Dickey Betts, who played lead guitar for the Allman Brothers Band along with Duane Allman, was crucial in the development of Southern rock. After Duane's death in 1971, Betts became the band's leader. Betts also wrote the lyrics to their biggest hit, "Ramblin' Man," which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

To hear "Ramblin' Man" and see some nice images, check out this lyric video. Or you can watch the Allman Brothers sing the song in concert at the University of Florida in 1982. Here's the link.

The public domain photo in the thumbnail is of Betts at the Pistoia Blues Festival in Italy in 2008. Attribution: Simone berna, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. In the chapters, there's a 1978 photo of Betts, also available on Wikipedia.

This tribute is one of 41 stories that Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime journalist, has written and recorded in honor of the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written tributes for other years as well. You can listen to the ones from 2023 on Everyday Creation. We'll have the 2022 tributes available later this year.

Sheldon also is the creator of Song of the Day, a story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.