Highway Call

About

Richard “Dickey” Betts was blessed with the ability to mix homespun Southern country with populist pop without having to sacrifice integrity. The guitarist/songwriter and founding member of The Allman Brothers developed that skill on the band’s 1973 breakthrough <i>Brothers and Sisters</i>. (Betts penned the band’s biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man.”) For his debut solo outing, 1974’s <i>Highway Call</i>, Betts gets even more personal. The title tune is a gentle hymn of leaving-home regret that’s highlighted by his pedal steel playing and Allman Bro Chuck Leavell’s open-road piano. Betts’ savory hillside tones and Southern cadences have all the warmth and bite of any music born in the American South, and it bottlenecks beautifully on the 14-minute “Hand Picked,” which features fiddle godhead Vasser Clements (who’s heard throughout the album). And once the banjo-enhanced “Let Nature Sing” and the laidback “Longtime Gone” settle in, you'll swear you’re rolling down Highway 41, gazing at sagging wooden structures from the backseat of a Greyhound bus.

via Apple Music