Sunday, July 12, 2009

Dickey Betts - Night (1981)



"Night" is the unreleased solo album of Dickey Betts. For those of you familiar with The Allman Brothers Band's "Dreams" box set, you may already know Dickey was working on a record with Nashville producer Chips Moman. This album also features the track "Nancy", though this is a completely different version. I doubt this has anything to do with Chips Moman yet, but I could be wrong.
I have to warn you, this is not a great sounding copy. I don't know the source, but it's probably ripped from a poor quality cassette tape. The whole album is drenched in a heavy hiss. I couldn't remove it without wrecking the sound, so I left it as it was. I would love to have a better version, but I don't know if it's circulating. Any official release would be a definite improvement. Because of the quality, I'd say this is only interesting for raving mad Betts fans and Southern Rock scholars.
Musically this is very close to straight-up Country (Betts-style). I quite like the songs. This also has the song "Whole Lotta Memories", which can be found, in a live version, on the BHLT Geneva recording. Thanks to Mawos for providing the music. Great Southern.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm listening to it right now
and some tracks have better
sound than others, but
the average is fair. Thanks
for posting it.

Luc said...

Big thanks for this unreleased album.
Luc

Anonymous said...

Great find. Although it isn't the greatest quality (and certainly not up to your usual excellent standards)I don't think it's as bad as you describe. Great to hear this lost gem.

Luc said...

One song (Nancy) was released on the "Dreams" box.

Credits are:

Label: Arista
Producer: Dickey Betts & Chips Moman
Studio: Young 'Un Sound, Nashville
Recorded Summer 1981

Dickey Betts: guitars & vocals
Mike Lawler & Johnny Cobb: keys
Jerry McCoy: bass
R.E. Hardaway: drums

Skydogg said...

True, but that's not the same version. I'm not convinced who's playing on this...

Peach out...

Luc said...

Not the same version? Sure?

Luc said...

It's not the Dickey Betts I like.