Article Contributed by Scott Ward
Published on 2026-05-17
Devon Allman | Mars Music Hall | May 3rd, 2026 | Photo(s): Courtesy of @myglobalmind.com
Two weeks ago today, on Sunday, May 3, I made the trek up to Huntsville, Alabama, to see Devon Allman’s Blues Summit. This one was special for me because my friend Jimmy Hall is a big part of the show. He and I go back a few years, and I’ve worked with him on seven tracks over the past decade. Wet Willie has always been one of my favorite bands, and one of the first 45s I ever bought with my own money was “Street Corner Serenade.” “Weekend” was all over the airwaves in 1979 also. As I look back, it seems that song was THE song of the summer of that year.
I had sent Jimmy a text telling him I would be covering the show. I got there a little early because I didn’t know how bad traffic would be in the most populated and fastest-growing city in Alabama, even on a Sunday. I was outside of the venue, and I saw a man sitting outside who looked really familiar, so I struck up a conversation with him. I told him that he just had to be a bluesman.
He turned out to be legendary blues artist Larry McCray. McCray was nominated for three Living Blues Award nominations recently: Blues Artist of the Year (Male), Most Outstanding Musician (Guitar), and Best Blues Album of 2025 (New Recordings). He also has the distinction of recording “Soulshine” for his 1993 album Delta Hurricane, which was written by Warren Haynes, before the Allman Brothers recorded it the following year. McCray then went and told Jimmy I was there, and he came off the bus and we got to catch up for a few minutes before the show.
Ghalia Volt, a Belgium-born singer and guitarist, opened the show. It didn’t take her long to get the joint rockin’ with her high-energy slide guitar playing and dynamic vocals. She also plays a bass drum and hi-hat with her feet while she is playing slide guitar. To say her performance blew me away was an understatement.
Allman and band then took the stage with him on guitar, Jackson Stokes on second guitar, backed by drums, percussion, and bass. They opened with “Runners In The Night.” Allman and most of his band are from St. Louis. While the band was taking their places, the PA system played Quincy Jones’ “The Streetbeater,” which was used as the theme for Sanford and Son. Most everybody in my age group would have gotten the connection since Redd Foxx and his character Fred G. Sanford were both from St. Louis.
Hall took the stage and received a warm introduction by Allman on “Groove Is A Feeling.” Allman played a Fender Stratocaster, while Stokes played a black Les Paul. McCray played a powder blue Harmony Jupiter Thinline. At first look, I thought it might be a Danelectro. As always, Hall played some killer blues harp solos, and Allman, Stokes, and McCray traded solos.
“One Way Out” was up next, which is my favorite Allman Brothers song. This one featured great drumming by John Lum, who I had the good fortune of meeting before the show. Allman and Hall traded vocals, and there were some great solos by McCray, who is an expert at string bending, keyboardist John Ginty, Stokes, and bass player Justin Corgan. He played some cool 16th-note runs and triplets.
“Wang Dang Doodle,” a 1966 song recorded by Koko Taylor, which was also previously cut by Howlin’ Wolf in 1960 and written by Willie Dixon, was next. Hall did the lead vocal and played some of his signature blues harp licks, along with more great string bending by McCray on his guitar solo. His guitar style is reminiscent of B.B. King, and he plays a lot of high notes in the upper register. Allman and Hall had an impromptu contest to see who could sing the lowest bass note. I’m not sure who won. Allman also mentioned he was born in Mobile, where Hall and his family and siblings in Wet Willie are from. Allman played some nice guitar solos as well, using a wah-wah effect and playing some nice octave chords.
Laka Soul, a singer, songwriter, and actress from St. Louis, came out and was introduced, and she sang a song that Allman had written with Curtis Mayfield in mind called “Real Love.” The song features some nice major 7 chords. Those chords sound mellow and are often used to convey feelings of melancholy and reflection at times. This one featured a nice walking bass part by Corgan, great percussion by David Gomez, a nice Hammond organ solo by Ginty, and a guitar solo by Allman, once again using a wah-wah effect.
