This is still such a powerful performance. I know Gregg singing "Blue Sky" sounds sacrilegious, but the band sounds like they put everything they had built up from not playing the song for over 4 years into this. The highs are at the ceiling and the band brings it down just so the crowd can catch its breath. A lot of bands play "Blue Sky" coasting at one speed, but the song is such a journey. Butch sounds like he's working overtime to catch up to Derek and Warren. I can't imagine what the band went through during this performance. But I know what the crowd did because the crowd's reaction at that opening and final note always gets me. The world needed Derek playing "Blue Sky".
I have always liked this version. Not a bad song from those 3 nights at The Fox really. Funny story, BroFan (Rich Towle) from the old blue site and a few others got on the elevator in the Georgia Terrance across the street from The Fox after this show and Butch also got on. BroFan told how great it was hearing Blue Sky again and Butch went off on him, saying they should have never played the f-ckin song to begin with and how much he hated playing it. Brofan said he was still cussing and ranting about when the elevator stopped on Butch's floor and he got off. Wish I would have been there for that elevator ride!
@wayne Yes Butch said on his blog in 2002 they were removing all of Dickey's songs and going back to the original band which didn't play Dickey's songs the first year and just two after that.
Butch said they would write some new instrumentals and park Jessica and Liz Reed etc.
Butch was opposed to playing any Dickey songs but the bands audience missed them. They liked the songs and it was part of what they thought was the Allman Brothers. So he eventually was over ruled.
I like much of the stuff the last lineup did but I'm not a fan of them doing Dickey's songs. Gregg decided he didn't want to sing Blue Sky anymore so Warren began singing it. They should have listened to Butch and dropped it.
I skip over the last lineup doing Dickey's songs. I usually hit the restroom then.
If I want to hear Derek Trucks play Blue Sky that 1990 Las Vegas version is my go to and Dickey outshined Derek Trucks in that Las Vegas version as he did Warren Haynes several times.
When Dickey wasn't in the bag too far for me, a more interesting guitar player than Derek and Warren. And far more successful.
Ha that's funny, and not at all surprising. I hope Butch realized he was wrong about it, he played a number of those tunes with Les Brers and Freight Train Band.
I admit it was jarring hearing Jimmy and Derek play "Jessica" for the first time. Half of that was the absence of Dickey, but also Jimmy's style is so different from most ABB guitarists. But Derek and Warren played "Liz Reed" and "Jessica" as well as anyone. Those tunes belong in an ABB setlist, to me the shows felt half-empty during that period of 2001-2003. The Fox Box was what really got me back into the band again after assuming they'd eventually fold and go their separate ways (I was very wrong). I spin this version as often as any, the 2009 "Little Martha>Blue Sky>Little Martha" are pretty stellar too. I can't say I have a go to Great Southern "Blue Sky" from that period.
@porkchopbob You can't go wrong with the Fox Box set, 3 awesome nights. I still go back and listen to Derek and jimmy play from that 2000 tour, the Raleigh show is spectacular, recording-wise and performance. It was refreshing to hear the band playing tight again as they had gotten sloppy sounding there at the end of the Dickey era and just mailing it in. Derek and Jimmy together kicked those songs up a notch and I think they made Gregg, Butch and Jamioe play harder. Jessica, Mountain Jam, Les Bres, Every Hungry Woman, One Way Out, they all just sounded better in 2000 after Dickey left.
@wayne as much as love Dickey (he's my favorite guitarist) I totally agree. Hearing a full "Mountain Jam" in 2000, and not just a brief tease in the middle of "Jessica", was pretty wild. There was definitely a different energy.
I was fortunate to see a couple very solid Great Southern shows, one from the first Let's Get Together tour in 2001, and from one of his last shows in fall 2014. He kept releasing live albums during that period that were mostly pleasant but never really raised the bar. Pedro and Mike Kach were good fits, but I never thought he found a guitarist that challenged him.
@wayne When Derek and Jimmy launched into "Jessica" in summer 2000, at the time I thought they were playing it at light speed. A couple years later I went back and listened to it (I have the Raleigh show somewhere) and realized they were just back to playing it at a normal speed again. It had been stuck in a lower gear for a couple years I got used to it.
Agree this is a great version and one of the few songs where a Derek solo could reach places that make me cry.
And that Buch story is so apropos... I remember him saying Dickey made it too bombastic for a while so it was good to bring it back to its original form... that elevator comment flies in the face of that!
@porkchopbob exactly, that lineup played them the way they were supposed to be played. And you are right, love those full blown Mountain Jams from that period, Derek and Jimmy really shined in those. Love Dickey too, but somewhere along the way Dickey didn't play like Dickey anymore if that makes sense.
@wayne When Dickey sued the band in 2000 one of his complaints was Jimmy Herring was impersonating him.
