“Blue Sky” is the eighth track by the Allman Brothers Band off the Eat a Peach album.
Dickey Betts wrote this about his Native American girlfriend, Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig. And for a while, Betts refused to perform this after their 1975 divorce.
Although Duane Allman was part of the recording of this song, he died before its release on Eat a Peach. Duane Allman and Dickey Betts played on the bridge solo – Duane going first – starting at 1:07, followed by Dickey. They start playing a melody line at 2:28, which Dickey’s solo follows. There are only four known live recordings of the song with Duane Allman, one of them being from their archival live album S.U.N.Y. at Stonybrook: Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71 released in 2003.
This is the first time Dickey Betts sang lead vocals on an Allman Brothers song.
The song has been covered several times, with perhaps the best known cover being Joan Baez‘s 1975 recording of the song on her Diamonds & Rust album. (Baez’ recording was also released as a single.)
Two arrangements of this song are being performed as of 2012. The Allman Brothers have performed the SUNY Stony Brook/Eat a Peach version with Warren Haynes doing vocals (although Gregg Allman does them sometimes). Another arrangement, a newer arrangement that had been evolving since 1973 but finished evolving around 2001, has been performed by Dickey Betts and his band Great Southern.
