Berry Oakley Jr: Further On Down The Road

In the Allman Betts Band, Berry Oakley Jr. Honors and Extends His Father’s Legacy

Berry Oakley Jr: Further On Down The Road

In the Allman Betts Band, Berry Oakley Jr. Honors and Extends His Father’s Legacy

In the January/February 1993 issue of Bass Player, when I was the magazine’s editor, we published an article titled “In Memory of Berry Oakley,” written by Ray Conrow. Oakley, the original bassist of the Allman Brothers Band, had died just over twenty years earlier, on November 11, 1972, in a motorcycle accident eerily similar to the one that had killed guitarist Duane Allman a year before. At the end of the article, Allen Woody, who was then the bassist in the Allman Brothers Band, praised 20-year-old Berry Oakley Jr., saying, “He’s a great, together kid who looks and plays like his dad.” Twenty-seven years later, Berry Jr. is the bassist in the Allman Betts Band, which features two other sons of original Allman Brothers Band members: Devon Allman, son of Gregg Allman, and Duane Betts, son of Dickey Betts. Founded in 2018, the seven-piece ensemble released their second album, Bless Your Heart (BMG), in August. Praising the album, Wade Tatangelo of the Sarasota Herald-Trib
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Jim Roberts   By: Jim Roberts