MUSIC / ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND : Southern Rock Comes to Pay Visit : Legendary musicians to return to Santa Barbara for a Wednesday show at Arlington Theatre.

The term Southern Rock was coined during the Nixon Administration to describe the Allman Brothers Band, the first band from the South to hit it big, long before anyone could spell R.E.M. That’s a lot better than the stuff they were saying only a decade or so earlier about Elvis and those hips, Jerry Lee Lewis and his cousin, and rock in general.

A legendary live act combining blues, jazz, rock and endless jamming, the ABB returns to Santa Barbara, where they have been playing off and on since 1970, for a Wednesday night show at the venerable Arlington Theatre. Being fashionably late will be a certifiable bonehead play that night, since there’s no opening act.

The most recent ABB album is a live one from last year. The live one before that was “At the Fillmore East,” from 1971. There have been a zillion albums in between plus numerous personal and legal hassles that ended with the band’s breaking up for most of the 1980s until coming back together in 1989.

All the famous names are still there--Gregg Allman, Dickie Betts, Warren Haynes, Jaimoe, Butch Trucks, Marc Quinones and Allen Woody. They’ll do stuff off their next album plus the ones people are showing up to hear one mo’ time: “Ramblin’ Man,” “Blue Sky,” “Jessica,” “One Way Out,” etc.

The band’s bassist, Woody, discussed the life and times of his favorite band from his Tennessee home.

How often does the Allman Brothers Band play these days?

Well, we just took eight months off, but since 1989, we’ve toured heavily. This tour will go until September or October, then we’ll do our next studio album. In fact, you’ll hear a lot of that album on this tour, and by the time we record, we will have played the songs for a year. When we record, we record live. We’re all in the same room, in a circle--both drummers are right there, everybody. Most bands don’t take chances; they do the same show every night. For the Allman Brothers, every song is different every night.

How has the band’s music changed over the years?

Actually, since the first album, it still sounds like the Allman Brothers Band. Songs are written in the typical Allman Brothers style. Dickie and Gregg still write the same way they always have. We’re all well-versed in what the band should sound like.

Usually the bass player never talks. How did you end up being an interview victim as well as a bass player?

I actually do a lot of these interviews. I’m a guitar player as well--I just happened to play both. That comes in handy. Barry Oakley’s playing set the tone for the Allman Brothers style. I sort of became a bass player by osmosis. I’ve been with the band since they re-formed in 1989. They were broken up from 1980 until 1989.

It seems like there’s always more bands than bass players. What advice would you give aspiring bass players?

Play hard. Eat your Wheaties. Wear glasses if you need them.

What’s the secret to surviving on the road?

Clean living.

Why do rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts cost so much?

I don’t even know how much our shirts are. Rock ‘n’ Roll Inc., I guess.

How come concerts never start on time?

Because the fans are never ready on time.

I can tell you’ve done this before. Tell me about a strange Allman Brothers gig.

Actually, there were a series of strange gigs we played with the Beach Boys summer before last. There were Harleys on one side of the stage and tiki torques and cheerleaders on the other side. It was quite a rock ‘n’ roll dichotomy.

What is Southern Rock?

It’s this little label someone thought up that has been an albatross hanging on the band, because we were the first band to make it out of the South. The Allman Brothers Band is a progressive rock band that just happens to be from the South. A lot of other bands got saddled with that label, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels, even a band like ZZ Top. Actually, we’re more popular in the West, where we have a huge Deadhead following, than we are in the South. This is attributable directly to the fact that we play improvisational music. Like I said, we play every song differently every night. There are a few other bands out there getting popular playing improvisational music like the Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler.

How has the band managed to maintain its popularity all these years?

The reason is that we are the best live rock ‘n’ roll band in the world.

What’s the Nashville scene like these days?

I live by a lake about 30 miles from Nashville in a place called Lebanon. There’s a military school here--Gregg and Duane Allman actually went there. We were all born in the same hospital. I go to Nashville as often as I can stomach it. It’s very clique-oriented, and you have to play by their rules. There’s some good music, but it’s all very much a formula. That Billy Ray Cyrus? I don’t think so.

Anything you guys haven’t done yet?

Yeah. We haven’t played Russia and we’d like to do that, and maybe play in the Middle East, too. I know we have a lot of fans in Jerusalem.

What’s next?

Quite possibly the best studio album that’s ever been heard from the Allman Brothers. We want it to be the best record we’ve ever made. The spirit has been rekindled. I’m 37 now, but I was 15 when the first album came out. A friend and I were driving around the lake drinking beer back when FM was just starting and they still played real music. Anyway, they played the whole album. From the first note to the last note, I was extremely enthused, but I didn’t quite get it. There were very clear and distinct parts that were blues, jazz, a Latin thing and all that instrumental stuff sort of like the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I saw them for the first time in 1970. Now, and I think it’s a good line, our drummer Jaimoe, says “School is in.”

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Allman Brothers Band at the Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St., Santa Barbara, 963-4408. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.; $26.50, balcony; $31, orchestra.