![]() ![]() We would never want to disappoint an audience,” said Justo, who added that he plans to keep playing “as long as I’m relevant. Performances these days include a good deal of new material, but the group always performs the songs that first brought them national attention. “We keep up with what’s going on in one another’s families and when we get together it’s always, ‘What’s going on, man. Justo said although band members now live in different cities-which he said is usual for bands these days-they remain close. He noted that the group’s sound is often described as Southern rock, but said it covers a spectrum too broad for narrow categorization. We never stopped playing together,” Justo said. “There are many bands from the ‘70s that got back together to do a tour, but we’re not a reunited group. “It was his dream that made Atlanta Rhythm Section possible,” he said. Justo describes Buie as the group’s Svengali-referencing a fictional character who guided another’s musical career by force of personality. The group performed at the White House at the invitation of fellow Georgian President Jimmy Carter, who introduced them as “my friends” and quipped, “Critics and commentators said they didn’t have a chance-they said the same thing about me.” We threw out all sorts of suggestions for a new name, but Buddy Buie liked Atlanta Rhythm Section-I think he really liked that fact that it tied us to Atlanta and encouraged the city to support us-so that’s the name we kept.”Ītlanta Rhythm Section reached the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, when it released albums that went gold and platinum. “To musicians, a rhythm section is guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. “Nobody liked the name Atlanta Rhythm Section,” Justo remembered. The current band consists of Justo, keyboardist Dean Daughtry, another founding member and the only original member who never left the band, guitarists David Anderson and Steve Stone, bassist Justin Senker and drummer Rodger Stephan.Īfter the group had an opportunity to perform its own music-not as backup for other performers-members started to explore the possibility of a new name. “They had the nerve to have hit songs without me,” he joked. Justo later returned to Atlanta Rhythm Section. “We started in the ‘70s we never thought we’d be in our 70s,” said Justo, who left the group during its early years and was replaced by lead singer Ronnie Hammond. The group that achieved national and international fame with such hits as “Spooky,” “So Into You,” “Imaginary Lover” and “Champagne Jam” is still performing in venues across the country. The rest, as the adage goes, is musical history. We were so excited about what we were doing it didn’t seem like work at all. “We were in our 20s then and worked 20, 25, 30 hours at a stretch. “Originally we were the house band at Studio One,” Justo explained.įor several years, Justo and fellow musicians played on other musicians’ albums three or four days a week as they worked on their own material on other days. Cobb were putting together in Doraville.įor the recording workspace called Studio One, Buie recruited three musicians he had worked with in the Candymen, Roy Orbison’s back-up group. Producer and songwriter Buddy Buie in 1970 decided he wanted to pull together some of the best musicians in the South to perform in the studio he, Rodney Mills, Bill Lowery and J.R. ![]()
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