Southern man: Dickey Betts visits the Shoreline Ballroom

If Dickey Betts isn't a Southern rock guitar hero, no one is. The guy virtually invented Southern rock -- the genre -- as a founding member of the Allman Brothers back in 1969, taking over as lead guitarist following the death of brother Duane.

Of course, that's all in the past now. Not only is Betts no longer an Allman, he more or less legally mandated the split with some bad-blood lawsuits.

But no matter -- on his own with the Dickey Betts Band or, more recently,leading Great Southern, he basically still remains tacitly, if hardly formally, part of the extended Allman Brothers family tree, and his searing music reflects that heritage.

Expect the usual jams, epic solos and improv-rich strolls through the past, where even the best-known hits are never played the same way twice.

Joshua Klein, Special to the Guide