With a guitar legend for a dad, expectations have always been high for Duane Betts. The Florida-born guitarist and songwriter has spent years creating his own lane, blending Southern rock tradition with a style that’s unmistakably his own. Along the way, he’s also formed a genuine bond with Jackson and the Tetons, becoming a familiar face in our mountain music scene. KHOL caught up with Betts days before his newest album drop.
Duane’s newest release, Isle of Hope, was released by Sun Records on June 12
Duane will play a record release party at the Mangy Moose on Saturday, June 13. Tickets can be found here.
More information about Duane’s upcoming tour dates at DuaneBetts.com
John Garcia: How does this album represent where you are right now in this point of your life, compared to some of your later work?
Duane Betts: Some songs I’d had for a while, a couple of the songs on the record actually were written here in Jackson during COVID, A lot of the record was written after my father’s passing so there’s a song on the record called “Heartache” that really deals with that head-on. And then, a lot of it’s my life experiences that I’ve been through. That’s just songwriting. It takes you on that journey through from the writer’s perspective or sometimes it can be characters, but my stuff tends to be more from my perspective.
JG: You said you wrote a lot of these songs in Jackson; do you feel like Jackson is a place that gives you musical inspiration? Or do you come to Jackson to recharge and rest back up?
DB: All of the above. It’s such a beautiful place and has such a powerful energy here and I think when you want inspiration going into nature. You can get a lot of inspiration from a dark kind of dreary city that’s all concrete too, one that has a cool, jagged architecture. It’s not just being out in the woods that can give you inspiration, but that certainly helps.
JG: Do you remember your first time kind of coming to Wyoming, your first impressions of Jackson?
DB: It’s a place that I’d always heard about, but my friend, his family had a place here, and I came with him about 10 years ago. I met my wife here in Aspen’s Market on the way home from the airport. We stopped to get groceries and ran into her.
JG: What keeps you coming back?
DB: The community is really important to both my wife and I here. We had a music festival [Horseshoe Music Festival] and we’re taking a break on that this year, but we could bring that back. So it’s always been a special place for her and it’s become a very special place to me.
JG: What originally inspired the idea of Horseshoe Festival?
DB: It’s kind of something that I’ve done, playing the music with your friends and then why not do it in a place like Jackson. It helps when you’re trying to get people to do a gig if it’s in a nice place.
JG: Speaking of gigs, you’ve got a gig coming up at the Mangy Moose on Saturday to celebrate your new album release.
DB: Yessir. [Guitarist] Johnny Stachela, who’s played with me for quite some time, he and I are going to do an intimate kind of storyteller’s acoustic set and play many of the songs off the new record, as well as other stuff that I’ve done and maybe a few treats in there, some familiar stuff. It’s kind of a unique show.
JG: The new album is called “Isle of Hope.” Can you talk a little bit about that album title?
DB: We recorded right outside of Savannah, Georgia in a place called Isle of Hope, an actual place. Every time I would go to the studio I would drive and you cross this little bridge and then you make your third right into the house, that was the studio. Every time I would cross over that bridge, I’d see an Isle of Hope sign. After about the third time I saw that, I thought, “Well, that’s kind of a great title.” I thought it was kind of timely for a lot of the anxiety that is going on in the world. I think music is obviously a great way to escape all of that and give you a little piece of hope.
JG: Will that version on Saturday sound a little bit different than the album version coming out?
DB: It’s going to be acoustic. You won’t get the loud electric guitars, but there’s something really special. You’d be surprised how much the crowd really loves seeing that different perspective. As much as they want to hear a band and loud guitars in their face, they really appreciate the acoustic aspect of it.
JG: Is there a song that you never get tired of playing?
DB: Lately, I’ve really enjoyed playing one of my dad’s songs, it’s called “Back Where It All Begins.” It’s a song he wrote in the 90s, but it’s kind of one of his best songs, I think. I’ve really enjoyed playing that one acoustically lately. We’ve done it a few times. It’s really refreshing.
JG: What do you hope fans take away from Saturday’s listening experience?
DB: I hope they have a good time and I hope the music lifts their spirits and maybe their spirit doesn’t really need lifting, but I hope it keeps it in a good place. That they can enjoy the show and that they want to hear the rest of the record. They want to dig into the record and let the songs live with them and get inside of them. That’s the whole point, you just hope that people kind of find connection with the music.
JG: So you’re hanging around Jackson most of the summer, you got anything else going on this summer, what’s on the agenda?
DB: Touring a lot. I’m actually playing here at the Center for the Arts with Dawes, actually, when they come. We haven’t announced that yet.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. — Ed.
Support for this arts and cultural coverage comes from the Wyoming Arts Council.
Listen above for KHOL’s full conversation and live performance with Duane Betts.
