Devon Allman - The Blues Summit

In the first 20 years of his recording career, Devon Allman has made one thing very clear. He doesn’t stand still. As an artist and performer, he is always on the move, eager to stretch his boundaries, forever on the lookout for new sources of inspiration and new musicians to collaborate with. That ethos has driven him to continually create and move on. That’s why his discography to date – though it includes a number of solo albums – also shows releases with Honeytribe (with whom he debuted in 2006) and southern rock supergroup Royal Southern Brotherhood as well as with the Allman Betts Band. The resumé is a work in progress, yet one that is already worthy of the musical legacy handed down to him by his late father Gregg Allman of the legendary Allman Brothers Band.

In recent years, the hard-working singer, guitarist and songwriter has focused his attention on the Devon Allman Project, touring relentlessly and spreading groovy, feel-good vibes on the 2024 release entitled Miami Moon.

The band’s newest album Blues Summit is a completely different animal.

Once again, it’s a decidedly collaborative effort that sees Allman’s core band augmented by big-time players like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Larry McCray, Jimmy Hall and Robert Randolph. Yet this time around, Allman displays an uncanny willingness to share the spotlight. He does more than feature his guests on this session. On roughly half of the album’s ten tracks, he lets them take center stage. And since most of his guests are big-time blues players, we wind up with one of the bluesiest albums of Allman’s career. As the title says: it’s a Blues Summit.

One of the stars of this musical gathering is Jimmy Hall, who some may know as lead singer and harmonica player of southern-rock group Wet Willie or for his collaborations with Jeff Beck. Hall puts his stamp on the record almost immediately, singing and blowing up a storm on its de facto theme song, “Blues Is A Feelin’.” The track is a big, brawny, propulsively rhythmic celebration delivered by eight musicians who share an obvious passion for the blues. Hall handles vocal duties again on the gospel-tinged “Peace To The World” (with Robert Randolph adding his trademark pedal steel guitar) and on a loose and spirited, hand-clapping, foot-stomping version of the Willie Dixon classic “Wang Dang Doodle.”

On “Hands And Knees,” Arkansas-born Larry McCray takes his turn at the mic and on lead guitar, his chiming licks and smooth tone showing an obvious debt to B.B. King. “Getting’ Greasy With It” is another McCray composition served up well by Allman and his cohorts. The funky quasi-instrumental is smothered in horns and has Memphis written all over it – no surprise since it features the celebrated Memphis Horns, guests on three songs in all. Though Blues Summit was recorded at the Sawhorse Studio in St. Louis, it often feels like Memphis, with “Real Love” being a further example; this slow and sultry soul ballad written by Allman showcases New Orleans singer Sierra Green on vocals.