Maybe they shouldn't have voted Dickey off the stage then tour that summer playing his songs.
In 1999 when Derek Trucks joined, Dickey perked up and played great at the 1999 shows I saw. Derek Trucks didn't have anything on Betts that year.
The Blue Sky and Ramblin' Man here is Dickey at his best and Derek Trucks playing real fine too.
I'm spinning "Back Where It All Begins" from the same "Bootleg" Great Southern release. Maybe I take back what I wrote, I forgot how Dickey rearranged some tunes for the 3-guitar lineup and the middle of "Begins" is very different from the Warren-era. There's quite a guitar choir after Mike's piano solo. I don't think it beats any of those epic version from the mid 1990s, but it's a pretty cool take in its own right.
@porkchopbob Yes an interesting version indeed.
Didn't Dickey Betts resurrect the Great Southern name because Dangerous Dan Toler agreed to join when Mark May quit? Before Dan Toler joined and May quit, the used The Dickey Betts Band.
Dickey let Mark May write on Let's All Get Together and Matt Ziner too wrote one. But Danny Toler suddenly quit because he realized Dickey wasn't allowing him to put some of his original material or co-write some new songs with Dickey. Actually Dickey didn't have any firm plans to do another studio album. And didn't do one beyond The Collectors did he?
After Toler joined they put out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CD and DVD. Then the Bootleg Volume one and in 2009 the DVD in Europe which also had a 1977 Great Southern show with Danny Toler playing Dickey's old Strat as a second disk.
I bought all of that and I'm not aware of another release until the 2019 show from Staten Island billed as The Dickey Betts Band which I understand did not sell well. Okay none of his releases after he was out of the ABB sold enough to go gold but the post Dickey Betts Allman Brothers Band released two new albums, Hitting The Note and the live One Way Out and they didn't sell well either, especially One Way Out. That was a big reason why Butch didn't see the point of the ABB doing another album. Gregg later said they are doing one and will do it without Butch Trucks if need be but they never did. Gregg just didn't seem to follow through on much but he did get two solo albums recorded before his death. The first one did sell some copies but didn't go gold.
There were a few instant live CDs.
I guess I have everything Dickey put out after he was out of the ABB.
He is my favorite guitar player too!!! 😁
In 1999 when Derek Trucks joined, Dickey perked up and played great at the 1999 shows I saw. Derek Trucks didn't have anything on Betts that year.
🎸agree, & we saw that in ‘97 when Jack & Oteil joined too, their presence really lit up some of their shows, esp Jack & Dickey - masterful on my 1998 Beacon stuff
it was all fluid then w/5 players in the band from 1997-2000 - Dickey, Warren, Jack, Derek, Jimmy - numerous fave-shows from this period
Really liked that BAIABegins!😁🌞
robertdee I think that’s right, some new songs they came up with, like Girl W/the Deep Blue Eyes, Cleveland Blues, others, but no studio release after Collectors
@robertdee There a couple other live releases from Dickey during the 2000s that straddled Dan Toler-Andy Aledort tenures (and, uh, Twinkle).
Here's as best I can remember:
Dickey Betts Band, Let's Get Together (2001)
Dickey Betts & Great Southern, The Collectors #1 (2002)
Instant Live, The Odeon (2004)
Live at the RnR HOF (2005)
Official Bootleg (2007) (re-released and expanded in 2021)
Rockplast, 2010
There were some other archival releases from the late 70s and mid 80s over the next decade, but those were the contemporary releases. They are probably soundboard recordings, cheap to produce, package, and put in the mail.
Dickey was so quick to get in the studio after he was dismissed, as if he had something to prove, it's a shame he didn't get back. But we make what we make, no reason to book studio time if we got nothing brewing. And the fidelity of Together and Collectors is kind of muddy.
@porkchopbob Yes Let's Get Together and Collectors were made on the cheap. Never understood why Dickey didnt plow more money into their production.
Gregg said in an interview in summer 2000 that it was either do the summer shoes without Dickey or cancel the tour because Dickey was too much to handle right now. And it isn't about money. Gregg said they all have enough money to retire today if they wanted and Dickey was worth more money than all of them. So Dickey had the resources.
I have those Allman Brothers Band archival releases and the SUNY show has a very hot Blue Sky. Dickey takes it up a notch after Duane's solo. At the end I hear Oakley say " Very hot".
Thank you for the list. I have everything except I didn't order the Bootleg rerelease/expanded released in 2021. I remember seeing that and the cover is the same with Dickey holding his PRS guitar. I will check on getting that.
Again thank you. It's difficult to realize all those guys but one are gone now. They had a hell of a band.
@stephen Yes Dickey was playing like he did when Duane was in the band when Jack Pearson was in the band. And Dickey was smoking most of the time during the first years Warren and Woody were in the band. Saw an Atlanta show in 1990 and man was Dickey good.
I miss those days.
