg, began as The Houserockers, then The Escorts, The Allman Joys (I saw them at Denver’s legendary The Family Dog club in ‘67 while serving time at Ft. Carson – that’s a story), Hour Glass (move to LA), then Betts came along and the name changed and, more importantly, Duane was freed from playing lead guitar and could do what he did best, slide and bottleneck. How many bands could survive the loss of a Duane Allman? Betts carried them.
Highly Recommended
La Traviata, LA Opera — This is one of the most enduring tragedies, a new production, with star soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen. What’s Violetta to do, when she wants to settle down but her following won’t let her, even for True Love? This is one of those operas everyone has heard of, for a reason… Oh man, you may think I’m just lazy if you see I have repeated a write-up, but I hate doing it. It happens when I haven’t found the time to get to a performance, to write from personal experience rather than what I know to be reliably true. I sure hope I can get to this last performance, and see you there. Sat 7:30pm, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, LA, $159-399.
Hot Club of Los Angeles — You can go to the Cinema Bar any Monday, 9pm–11:30pm, for more than a decade now, and hear these hot players run through Django Reinhart-style ‘30s jazz. This amazing ensemble is a treasure, just over the border from SM. Mon 9pm, Cinema Bar, Culver City, no cover.
Next Thurs — Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #4, Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote, Dudamel, LA Phil — Thank you, Gustavo, for pairing this Beethoven piano concerto with Strauss’ epic tone poem, no intermission. Boy, will we miss you next year. Next Thurs, Fri, Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm, Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA, $97-279.
Recommended
Tonight — Rhiannon Giddens — Even though you never know what to expect from her because her interests and talents are so far-ranging, and I have been a little disappointed a time or two, she is one of those always worth the gamble. Wonderful vocalist and accomplished fiddler and banjo picker, when Ken Burns was introduced to her partway through the making of his terrific country music doc, he later said, I’m not sure we could have made it without her. She is an encyclopedia of American music, but hardly dry reading. Thurs 8pm, the United Theatre on Broadway, LA, $86-631.
Bartók, Mozart, Beethoven, LA Phil – Hello! Your reminder that you live in LA, surrounded by millions of unpleasant people who clog the freeways and make your drive home to your $4K/mo rental miserable, so what’s the trade off?! This. Wolfie and L van before the intermission, and after, Hungarian Béla Bartók’s stirring and beautiful Concerto for Orchestra. If this isn’t a big part of why you moved here from Omaha or Idaho, you can still correct your error. Fri, Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA, $64-190.
Toledo Diamond — Unique, riveting, first class act. There’s nothing like it, it is high performance art and great decadent fun. Degeneracy is rarely so well disciplined. And the band is smokin’! Don’t. Miss. Toledo Diamond. Sun 9:30pm, Harvelle’s, Santa Monica, $12.
Next Thurs — Mike Randle, Amilia K Spicer, James Combs/erin Hawkins — this sounds like a good time, in a very different venue and in the round, music and storytelling, right here on Main Street, and with a very good chance at very good music. This is a one-off, but I have heard Amilia K for a long time on the LA country-folk scene, and she is a great show both for her distinctive vocals and her songwriting. Randle is a Santa Monica legend, many years at True Tone Music, and for his band Baby Lemonade, which is so good they tour with founding Love guitarist Johnny Echols as Love Revisited, playing note for note the well-known and tricky catalog of the great LA ‘60s band Love, led by the late Arthur Lee. They played his last dates (I was lucky enough to see them in Hollywood), and have toured the world recreating that unique Love sound. A lot of knowledgeable rock people put Love’s “Forever Changes” on their list of best all-time albums. I sure do. So if Mike Randle can do that, I can’t wait to hear his acoustic show here. Next Thurs 7pm, Cabin Creek Crystals, Santa Monica, $10.
Coming Attractions (all Recommended): Toledo Diamond, Harvelle’s, 4/28; Hot Club of Los Angeles, Cinema Bar, 4/29; La Traviata, LA Opera, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 4/27; Jacky Terrasson Trio, Jazz Bakery, 5/5; Library Girl, Ruskin Theatre, 5/12; Marcus King, Wiltern, 5/14; 62nd Annual Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival, King Gillette Ranch, Calabasas, 5/19; Pearl Jam, Kia Forum, 5/21, 22; Kraftwerk, Disney Hall, 5/21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30; John McEuen, McCabe’s, 5/24; Tedeschi Trucks Band, Little Feat, Greek, 6/9; Chris Stapleton, Hollywood Bowl, 6/26, plus Grace Potter 6/27; Rolling Stones, Sofi Stadium, 7/10, 13.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 38 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else.