Being a second-generation rocker following in the footsteps of a parent who blazed a groundbreaking trail is no easy road. Sure, there are built-in advantages to having a famous last name and growing up learning under a master, but then there’s the heavy weight of expectations from fans and critics and the pitfalls that go with it. Duane Betts has been there and done that, making his way through thick and thin to generate his own career as one of the best blues rockers of the current generation.
Son of late great guitarist Dickey Betts, Duane Betts has taken his time. He toured as a member of his dad’s band, Great Southern, then later formed the Allman Betts Band with fellow second-gen rocker Devon Allman. The duo have also made the Allman Betts Family Revival tour an annual highlight of the December concert calendar, leading all-star tribute shows to the Allman Brothers Band. Now Betts is back on the road with his own band, Duane Betts & Palmetto Hotel, hitting the tour trail behind his second LP, Isle of Hope. The album cycle has been part of a cathartic process of coping with losing his father, who passed away two years ago at age 80.
“I really want this record to offer a sanctuary… that music is a sanctuary, and this is your little piece of land to stand on,” Betts explained to Billboard earlier this year. “Everybody agrees these times are crazy, and everybody’s anxious. Something my dad used to say when we’d go up on that stage every night for three hours was that we want to give our listeners, our fans, a little reprieve from their outside trouble and daily stresses in life. We want to offer them a sanctuary, where they don’t have to think about that.”
The Betts concept of musical sanctuary is another example of music’s power as a medicinal sonic elixir for the soul. The concept was elucidated in the late 1960s and early 1970s by classic rockers from Jim Morrison singing of how “The music is your special friend, dance on fire as it intends”, to the Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane, who all featured such themes about spiritual sustenance in the music.
The current tour brought Duane Betts & Palmetto Hotel back to the San Francisco Bay Area for a two-night stand at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California, on Friday, 28 August and Saturday, 29 August. A blissfully bluesy house-party atmosphere prevailed, thanks to Sweetwater’s intimate, fan-friendly vibe and the group’s heartfelt songs and uplifting jams.
Local troubadour Miko Marks opened the shows with her own bluesy sound. “My singing is my healer, it’s my medicine, so you might get a lot of emotion tonight,” Marks explained on night one. Set closer “Trouble” from 2022’s Feel Like Going Home was described as written for late activist and politician John Lewis, with Marks saying the song is needed more than ever in 2026, “because we gotta get that energy up to where we need”. When she sings “All I want right now can’t be bought or sold / I want trouble to satisfy me / Gimme that good good trouble / Good trouble’s all I need” over the rocking chorus, she has the audience grooving in full solidarity.
Duane Betts has been a frequent visitor to the Bay Area in recent years, with the Allman Betts Family Revival closing their annual tours by rocking the Fillmore in San Francisco each December, while also visiting with his own band in the spring or summer. “Down to Houston” is an upbeat rocker from the new album with a sweet melodic groove that sparks the set early on, as Betts and longtime slide guitarist Johnny Stachela riff it up. Betts looks a lot like his dad did back in the day, and his playing has an authenticity that resonates across space and time.
Betts describes “Reckless” as “kind of an autobiographical thing”, alluding to a personal history that includes going down the darker path of rock ‘n’ roll with drug addiction in his younger years. The vocals and lyrics have a cathartic vibe, then it shifts into a hot jam section where Stachela slays on the slide solo. “Best Wishes” is another gem where Betts sings of “sweet memories” over sweet melodies that feel like sonic comfort food, with keyboardist Max Butler adding vibrant piano lines.
The set surges with the classic “Statesboro Blues”, featuring Miko Marks back out on lead vocals. Duane and Johnny trade riffs much like Dickey Betts and Duane Allman would, conjuring a fiery sound. Drummer Vincent Fosset Jr. and bassist Pedro Arevalo also rock hard as the band gels. “Manatee River” is another winner from the new album, with Duane Betts saying it’s just the second time they’ve played it. It seems to touch on that autobiographical thing again when he sings “There’s a high road, don’t get too high, you might fall.” The bluesy guitar interplay between Betts and Stachela shines as one of modern rock’s true dynamic duos.
“Thank you all so much, it’s so good to be on the West Coast, in the great state of California,” Betts says. He explains that the new “Heartache” is one of his favorites, a song about losing someone you love, written while grieving the loss of his dad. The song has a deeply bluesy resignation of acceptance, with shimmering slide licks underscoring the melancholy theme.
The energy surges again on “Saints and Sinners” from 2023’s Wild & Precious Life, a groovy tune with sensational twin-guitar jamming and an exquisite melodic breakdown before a bliss jam that gets the Sweetwater down. The title also feels like a nod to former Sweetwater proprietor Bobby Weir, well known for singing a classic line in “New Minglewood Blues”: “The preacher man call me a sinner / But his little girl call me a saint.”
A hot jam on the Allman Brothers’ classic “Jessica” delivers yet another peak moment of twin-guitar bliss. The encore closes out with a signature song from the new album, “Keep My Hands Clean”. It’s an anthemic rocker that feels retro and modern at the same time, as Duane sings of just trying to do his best to keep it together while “traveling down the line”.
Twenty-four hours later, it seems word has gotten out about what a fun show it was on Friday as the Sweetwater fills up for the Saturday night finale. The crowded house-party vibe is in full effect as the band rocks out on “Down to Houston”, “Reckless”, and “Best Wishes”, which opens up for a big jam. Betts goes deeper into the repertoire for “Taking Time” from his 2018 EP Sketches of American Music, an upbeat rocker that keeps the festive vibe going.
The Saturday show features extra treats when Betts pulls two aces from up his sleeve, bringing out both Miko Marks and local virtuoso Jason Crosby for the Allman Brothers’ classic “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More”. The way the guitars and piano layer melodies over the fat groove is pure sonic bliss, with Crosby’s fiddle adding another element that sparks the jam even higher. It’s one of those timeless tunes that lights a fire anytime, anywhere.
The big fun continues when Crosby stays on for the Grateful Dead’s “Althea”, another groovy crowd pleaser for a classic rock jam session as the “space is getting hot”. The show goes over the top as Crosby moves to keyboards for one more big jam on “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”, a twin-guitar bonanza that also showcases psychedelic organ work and a transcendent jam.
The Friday show was a blast, but the Saturday show soared to a higher level with this trio of jams on three straight classic rock favorites with Jason Crosby. Duane Betts & Palmetto Hotel topped off the sequence with one of their own burgeoning classics, “Waiting on a Song”. The sentiment about “holding on to hope” delivers a timeless message: whether you’re waiting for inspiration or looking for love, the dream stays alive as long as you keep going, even if the path may veer. “Dreams have their way, Of Changing us with time,” Betts sings. In this sense, Duane Betts carries the torch for the previous generation while blazing his own trail.
