Atlanta Rhythm Section starting over again

By John Benson

entertainment@vindy.com

Starting over again in Youngstown is just what the Atlanta Rhythm Section will be doing at its free show Saturday at Mill Creek Metroparks’ Judge Morley Pavilion.

“When we originally got together, our first job in public was in 1972,” said singer Rodney Justo, calling from Tampa, Fla. “Soon we went on the road, and our first job outside of Atlanta was in Youngstown. So I say 39 years later I’m back by popular demand. My recollection of that show was it was in a high school gymnasium. It was us, Buddy Miles and Savoy Brown.”

Over the next decade the Atlanta Rhythm Section – which featured former members of Roy Orbison’s backing band Candymen and the Classics IV – would go on to score numerous radio hits, including “So Into You,” “Imaginary Lover,” “Doraville,” “I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight,” “Do It or Die,” “Spooky” and “Alien.”

Unfortunately the act had more lineup changes than popular singles, with Justo leaving the band and the music industry for good in 1983.

The group continued on by touring as a nostalgia act.

Then two years ago, Justo got a call from his old band mates to fill in on vocals for a show in Connecticut.

Against his better judgment, the retired sales manager obliged.

Despite his rust, the show went on without a hitch.

Then just a few weeks ago, he found out original bassist Paul Goddard was returning to the fold. So he signed on to once again front the Atlanta Rhythm Section, which, over the decades, has often been pigeonholed as a Southern rock band.

Justo wants to set the record straight.

“We’re kind of weird for what people thought was being a southern rock band,” Justo said. “We never really fit into that genre. We’re more sophisticated than the average southern rock band. Chord progressions are more sophisticated. Words are more sophisticated. Melodies are more sophisticated. Guitar harmonies, too. It’s the Atlanta Rhythm Section sound. In my opinion, we were not a southern rock band. We didn’t sound like Marshall Tucker or the Allman Brothers Band or Lynyrd Skynyrd.”

Local fans can decide for themselves when the Atlanta Rhythm Section returns to Northeast Ohio armed with its latest album “With All Due Respect,” which includes rerecorded hits such as “So Into You,” “Spooky” and “I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight,” as well as covers by Gregg Allman and Robert Palmer and new track “Sleep With One Eye Open.”

Justo stressed that the reformed band has major plans to record a new album soon that will feature its quintessential sound.

Finally, what is the biggest difference between the Atlanta Rhythm Section’s 1972 Youngstown show and its upcoming Northeast Ohio gig?

“The main thing is back then we had to do an encore and we didn’t know any more songs,” Justo laughed. “So we had to come back and do the same songs again.”

And now?

Justo said, “This time we’ll be just fine.”