A Benefit for Boyer: Southern Rockers Will Jam to Help Pay Medical Bills

Posted: Apr 16, 2007 Muscle Shoals musician Scott Boyer has always been one of the first to pitch in when one of his fellow players needed a hand.

"It's a very close-knit community up here and when somebody goes down, the musical community in the Shoals has a history of rallying around," Boyer says. "Whatever you can do to help a fellow player out is the right thing to do, you know."

Now, though, it's Boyer who could use a little help from his friends.

And from Bonnie Bramlett to the Amazing Rhythm Aces to the Capricorn Rhythm Section to Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band, they're lining up to help him out of his jam.

The 59-year-old Boyer has been diagnosed with peripheral artery disease, and in February, he underwent arterial replacement surgery. He's still recovering, but like many musicians, Boyer doesn't have health insurance.

So Wednesday night at the Alabama Theatre, an all-star lineup of Southern rockers - most of whom have either toured, recorded or written songs with Boyer - are getting together for a benefit concert that Muscle Shoals promoter and music historian Dick Cooper hopes will raise as much as $100,000 to help Boyer pay his mounting medical bills.

Others scheduled to perform include roots-rocker Paul Thorn of Tupelo, Miss.; "Nashville Star" runner-up Zac Hacker; bass player David Hood of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section; keyboardist Donnie Fritts, who's played with Kris Kristofferson; guitarist Wayne Perkins, who's sat in with the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd; harmonica player Topper Price, who's recorded with Dickey Betts; guitarist Rick Kurtz, who's played in Delbert McClinton's band, and drummer Bryan Owings, who's recorded with Buddy and Julie Miller.

"The idea that people of this caliber are willing to do this for me, it's flattering, it's all kinds of things," Boyer says. "It's
overwhelming, I reckon is the word that fits best."

A smaller benefit at the Shoals Theatre in Florence earlier this month raised about $10,000 before expenses, Cooper says.

"It was one of those nights that was kind of halfway between a school reunion and just a dynamite show," Cooper says. "As soon as it was over, I started thinking about the Alabama Theatre show."

Boyer, who grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., played guitar with both Gregg and Duane Allman in the late 1960s and, along with guitarist Tommy Talton, later formed the '70s band Cowboy, who recorded for Phil Walden's Capricorn Records out of Macon, Ga.

"We ended up moving to Macon after Duane Allman sort of went and crammed us down Phil Walden's throat and said, `These guys are great; sign them or I'll kick your (behind),'" Boyer recalls.

Gregg Allman recorded Boyer's "All My Friends," and Bramlett made his "It's Time" the title cut of her first solo album. "Please Be With Me," perhaps Boyer's most famous song, was covered by Eric Clapton on his 1974 album "461 Ocean Boulevard."

Since moving to Alabama - first to Fairhope in 1976 and then to Muscle Shoals 12 years later - Boyer has done session work and played the club scene with the Locust Fork Band, the Convertibles and his own group, the Decoys.

"Scott primarily has been the mainstay of a bunch of musicians," Cooper says. "He's always kind of the guy that holds things together in all the bands that I've even seen him in. And considering that he's a guitar player, he's extremely humble." \

For Boyer, who played at the Florence benefit on April 4 and will also perform in Birmingham, getting onstage again has helped him physically and emotionally recover from his surgery. Since his illness, he's only been able to play one other show.

"Music gives you energy," he says. "I don't want to sound too corny here, but the other night when we did this benefit, I was jacked up all night long just from listening to the caliber of the musicianship of the people who were willing to come out and play for a benefit to help me pay my bills.

"The thing that's maybe a little bit different about this is people from well outside the Muscle Shoals area are coming to contribute," Boyer adds. "That's special for me.

"I went to high school with Butch Trucks and we don't get to see each other hardly any at all. Any reason why he and I can be in the same building at the same time is good enough for me. And the same thing with Gregg."

Fritts, a fellow Muscle Shoals musician who's played alongside and written songs with Boyer for the past 10 years, says he's returning a favor. When Fritts had to undergo heart surgery and kidney dialysis, Boyer helped out at a similar benefit seven years ago.

"If anybody had a benefit, he was always there, no matter what," Fritts says. "So certainly, it's great to be able to do something for him. I hate he had to get sick to do it."

For Fritts and the other players, Wednesday's show will be more than a just a good time for a good cause, though. It should be special for the audience, too, he says.

"It's going to be a fun night," he says. "It's going to be funky. It's going to be soulful. Everything good about music is going to
happen that night."

Birmingham News