Review: Allman Betts Family Revival sparks flashbacks to St. Paul’s greatest concert

About 12 minutes into an epic rendition of the Allman Brothers Band instrumental “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” Sunday night at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, Duane Betts leaned back during his guitar solo and I had a flashback. To Dickey Betts, Duane’s dad and one of the Allmans original guitarists. The droopy mustache, the cowboy hat, the Western shirt, the turquoise necklace, all suggested Dickey (who died in April). The only difference is the son’s a head taller than his dad.

I flashed back to 1971 and the first time I saw the Allman Brothers in concert. If you know the classic Allman Brothers “At Fillmore East,” one of rock’s greatest live albums, that ‘71 gig at O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Kate’s in St. Paul was essentially the same show — only much better, if you believe that. For a long time, it was the answer to “what’s your favorite all time concert?”

Sunday’s performance by the eighth annual touring Allman Betts Family Revival brought many flashbacks, starting on the night’s second number, “It’s Not My Cross to Bear.” Devon Allman, son of Gregg Allman (died in 2017), sat at the organ, looking like he had his dad’s face with his Uncle Duane Allman’s hairdo, muttonchops and mustache (died in 1971). And he sang with a Southern-fried voice that was somewhere between a slur and a drawl, part resilience and part melancholy.

There were many moving moments during the two-set, three-hour ABF Revival featuring a parade of guests. Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie sparked “Statesboro Blues” and “Whipping Post.” Jam-band hero Robert Randolph made his pedal steel guitar sound like a Stratocaster rather than a familiar country or Hawaiian instrument. Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars and Greg Koch delivered guitar expressions different from the familiar Allman sounds. Arkansas bluesman Larry McCray, who remembered his Twin Cities gigs long ago at Brubaker’s and the Blues Saloon, brought some classic blues flavor on “Stormy Monday.”

Other guests included Anders Osborne, Jackie Greene, Sierra Green, Lindsay Lou and Cody Dickinson. Shout out to guitarist Johnny Stachela, a regular in the Allman Betts Band whose standout slide work evoked that of the original Allman Brothers Band.

Sunday’s longer, first set was superior, with such peaks as the blissful “Blue Sky,” the trippy “Dreams” featuring Luther Dickinson’s slide arpeggios and a forceful Devon Allman on guitar and vocals, and the closing 17-minute “Elizabeth Reed” with jazz-infused solos by Betts and Dickinson.

The hourlong second segment featured less familiar material like “Seven Turns” and “Good Clean Fun,” before wrapping up with the a trio of Allman standards — an underwhelming “Ramblin’ Man” (with Osborne on lead vocals), the inevitable “Whipping Post” with Koch’s building psychedelic blues solo, and the sing-along encore of “Midnight Rider” with all 20 performers onstage.

For the graying baby boomers at the nearly full State Theatre, it was a wonderful night of flashbacks and memories. But if you weren’t around for the Duane and Dickey era of the Allman Brothers Band, the ABF Revival was a terrific evening of soulful bluesy, jazzy, jam band music by any measure.