Allman Betts Band – Lucky Sevens Tour – with Mattie Schell
Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT – June 24, 2025
Review & Photos – Rebecca Wolf
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The Allman Betts Band’s 2025 tour, the Lucky Sevens Tour, has been a celebration of seven years since Devon Allman and Duane Betts joined musical forces to create what has come to be a successful Americana, Southern rock band. While Allman and Betts have also been exploring their individual musical paths during his time, making music and touring with their own bands, they’ve continued to reunite to tour as the Allman Betts Band. This has remained a thrill for their adoring fans who quickly fell in love with the band and remain hopeful for a third Allman Betts album.
On June 24th, a sold old performance at the Ridgefield Playhouse, in Ridgefield, CT, was a shining example of the avid fanbase the Allman Betts Band has amassed. Opening for the band at Ridgefield was singer/songwriter, guitarist Mattie Schell. Schell was previously part of the musical duo The River Kittens, who released an EP through Allman’s label Create Records in 2021. Now a solo artist, Schell recently released her debut album, Everything Means Nothing, on Compass Records. Schell’s heartfelt lyrics and down-home musical style can lead to her music being “classified” under the category of Americana. However, the powerful soul emanating through her vocals creates a sound that goes well beyond traditional American roots, a sound and spirit that’s uniquely her own.
Performing at Ridgefield with bassist husband Nate Gilbert, Schell was immediately captivating from the moment she opened the set with her album’s soulful title track. Her sultry, bluesy vocals instantly grab your attention and her raspy tone conjures up thoughts of the late, great Amy Winehouse. Schell’s 30-minute set included the contemplative, emotional “Is the Party Really Over?,” as well as the album’s lead single “Coast to Coast,” which laments the issues surrounding life on the road and losing connections to loved ones. Allman Betts drummer, John Lum, joined Schell and Gilbert towards the end of the set, adding an additional rhythmic baseline to the music. While I’m typically eager for a headline act to begin, I was surely in no rush for Mattie Schell’s performance to be over but was consoled by the fact that I would be seeing her performance again with the Allman Betts Band at the Rocks, Ribs and Ridges Festival that coming weekend.
The Allman Betts Band arrived onstage to the excitement and fanfare of a sold out crowd. Opening the set with the instrumental “Wash in CM7,” the band transitioned to fan favorite “Magnolia Road.” The song was perfectly complemented by the towering, illuminated stage backdrop, showcasing brightly colored magnolia trees that canopied a road traveling far off into the distance. This illuminated backdrop was just the beginning of the liquid light show that became its own work of art throughout the performance. The Allman Betts Band is proudly using the liquid light show created by the Brotherhood of Light, the same group that created visual effects for the Allman Brothers beginning in the 1990s.
On this sweltering day in Connecticut, it was still 95 degrees outside at 7pm, and the AC in the theater was struggling to keep up with the heat. However, that did not stop band members from performing at full-energy and fans passionately singing longing all evening, clearly thrilled at experiencing the music of both the Allman Betts Band and that of their iconic fathers. “Thank you for selling out the show Connecticut!” Allman announced to the cheers of the crowd. During the musically packed two-hour set the band weaved in several beloved Allman Brothers numbers, including “Melissa,” “Blue Sky,” “Jessica,” and “Nobody Knows.” The performance also included the Grateful Dead classic “Friend of the Devil” and Neal Casal’s “Raining Straight Down,” which the Allman Betts Band recorded for Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal a tribute album to Casal released 2021. Allman and Betts traded lead vocals throughout the performance, as well as combining their voices to create rich vocal harmonies, along with the vocals of fellow bandmates, Justin Corgan (bass, vocals), Alex Orbison (drums, vocals) and Johnny Stachela (slide guitar, vocals.) Additional bandmates include John Ginty (keyboards) and John Lum (drums.) Not only were these musical artists masterful at vocal harmonies but on guitar harmonies as well. Like his father, Betts is a master on the guitar. His passionate performance grabs your attention and keeps you locked as he plays extended guitar solos and riffs. Stahcela, a wizard on the slide guitar, is also incredible to watch, as he slides his fingers up and down the neck of the guitar creating incredibly nuanced guitar sounds.
With each song there was a vividly colored, ever-moving, majestically illuminated light show on the screen behind the band. At times there were pictures, surfers on towering waves, whales capitulating themselves from the ocean, beams of sunlights cascading from the clouds and fields of endless, golden sunflowers. More often, the backdrop was filled with moving, morphing, psychedelic shapes and patterns, in a multitude of colors…like a kaleidoscope, ever-changing but always captivating and beautiful.
Allman Betts songs in the set included: “King Crawler,” “All Night,” “Autumn Breeze,” “Savannah’s Dream,” “Melodies Are Memories,” “Ashes of My Lovers,” and “Good Ol’ Days.” The performance came to an end with “Southern Rain,” and the song that Allman noted to the audience was the first number he and Betts had written together, “Long Gone.” “Long Gone” is the perfect duet to individually showcase Devon Allman’s rich, textured vocals, followed by Duane Betts’ airy, blues tone, before the band members join in vocally to create what has become the Allman Betts Band.
While seven might be a lucky number, it’s not luck that’s kept the Allman Betts Band going. The band was built on and continues to be sustained by talent, skill and dedication, as well as the musical roots that brought them together and are continuing to looking down on them from above. The musical legacy of the Allmans and the Betts continues…