Before the next song, Allman talked about being on the “Experience Hendrix” Tour in 2025 with Marcus King, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Samantha Fish, and other guitar greats, saying he felt fortunate to have had that opportunity. The band then launched into Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced,” which featured some cool Hammond organ and, of course, great guitar work by Allman with the wah-wah effect.
For the next song, Allman came out with a piece of history, his father’s black Gibson Everly Brothers J-180 model acoustic. His father left him all of his guitars after he passed away. It was so awesome to see Allman sing “Melissa” while playing that guitar.
I knew Scott Boyer, a Capricorn Records legend who had a band called Cowboy with Tommy Talton. Allman’s uncle, Duane, played resonator guitar on the recording of their song “Please Be With Me.” Scott was also in a legendary Muscle Shoals band called the Decoys, which was frequent Allman Brothers producer Johnny Sandlin’s band in the ’90s. When I met them in the early 2000s, the lineup was Boyer, David Hood of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Kelvin Holly, NC Thurman, and Mike Dillon. All of the band members had connections to Gregg and Duane Allman, and Boyer would always do a nice job singing “Melissa.” He also told me some great stories about working with Gregg and Duane. Boyer and Thurman wrote a song which Gregg recorded called “Silence Isn’t Golden Anymore.” Stokes did a fantastic job of playing those volume swells on this one.
Larry McCray, born in Arkansas and now living in Michigan, was influenced by the “3 Kings of The Blues”—B.B., Albert, and Freddie. When he did “Smooth Sailing” from his 1998 album Born To Play The Blues, I could hear elements of all three of those blues giants in both his vocals and his guitar playing. His vocal style is most reminiscent of Albert King, and his guitar licks are similar to B.B. King’s, in my opinion. There was some great B3 from Ginty on this one. He also used a Korg Krome that night. McCray deserves to be in the same category as all of the great blues singer/guitarists for his work over the last 40 years. He, along with Hall, appeared on Joe Bonamassa’s BB King’s Blues Summit 100, which was released earlier this year.
“Hands And Knees” is a song from The Blues Summit album. McCray and Hall exchanged solos on guitar and blues harp, respectively. Allman and Stokes also played some nice harmony guitar lines.
Allman played a sunburst Les Paul on “Soulshine,” and he and Stokes played more great guitar harmony lines. Ginty delivered a keyboard solo that was reminiscent of Stevie Wonder.
For “Please Call Home,” which appeared on The Allman Brothers album Idlewild South, Allman played a blue Fender Stratocaster with Laka, which is her professional name, on vocals. Allman also played a cool solo.
Hall came back onstage with the entire band and asked the question, “Which Wet Willie song do y’all think we’re gonna do tonight?” I knew exactly which one it would be. “Keep On Smilin’,” the title track of Wet Willie’s 1974 album, is one of the most recognized songs from the mid-’70s and would have to be on the list of the five greatest Southern rock songs of all time. I’ve seen Jimmy do that one so many times over the years that I’ve lost count, and I never get tired of hearing it. Jason Isbell used to do that one a lot, and Hall appeared with Blackberry Smoke on that track on their 2020 EP, Live From Capricorn Studios. Hall played the familiar harmonica lines from the song, and Allman played a cool solo on his yellow Ibanez guitar.
Allman and band closed the show with The Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider,” and it sounded about as close to The Allman Brothers as you can get. Gregg also did a more soulful version of the song on his solo album Laid Back, which he co-produced with Johnny Sandlin. That recording featured Chuck Leavell on Wurlitzer electric piano, Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton on guitars, and Charlie Hayward of the Charlie Daniels Band on bass.
Two of the most important things Allman is doing with these shows is, number one, keeping the music of the Allman family alive, and number two, exposing artists like McCray to a wider audience. These songs will never get old.
