Back Where It All Begins
by: Dickey Betts & Great Southern
Back Where It All Begins - Live At The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame Museum
(Eaglevision)
Like many, I was really and truly bummed out a few years ago when Dickey Betts left the Allman Brothers Band. I just knew it would never be the same. Well, I was right about that, but in the fallout following his departure came a couple of miraculous bands. The Allman Brothers got Warren Haynes back to join Derek Trucks, and while the country influence was no longer there, the Brothers sounded excellent, dripping jazz and blues riffs like honey from a comb.
All the while, Betts was going through a series of changes that would find him re-uniting with former Allman Brother and Great Southern bandmate Dan Toler, who appears alongside Dickey in this video, recorded in September of 2004 in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The 12-song set, for the most part, smokes. Sure, there are occasional missed notes and dropped beats, but these minor flaws somehow make it more real. And during the extended, stellar jams like “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” (on which the band is joined by Dickey’s son Duane), and “Jessica,” the band is so tight it’s almost ecstatic.
Wonderful performances of “Blue Sky,” “Seven Turns,” “Come On In My Kitchen” (love Dickey’s slide) and “Ramblin’Man” highlight the show, and Dickey and Don play together like twin spirits.
Bonus material includes video of rehearsals and some priceless Dickey Betts interview footage, and as an added bonus, they include a positively smoking CD that includes “Southbound,” “Blue Sky,” and ”Liz Reed,” “Donna Marie,” and “Jessica.”
We have been waiting on this one for several months, and it was well worth the wait. Dickey has assembled an awesome band, and the results speak for themselves. A “must have” for all Peach-heads.
-Michael Buffalo Smith