DEVON ALLMAN’S BLUES SUMMIT TO OPEN READING BLUES FEST

By Susan L. Peña

 The Devon Allman’s Blues Summit, featuring the Devon Allman Project and three special guest stars, will provide an unforgettable opening night for the 2025 Reading Blues Fest, on Friday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. in the DoubleTree by Hilton Reading Grand Ballroom.

 Joining Allman’s six-piece band will be singer/harmonica player Jimmy Hall, founding member of the acclaimed southern rock band Wet Willie in the 1970s; legendary Arkansan blues vocalist/guitarist Larry McCray; and emerging New Orleans R&B vocalist Sierra Green.

 Allman, in addition to leading his own band and other activities, has been co-hosting (with Duane Betts) the Allman Betts Family Revival Tour every year for nearly a decade to celebrate their fathers, the late Gregg Allman and Dicky Betts of the Allman Brothers Band.

 The Blues Summit, Allman said, “was kind of born out of this celebration. We always have so much fun on that large-scale tour that we decided it would be fun to do a tour during the summer that wasn’t very big. So we have nine people instead of 19.”

 The Blues Summit toured this past summer, throughout the U.S. and in Europe, and also released an eponymous album that has received positive attention, he said.

 “We’re just thrilled at the way it’s all come together very organically. We’ve had a blast with it; it’s high-energy.”

 Hall, a longtime friend of the Allmans, became “Uncle Jimmy” to Devon, since Slick Willy was the opening act for the Allman Brothers, and Hall also toured with Greg Allman during the 1990s.

 “I think my dad would be smiling down, knowing that I’m keeping Jimmy on that stage,” Allman said. 

Of McCray, he said: “I’ve been a fan of Larry’s for 20 years. I invited him to be on the Revival Tour, and he has become a member of the family. His blues acumen is so highly regarded in the blues world.”

 Green, who grew up in New Orleans’ 7th Ward, famous for its musicians, was recommended to Allman by a management company they had in common, and when he heard her, he invited her to join the Revival.  

“She has been building a following ever since,” he said. “I’m a champion of diversity in the true sense—old, young, Black, white, male, female. We needed a gal, and Sierra has a beautiful voice.”

 Allman, who lives in St. Louis, Mo., was born and raised in Texas, and still considers it home. Soon after he was born, Greg Allman and Devon’s mother, Shelley Kay Jefts, were divorced, so he had the gift of a “normal,” suburban childhood with Jefts.

 “I didn’t meet my father until later in life,” he said. “After 17 years with no contact, we connected and hit it off. I was already playing guitar and singing.” 

Allman said he was exposed to music through FM radio and his mother’s vinyl collection, like many other kids. When he was 13, a friend of his played guitar, and although the friend had no gift for it, “it was the first time I’d ever seen someone playing a guitar up close,” he said. Soon he had his own guitar and started teaching himself to play.

 At first, he was attracted to the music of Eddie Van Halen, Ozzy Osborne and Metallica.

 “But once you get into guitar, you reach beyond the genre you personally like, because there’s so many genres of guitar,” he said.

 Soon he fell in love with the blues of Robert Johnson and B.B. King and settled into blues and blues rock as his specialties.

 “I had my own connection with music that had nothing to do with my dad, and I’m grateful for that because it was my own,” he said.

 When he and his dad finally met, he was trying to decide if he wanted to continue to pursue his other love, theater acting, or embark on a career as a musician. His father invited him to come along on the 1989 Allman Brothers reunion tour, and he accepted, mostly to find out if he would enjoy touring enough to do it all the time.

 “On the final night of the tour, they brought me out to sing (the Allman hit) ‘Midnight Rider,’” he said, “and the exchange of energy was so incredible. The electricity was palpable, and I thought, “Wow!, you get feedback from audiences in a theater, but you don’t get this level of energy. That was a whole new high for me. I wanted to keep doing it forever.”

 Ten years later, he started his own band, Honeytribe, which still exists. In 2011, he helped found the supergroup Royal Southern Brotherhood with Cyril Neville, Mike Zito, Yonrico Scott and Charlie Wooton, which continues to perform.

 And in 2018, Allman and Betts formed the Allman Betts Band, recording “Down to the River” in 2019, followed by a world tour for the 50th anniversary of the Allman Brothers Band.

 With his own band and his various projects, Allman has been kept busy with recording (at least 20 albums so far). Five years ago, he started his own record label, Create Records, and has signed four artists whose careers he enjoys nurturing.

 “I started a record label at a time when people aren’t buying records,” he said. “We’re aiming at the two out of 10 people who are music lovers, who support artists and value having the best technology (vinyl and a great sound system) to listen to them.”

And he keeps feeling that intoxicating electricity between himself and the audience, night after night.

For complete information on the Reading Blues Fest 2025, and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.readingbluesfest.com/