So I found the Mountain Jam with Govt Mule and Duane Betts sitting in (Ron Holloway too). This is a smoking sequence of Melissa>Mountain Jam>Melissa. You think Duane was hanging with Warren? Watch Warren give Duane the nod at 13:42
When I was young I used to imagine the ABB covering some of my faves. I once dreamed of ABB playing Layla and it happened. I thought of other songs like Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad. It happened. There were others that didn't make as much sense as there really was no ABB connection, I just liked the songs, Night They Drove Dixie Down, etc. There were so many It got weird when it started happening. BUT I NEVER EVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE ANYONE DO THIS...
Melissa>Mountain Jam>Melissa
But it worked!. I thought Duane did good on Melissa too. Sounded a lot like his dad. I do miss the ABB
KC Jimmy, Duane sat in on Jessica with the Mule from the same show. Very strange watching Duane and Warren on this tune but Warren seems to smile at times when Duane hits the note.
Duane's tone is so pure and so much like Dickey its scary. I dig watching this stuff
I am very happy to see them doing this. They need a Trucks to sit in. How many little Johnsons are there? Just the daughter if I recall. Wonder if she can sing or play anything?
I guess I was way wrong when I used to think if you were going to be very good it would show up by age 25 or so. I always thought Duane was just average but something happened in the last few years and he has taken off like a rocket. I also thought Derek was just average without a slide on his finger but again something happened and for me his straight lead stuff has just exploded. Of course with a slide he was great in 1st grade. 
I finally watched this video! Good stuff indeed.
I'll throw down a few ideas:
1. At a live show where you see the players, some body language matters. One of my guitar heroes is Mick Taylor. Gorgeous player, amazing tone, vibrato, note selection, melodic sense. However, live, at times, especially if the conditions are right, he has looked so painfully uncomfortable that it makes the audience uncomfortable. I remember seeing him at The Wetlands where he was NOT getting the sound he wanted, and he looked like he was in agony, gesticulating at the soundman, frowning, shaking his head, all throughout the sound. Everyone there felt his discomfort and absorbed it, and called it an off night for Mick.
However, the recording of the show sounded just fine. No better or worse than many other shows that tour. My eyes had fooled my ears at that show, in a way.
Our eyes are sensory organs, as are our ears. I'm not saying that every player who dances or plays behind his head sounds great suddenly, but some players do effectively broadcast their notes with their bodies. In an odd way, I learned this when I saw my daughter do ballet; she was illustrating the music with her body.
I think a confident attack on the guitar matters in the snap of the notes - Tommy Bolin had it, Angus Young has it, etc - and we hear that percussive SNAP with our ears - but sometimes our eyes bring that information to us also. It's actually an awful dilemma for me personally, because I do play guitar in a band, and I am a very awkward human being, and I know that I do not sell my solos with my body. I look sheepish at best. I have the facial expression of a middle-aged man holding his kid's Barbie doll at the mall while she goes the bathroom. It's not good.
So it IS good that Duane has gotten that confidence in his body language. He is not doing a Jimi Hendrix humping the guitar in this video, but he has at least reached the David Gilmour body language level.
There is the uber extreme, the Johnny Thunders thing where you play terribly but look confident, and sell it that way, and a certain audience does dig that. I can grok. It is rock'n'roll. I am certainly uneasy with posers who oversell the emphasis on Kool Stage Movezzz. Hair metal had some rough moments, boy. I'm looking at you, JayJay French from Twisted Sister.
2. Confidence in your playing means you can work with what Dickey Betts and a lot of blues players use to perfection: space; holding a note; repetition for effect; tension and release. A great speaker is so confident that he can pause after a line and give "wait time"; he doesn't need to rush to the next words out of a fear of dead air. This is key in a classroom also; a good teacher can ask a question and wait confidently without immediately saying "Bueller? Bueller?" to hasten the answer. A great speaker might repeat the same line a few times to really milk it.
PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER? is a classic.
Some guitarists rush to fill the space with different notes, with more notes. They get squirrel fingers. Duane's comfortable, confident sense of knowing he can just do some repetition of the right notes with the right tone without desperately needing to jump into the next thing really works well, and it does take some confidence and knowledge to do that right.
