Seven Turns on the Highway

Reflections after a year of publication

May 12, 2024

Greetings from Middle Tennessee. Welcome back to Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern Music, History, and Culture.

Today’s post is brought to you by Dickey Betts’s “Seven Turns,” title track of the Allman Brothers Band’s 1990 album. Dickey drew inspiration for the song from a lesson he learned from his Navajo spiritual mentor, Stewart Etsitty.

The gist is the belief that everyone faces seven crucial decisions in life.

I thought a lot about the song and its meaning the last few weeks and thought I’d share some of my musings with y’all.

Seven turns on the highway

Until today, I never thought about the seven turns in my life. I’m 53, and imagine I’ve had at least 5 of them by now.

The last time I made a really bold move was a little more than a year ago, April 2023, when I launched this blog: Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern Music, History, & Culture.

The response has blown me away.

I set up the blog on Substack with a paid subscription option, and within a matter of hours had a Founding Member level subscriber and several other paid subscriptions. As of today, I have more than 2,700 subscribers and continue to grow in paid subscribers.

I have met and heard from so many groovy people. Folks whose lives have been touched by their connections to the Allman Brothers’ (and related band’s) music and Southern culture.

It’s been a great ride.

Seven rivers to cross

I began Long Live the ABB as a way to share my life’s work studying Southern music, history, and culture through the lens of Duane Allman and the Allman Brothers Band. I knew y’all were out there—because I’ve been making common cause with fellow travelers along Shroom Highway ever since I met my second ABB fan.1

In fall 2022, I launched @longlivetheabb on social media as part of my publication strategy for Play All Night! Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East.2

At one point Youtube took off, then Facebook. Right now I’m concentrating on video content on all platforms, starting with videos on Tiktok. Basically, if you want to hear from me daily, you can.

But that’s not why we’re here.

We’re here to get a little deeper.

Sometimes you feel like you can fly away, sometimes you get lost

All kinds of experiences feed my writer’s soul. Such was my recent trip to Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. My week on the road that began with helping a community designate a historical marker commemorating the Allman Brothers Band’s infamous appearance in Jackson, Alabama.3

Marker is at 118 College Avenue Jackson, Alabama.

I spent two days in a rock & roll themed Airbnb in Pensacola and checked out some ruin porn at the Gulf Island National Seashore/Fort Pickens.4

Sometimes in the darkened5 night, you see the crossroad sign

Pensacola is also—I only remembered this particular week—the last place I saw my mom.

Mom suffered a pathological fracture of her hip on New Year’s Day 2012 while visiting my sister. She died 6 weeks later of lung cancer that had infected her whole body. She was 66, I was 41. We were TIGHT. She was my biggest fan and we had each other’s backs for sure. Her death kicked off a genuine midlife crisis for me. It was a shock.

One reaction was to return to guitar. I’d played since I was 12, and always kept one around the house. But they stayed in cases for the most part.

It started when my kid brother Brian asked me to accompany him at her funeral. I was rusty, and Brian remains to this day the finest musician with whom I’ve ever played. We shared a true connection. I practiced hard, made my fingers peel apart (guitarists know), and I just kept on going.

One way is the morning light

Preparing and playing Mom’s service with Brian reignited my love of guitar. I began playing every day (haven’t really stopped that habit) and have had a blast buying, selling, trading for, and inheriting a number of axes over the years.6

You’ve got to make up your mind.

Mom’s death also spurred me to action.

In 2013, I started my Ph.D. journey, which would ultimately fulfill two goals I set in the late 90s: earn a doctorate; write a book on the Allman Brothers Band.

A whole lot happened before I completed those tasks: in 2018 (Ph.D.) and 2022 (Play All Night!). I experienced my share of grief and heartache. And though I am open with my own struggles with anxiety and depression,7 altogether, though “My cup [truly] runneth over.”

Somebody’s callin’ your name, somebody’s waitin’ for you

Last weekend I attended the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Sun, Sand, and Soul festival in Miramar Beach, Florida. It was an amazing weekend of music and of connecting with some dear friends.

It was the kind of time that feeds the soul.

Tedeschi Trucks Band “It Ain’t Fair” May 4, 2024

I make no secret of my enduring love for the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Here they are on the final night of the festival8, with Alecia Chakour channeling Aretha Franklin on vocals and Derek Trucks and Kebbi Williams bringing the Duane and King Curtis vibe.

