Livewire Recordings

Say what you will about rock stars’ offspring having a hard time getting out of the shadows of their famous parents, or about having the pathway paved for them because of said parents. Devon Allman may be the son of Allman Brothers leader Gregg Allman, but that’s where the ties stop (except for sharing the stage with the band). The younger Allman doesn’t really musically resemble Pops his voice only slightly recalls his legendary father and his southern rock sound is way more modern than that of the classic Allman Brothers.

After playing together for seven years, Devon Allman’s Honeytribe’s first release, Torch, simply rocks. There’s no need to re-read the previous sentence the band has been playing for seven years without releasing an album, a testament to their self-made success. It is what the music world is lacking right now: genuine, non-commercialized, rock. The opening, titular track throws the listener right into Honeytribe’s sound with catchy guitar riffs, soulful gospely back-up singers and lyrics like “Get off your porch/And burn your torch/All over town.” Moving on, the cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” sounds enough like the original to make sense, and different enough to make it Honeytribe’s own.

“Nothing to be Sad About” closes Torch on an upbeat note, jamming out with a piano to give it a bit of a Southern rock touch. Having a band with amazing chemistry together on and off the stage doesn’t hurt either. So let’s raise a torch to Devon Allman’s Honeytribe and hope that they don’t take seven more years to release another album.