“Walk along the river, sweet lullaby, it just keeps on flowing, it don’t worry ’bout where it’s going”…. the opening lines to Blue Sky by The Allman Brothers Band…, and if ever there was a song to get me rockin’ away then this is it. It’s pure class.
The song was written by Dickey Betts, and it was written for his then girlfriend, Sandy “Blue Sky” Wabegijig who was a Native American. They were married for two years, then divorced… Betts then refused to play the song for a while after that. It featured on the album Eat A Peach, the album dedicated to Duane Allman after his untimely death in a motorcycle accident.
The version of Blue Sky I’m posting here is a live version. I came across it some years ago, having always loved the original it was a delight to find this. This is now my all time favourite version of the song. But the thing is, I have to be totally honest here, I don’t know the year that this was recorded. Therefore I’m not too sure who’s playing the slide guitar…. could be Duane Allman, could be Warren Haynes..
You see, that’s the only trouble with mp3’s downloaded from the internet… it doesn’t always give you the info you need…. you can’t pick mp3’s up and read them like you can an album cover or a CD, or a single…. they only exist as files, there’s nothing to read like there was in the good ol’ days.. you can’t touch them… weird really… Anyway, that’s why I’m not sure what’s what with this version of Blue Sky, although I tend to think it’s Duane Allman, I’ll stand correcting.
But really, all I do know is that this epic live performance is an absolute master class in the art of playing the slide guitar, a solo of such stunning brilliance that it could only be played by a truly gifted musician who was totally on top of his game. Most people can only dream about being born with the talent that would one day enable them to play guitar like this. The whole song lasts 8 minutes and 39 seconds and it rocks all the way through. Blue Sky and a desert island go hand in glove together…. endless blue sky… what more could you ask for?
