Dickey Betts & Great Southern

The second solo album (and his first with Great Southern) from Allman Brothers guitarist/songwriter Richard “Dickey” Betts is heavy with the kind of loose-limbed, jammy Southern blues and country that put the storied Allmans on the map, plus the kind of soul-stirring guitar playing he became famous for after Duane Allman’s death. Betts could also pen radio-friendly tunes (he’s responsible for the Allmans' biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man”), and the sleepy tone of his voice was a natural match for his songwriting. So there's not a weak link here. In fact, both “Out to Get Me” and “Run Gypsy Run” are song-driven excuses to let killer (country-blues-rock) shuffles and riffs roll, and the backroads organ and piano of “The Way Love Goes” make it the perfect beer-and-a-shot roadhouse tearjerker. The rambling “California Blues” hilariously laments a West Coast world from the vantage of a Florida-raised kid, and slide guitars give “Sweet Virginia” (not the Stones tune) a sun-splashed, big-sky beauty. The beautiful and languid kicker, “Bougainvillea,” credits a pre–Miami Vice Don Johnson as cowriter.