Bless Your Heart

Description

Stunning Second Album from Devon Allman and Duane Betts Project Recorded at Famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and Produced by Grammy-Winner Matt Ross-Spang!

If Down to the River was the sound of the bands combustible sparks igniting, then Bless Your Heart is their bonfire, built for the summer of 2020 and beyond; a double-album follow-up fueled by road-forged camaraderie and telepathic musical intensity, vibrantly reflecting the individual and collective experiences of these seven, all drawing inspiration from the bands symbolic hometown a place Devon Allman calls the United States of Americana. A conflagration of influences and invention, confidence and ambition, Bless Your Heart captures a vast, panoramic scope throughout a bakers dozen of modern rock. Ragged and stomping. Heady and frayed. Soaring and scorching. Generational and genteel. West Coast scenes and Gulf Coast shores. Gateways of the Midwest and swamplands of Florida. Wyomings Big Sky. New Yorks Big Apple. Chicagos Broad Shoulders.

Among the fiery set is Magnolia Road, a semi-autobiographical overview of Allman and Betts written, ironically, by Stoll Vaughan alone, and a tie-dyed contender for a summer favorite. There is the albums starter, Pale Horse Rider, ominously evolving into a dark and dense rumbler accentuated by an unbridled storm of guitars, evoking the spirit of Neil Youngs Crazy Horse and modern counterpart, My Morning Jacket. Over a weeks time, they recorded 13 songs, with additional tracking in Memphis and St. Louis. Within the eclectic repertoire are the familiar: stacks of guitars; electric, acoustic, and slide; a throttling, percussive rhythm section. And the fresh: Bassist and singer Berry Duane Oakleys ABB vocal debut on his original song (The Doctors Daughter); Allmans baritone vocal channeling Johnny Cash (Much Obliged); Duane Betts extending the legendary family legacy of incendiary instrumentals (Savannahs Dream). They tapped friends, as well, such as Jimmy Hall, Shannon McNally, Art Edmaiston, Susan Marshall, and Reba Russell for guest contributions. Then, emerged with an undeniable achievement of an album worthy of its winking, unabashedly Southern title.

I think we definitely challenged ourselves, pushed ourselves artistically, and widened the spectrum on all levels. We wanted something that was a little more sweeping. A deeper experience, says Betts. Adds Allman, I hope what people hear on Bless Your Heart is a band thats having a love affair with being a band.