Devon Allman and Duane Betts, the core unit of the Allman Betts Band, will release their debut album Down to the River (BMG) on June 28th. Its the duos first official LP and builds on the players respective Allman Brothers Band family legacies: Allmans dad was Gregg Allman; Betts father is guitarist Dickey Betts.
After releasing first track All Night earlier this month, the Allman Betts Band premiere the grooving peace anthem Shinin. The latest single off Down to the River, the song is actually one that was written and recorded near the tail end of the project, produced by Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price) at Muscle Shoals Sounds Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Shinin is a song about how love and devotion can lift you up so you shine brighter than you could alone. It is a song about gratitude and acknowledgement that real love can take you to the next level, says Duane Betts. I had a few ideas that I brought over to [collaborator] Stoll Vaughan to work on in Los Angeles right before we started the sessions in Muscle Shoals for Down to the River. We wrote this late addition and it fit perfectly with the list of tunes we had already put together. Im glad it worked out the way it did.
Along with Allman and Betts, the group includes bassist Berry Oakley Jr. the son of Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley organist John Ginty, guitarist Johnny Stachela and percussionists John Lum and R. Scott Bryan. The group returns to the road on June 8th with a show in Garberville, California, and will play Mountain Jam on June 16th in Bethel, New York.