Ronnie Hammond - vocals; Barry Bailey - guitars; Dean Daughtry - keyboards; Paul Goddard - bass; JR Cobb - guitar, vocals; Robert Nix - drummer
This show, recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, was done at New York's legendary Bottom Line in 1977. It would come at a time when the band was getting a strong press buzz and had broken through on radio in America. The Atlanta Rhythm Section was trying to cash in on the fame of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section that backed such legendary artists as The Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, and many others on their now legendary hit singles.
Assembled to be the house band of a studio in Doraville, Georgia, the Atlanta Rhythm Section (or the ARS as they were known) contained members of the Candymen and the Classics IV. By the early 1970s, they were known as one of the best studio bands below the Mason Dixon line. Producer and studio owner Buddy Buie felt they were good enough to have hit records of their own.
He wrote and produced a number of tracks, and in 1972 they landed a deal with Polydor Records. They released five albums in four years, and although they had some minor radio hits, the band did not see platinum success until releasing 1976's A Rock and Roll Alternative. That album would yield the hit, "So Into You," but it would not be until 1978, with Champagne Jam, that the band would see its biggest chart success.
ARS plays its biggest hits in this show, including the aforementioned "Another Man's Woman (It's So Hard)" "So Into You," and "Back Up Against The Wall," and they offer up some incredible musicianship on an extended instrumental jam. They return for an encore of the Little Richard classic, "Long Tall Sally."