Devon Allman has blues-rock in his DNA. That distinctive sound has been shaping his music since he first started playing guitar as a teenager, all the way to his recent albums with the Allman Betts Band.

But for his first solo album in eight years, Allman freed himself of any genre expectations, picked up a bass guitar, and wrote a series of songs informed by R&B, funk, and alt-rock. “Previously on my records, I was carving out something that I felt needed to fit into contemporary blues or straight-ahead rock & roll,” Allman says. “That wasn’t on my mind this time. Instead, the goal was to write music that moves me.” The result is Miami Moon, an undeniably feel-good album that evokes the promise of crystal-blue skies, never-ending humid nights, and the summertime of our dreams. Recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, the legendary outpost where Allman’s father, Gregg, and the Allman Brothers Band cut LPs like 1972’s Eat a Peach, the album has shades of Curtis Mayfield, Sade, and even The Cure, and calls to mind hues of bright pink and deep navy. “I always see records in colors, and when I wrote this batch of songs, I knew we needed to record somewhere fun and upbeat,” says Allman, who calls St. Louis home. “We’re living in an era where you can make a record in your basement or your bedroom, but I wanted to go somewhere that had history in its hallowed halls and stories in the fabric of its rooms. There’s a real sacred vibration at Criteria.”