3. Big V, I will be a douche and quibble a little with semantics. It's why I get paid the big bucks. You said "Imho, you want to have a discussion about "Real players"? Let's start with Tommy Emmanuel and go from there..." I would argue that you END with Tommy Emmanuel. He is such a wizard, like a Steve Howe or Danny Gatton or other absolute mutant master of guitar, Joe Pass maybe, atop the pantheon of astonishing jaw-dropping technique meets melody that he is almost incomparable.
I'd say "Let's start with George Harrison or Mike Campbell." Even that is wrong. Those are two guys whose taste, tone, touch, and melodic sensibilities are so amazing that they played guitar lines that the world is STILL SINGING them.
Maybe I'd say "Let's start with George Thoroughgood or the guy from Eddie Money's band who played the solo on 'Two Tickets to Paradise.'"
Thoroughgood ain't no Derek Trucks. I despised him the 80s when I worshipped Lifeson. However - he has mastered his tone, he gets the notes he wants, and they rock the room. We ask the philosophical question "If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" Well, we can also ask, "If George Thoroughgood plays a solo at a club and everyone gets up and shakes their tails, how can it not be good?" There is something to recognize there.
That solo in "Two Tickets to Paradise," like the one in "Baker Street" or "So Caught Up In You" or a zillion other FM hits that are by guitarists I cannot name (OK the guy in 38 Special is named Jeff Carlisi I think) are good examples of memorable playing by guys who names we don't remember. They did SOMETHING right. They are not in my pantheon, yet they are embedded in the collective consciousness .....
I'm rambling, and you know the IPA is to blame. I hope you take no offense. I love talking music and guitar. Duane Betts is getting there. He has nailed his tone and his attack. I hope to hear him craft the solo that I remember as distinctly his.
Wow, so many things I want to respond to. First to the person who posted Duane became a better player when he joined Dawes. I agree wholeheartedly. I remember seeing Duane with Dickey when Dickey and just thought he was in the band because he was Dickey’s son. Nothing stood out and it was just a perfunctory performance.
I have friends who are huge Dawes fans. I never got into them until I saw them at the Christmas Jam in 2015. Killer set. They ended up doing “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” as an encore. Taylor Goldsmith is a vastly underrated guitar player and Duane pushed him to play. Taylor did the same with Duane. You could see the confidence grow with Duane. I saw them 8 months later In Cincinnati at the Taft Theater and you could tell something was going on with the band. Duane looked bored on stage and soon afterwards he left the band. I saw Dawes a couple of months afterwards without Duane and thought they missed him. Most Dawes fans would disagree with me, but he was the reason I went to see them live.
I saw the Allman Betts band in Florida in March. Stachela might be the best player of the bunch. He really impressed me as he did when I saw him in the band when they opened up for Dickey. Duane played like he did not have a care in the world and I mean that as a compliment. Just went up and did his thing and sounded great. My problem was with Devon. Not a big fan of his showboating and I don’t think he plays as well as the other guys.
Regarding the first Eddie Money album, I love that album and one major reason is the guitarist. Yes, I know the name. Jimmy Lyons. I love the guitar playing and tone on the album. He was also able to cut it live. He played on the first two albums.
So I found the Mountain Jam with Govt Mule and Duane Betts sitting in (Ron Holloway too). This is a smoking sequence of Melissa>Mountain Jam>Melissa. You think Duane was hanging with Warren? Watch Warren give Duane the nod at 13:42
This is terrific! Thanks for posting
I always wanted the brothers to stretch out Melissa. Such a beautiful melody to jam on
So it IS good that Duane has gotten that confidence in his body language. He is not doing a Jimi Hendrix humping the guitar in this video, but he has at least reached the David Gilmour body language level.
Some guitarists rush to fill the space with different notes, with more notes. They get squirrel fingers. Duane's comfortable, confident sense of knowing he can just do some repetition of the right notes with the right tone without desperately needing to jump into the next thing really works well, and it does take some confidence and knowledge to do that right.
3 I love talking music and guitar. Duane Betts is getting there. He has nailed his tone and his attack. I hope to hear him craft the solo that I remember as distinctly his.
Following up on what Jim said (I paraphrased his post)--check out Duane on this Jessica from last week. Watch how his confidence has grown. In particular watch how he puts the band through paces and takes control starting with the break in Jessica before the piano solo. Very interesting, pretty cool.
Here's another blistering Jessica. In particular check out Oakley Jr. He is a monster!!