Then, TTB segued into “Dreams”

As they’d been doing since the Beacon Theatre in March 2024. The song is ALWAYS good, always special.

What made it extra special is Duane Betts, who nails a beautiful solo.

It was truly “Mushroom Magic”9

Dreams has a special place in my heart. Along with Mountain Jam, it is my all-time favorite ABB tune. The lyrics have offered me a compass at various crossroads I’ve encountered in life.10

Gregg’s first 2 verses and the chorus express sentiments many of us feel all too often…

Just one more mornin'
I had to wake up with the blues.
Pulled myself out of bed,
Put on my walking' shoes.
Went up on the mountain,
To see what I could see.
The whole world was fallin'
Right down in front of me.
'Cause I'm hung up, on dreams I'll never see.
Ah, help me, baby.
Or this will surely be the end of me, yeah

Duane’s solo follows.

It’s my favorite studio solo he ever recorded.

He starts on traditional, fretted guitar and slips on the slide midway through. Duane builds the tension to a furious climax before then gliding safely home.

He sets up Gregg’s final verse perfectly. Gregg finds redemption and resolve in his brother’s solo.

Pull myself together,
Put on a new face.
Climb down off the hilltop,
Get back in the race.11

A little history

Dreams was a staple of Allman Brothers sets in 1970. It was a rarity in 1971–the year they spent rehearsing for and then playing their hit record At Fillmore East.

The Dreams from 9/19/71 SUNY Stonybrook is the only version I know of that features any kind of Dickey solo. He’s mostly just talking back & forth with Duane, not a real solo, but it gives an idea of where they might’ve taken the song had Duane lived.

Following Duane’s death, they shelved Dreams for 18 years.

When the ABB reunited in 1989, Dreams was back in the repertoire.12 Dickey played the first solo, Warren Haynes played the slide solo.

Dickey really dug into the tune and I looked forward to his solo on Dreams almost as much as Warren/Jack/Derek on the nights I saw them play live together. Just wonderful stuff.

Here’s an example, from 1992’s An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set.

Love is all that remains the same, that’s what it’s all coming to.

This is the energy Duane Betts. His dad, Dickey, had died only two weeks earlier. Emotions were high. Duane and the entire Tedeschi Trucks Band truly delivered.

Following Alecia bringing me to tears on “It Ain’t Fair,” it was a powerfully emotional 20-mins of music that left all sorts of circles unbroken.13

Random Notes

Make beautiful things: Doug Peaches' Substack hipped me to this really great video from SXSW. The whole thing is meaningful to me as a creative person, but this part right here is where it all comes home for me.

When you watch it, know that you are a part of my creative process. That is my inspiration here on the blog—across the whole spectrum actually. I am grateful to those of you who have joined me along the journey.

Some good reads. Here are some things I came across that I found interesting and you might too.

Lagniappes

“Love and War” Oteil Burbridge with Lamar Williams Jr. Looking forward to the rest of this project.

Playlist based (somewhat) on the themes in this blog post.14

“Instructions Upon My Death.” This Harry Baker poem moved my soul. Perhaps it will yours as well. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLVpmS1k/

I’ll leave you with these words from John Coltrane (1966):

“I want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know that there are bad forces. I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force, which is truly for good.”

These are words I can live by as I strive to “make beautiful things.”

Thank

If you liked this post, please share it with at least one person

Shout-out Troy.

You know the drill, give the algorithm a tickle please https://www.amazon.com/dp/0813069505

Met the two judges who handled the case; they have outlived 5 out of the 6 Allman Brothers.

Shout-out National Park Service, whose sites have piqued my imagination since boyhood.

I always thought it was “dark of” night—but the web, and Spotify, confirm “darkened.”

Below is my first purchase, a Telecaster I named Prudence after “Dear Prudence.” Mom’s favorite band was the Beatles; she was a Paul gal and I’m a Paul guy for that reason. I chose a Beatles song because of George Harrison’s rosewood Telecaster that Duane played onstage with Delaney & Bonnie. So why a John song? It’s the name that came to me when I named her. I’ve since souped up the pickups and changed out the pickguard. That’s Jimmy Johnson’s (the Swampers) autograph.