Around here, road names can come with baggage. This one comes with a guitar solo.

The late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Allman Brothers Band co-founder and longtime Osprey resident Dickey Betts will be honored Wednesday, July 1, with the unveiling of the Dickey Betts Memorial Highway and a free tribute concert overlooking Little Sarasota Bay.

The designation, approved by the state earlier this year, applies to the portion of U.S. 41 between North Creek and Blackburn Point Road, near Betts’ longtime home in Osprey, where he died in April 2024 at age 80. For Betts fans, the location carries a little extra charge. He wrote and sang the Allman Brothers Band’s biggest pop hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” with its famous opening image: “I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus rollin’ down Highway 41.”

Betts was born in West Palm Beach, raised in Bradenton and became one of the defining guitarists of Southern rock. In 1969, he joined Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe in the Allman Brothers Band, a group that fused blues, country, jazz and rock into a loose, muscular sound that helped define the 1970s. Betts’ melodic, country-leaning guitar lines became essential to the band’s twin-guitar attack with Duane Allman, and after Duane Allman’s death in 1971, Betts became one of the group’s chief creative forces.

He wrote or helped shape some of the band’s most enduring songs, including “Ramblin’ Man,” “Blue Sky,” “Southbound,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Jessica,” which won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for a 1990s live recording. The Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and Rolling Stone later ranked Betts among the greatest guitarists of all time.

His ties to the Sarasota area ran deeper than retirement. Betts lived for years in Osprey, performed with musicians here and remained part of the region’s musical lore. Gregg Allman also had Sarasota-area ties, making the local connection to the Allman Brothers story more than a footnote.

Jon Thaxton, a former Sarasota County commissioner, current planning commissioner, longtime Osprey resident and Betts fan, suggested the memorial highway, wanting the designation and related events to recognize Betts’ place in Osprey’s identity.

The highway sign unveiling ceremony is invitation-only, but the tribute concert is free and open to the public. It will be held at The Point Waterfront Restaurant — Evie’s on the Bay in Osprey, with music beginning at 6 p.m. The evening is expected to feel more like a memorial jam than a formal concert, with musicians rotating on and off two stages and no guaranteed set schedule.

Among those expected to appear is Betts’ son, Duane Betts, a musician in his own right who recently released the album “Isle of Hope.” 

Other musicians likely to take part include former members of the Dickey Betts Band and Great Southern, among them guitarist and national blues artist Damon Fowler, bassist Pedro Arevalo, drummers Frankie Lombardi and Steve Camilleri, singer Twinkle Schascle Yochim and Dana Lawrence and Thorson Moore of the local rock band Kettle of Fish.

For a musician forever associated with motion, highways and the romance of the road, the honor is fitting. Betts helped give Southern rock one of its most recognizable guitar voices. Now, in Osprey, a piece of Highway 41 will carry his name, too.

The concert is Wednesday, July 1, at 6 p.m. at The Point Waterfront Restaurant — Evie’s on the Bay, 131 Bayview Drive, Osprey, overlooking Little Sarasota Bay. Admission is free.