Ragged & Dirty Devon Allman

• 1 Half The Truth 03:07
• 2 Can't Lose 'Em All 03:45
• 3 Leavin' 02:40
• 4 I'll Be Around 03:54
• 5 Traveling 04:14
• 6 Midnight Lake Michigan 09:31
• 7 Ten Million Slaves 03:20
• 8 Blackjack Heartattack 03:12
• 9 Back To You 05:02
• 10 Times Have Changed 03:28
• 11 Ragged & Dirty 02:43
• 12 Leave The City 03:00
• Total Runtime 47:56

Info for Ragged & Dirty

The dirty blond hair is the same, the body posture is also the same, and there are touches in the voice that have a similar genetic connection, but Devon Allman has toiled long and hard to establish his own musical identity, separate from his mega-famous dad, Gregg Allman.

For Ragged & Dirty, Devon left his Southern comfort zone, hired a crack Chicago band, and enlisted the producing and writing talents of Grammy winning producer Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, James Cotton, Joe Louis Walker).

Though Hambridge wrote four tunes and Devon picked three to cover, it’s his original tunes that speak to his artistic journey.

To hear how a groove takes over, check out the spontaneity of his “Midnight Lake Michigan.” Devon’s dark and ominous guitar howls push the nine-minute instrumental with a hoodoo aura. As the tension builds, the song adds Marty Sammon’s keyboards and Tom Hambridge’s percussion in a swirl of primal rhythms.

To hear Devon’s vocal range, listen to the CD closer, “Leave The City.” With only Hambridge keepin’ the sparse beat, Devon strips down and shows off his pleading, Allman-esque voice and stirring resonator guitar in this move to country blues simplicity.

Luther Allison’s “Ragged & Dirty” is a funk meets blues that provides Devon’s hot-shot Chicago studio band of bassist Felton Crews (Charlie Musselwhite and others), guitarist Giles Corey (Billy Branch), and keyboard ace Marty Sammon (Buddy Guy) along with Nashville’s Hambridge on drums room to show-off. Allman’s “Leavin’” provides the band the opportunity to play with a subdued delicacy, while “Back To You” builds from Devon’s expressive solo over Sammon’s B-3 foundation into a blistering slow blues ballad. There’s an expressive side to Devon as he and Wendy Moten handle the Spinner’s classy “I’ll Be Around.” And Devon’s cover of Otis Taylor’s haunting “Ten Million Slaves” commands our attention to bear witness to our historic injustices.

Devon Allman
is the son of musician Gregg Allman and hails from Corpus Christi, Texas. He is the leader of Devon Allman's Honeytribe, whose first incarnation was born in 1999. Honeytribe's hard-edged and spacious blues-based rock, displayed in powerful live shows, quickly led to them becoming hometown favorites. They won the Riverfront Times Jam Band of the Year award. After recording demos and playing some festivals, Allman disbanded the group in order to spend time at home with his newborn son. He continued to play local and regional solo acoustic shows and write songs. In 2002, he appeared as a guest vocalist on Pinkeye d'Gekko's Rhythm & Westrn. In 2003 he, Randy Cash, Brian Breckle, and Mark Oyarzabal recorded the album Somewhere Between Day and Night as Ocean Six.

Allman re-formed Honeytribe in 2005 with its original cast. They recorded Torch in 2006 and hit the road, playing up to 300 shows a year in 42 states and ten countries, becoming festival favorites all over the world. In 2007 he guested on Paris Luna's City Lights album. He appeared on Love, Union, Peace with bluesman Javier Vargas' Vargas Blues Band (along with Jack Bruce, Reese Wynans, and others) in 2008 as well as the Flamenco Blues Experience album recording by the same outfit. He also made appearances at various festivals and on MTV Europe.

Allman eventually grew restless with the original Honeytribe sound and pared the band down to a power trio in 2008 with bassist George Potsos and new drummer Gabriel Strange. This incarnation of Devon Allman's Honeytribe issued Space Age Blues in the fall of 2010. His next project was a blues rock/jam band supergroup called the Royal Southern Brotherhood, comprised of himself and Mike Zito on guitars, bassist Charlie Wooton from Zydefunk, and ex-Derek Trucks drummer Yonrico Scott. The quintet issued a self-titled set in 2012. Allman, proving ever restless, issued his first proper "solo" songwriter's record in early 2013, entitled Turquoise, backed by Scott and bassist Myles Weeks.

Throughout that year he was kept busy by touring with the Royal Southern Brotherhood, who followed up their debut with the concert audio/video package Songs from the Road: Live in Germany in 2013. They recorded their sophomore studio offering, HeartSoulBlood, in early 2014; Ruf issued it in June.

Allman took whatever time he had off from the Royal Southern Brotherhood to play solo shows. He finally got the time to record a project he'd wanted to undertake for some time. In early 2014, he entered a Chicago studio with a cast of seasoned blues veterans from the bands of Luther Allison, Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite, and others. The end result was Ragged & Dirty, which was released in October and showcased an almost entirely different side of the artist.

Booklet for Ragged & Dirty