Tell stories about the Greater Atlanta music scene as the 80's moved into the 90's

One point I guess I should have made was the British scene that moved into America from the 70's to the 90's, identified with the American south and the Delta, way more than identifying with the west coast.


Zep.

Rolling Stones hung out at the Shoals some and went down to see Muddy Waters.

et cetera

the 80's (which I do NOT hate) was an anomoly. The 70's merged with the 90's after the interruption.

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you could type that question into a search bar and instantly have your answer

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if you have no stories, then stop responding


anecdotal stories wanted

I wish I knew more about the scene in Atlanta. It's a lot closer to home for me than Nashville.
Blackberry Smoke is based out of there.
Charlie Starr is from Lanett, Alabama, which is a town about 35 miles from me.
I have a lot of songs that really fit that genre. I haven't even bothered to demo those because I don't really have any idea of where I could pitch them.

It was a pretty cool time, and really no matter your musical taste you could find something to your liking.

REM and the B-52s both came out of Athens, but both were already well established and well known by the end of the 80s. Indigo Girls came out of the Decatur coffee house folk scene.

Kris Kross was really the first chart topping rap/hip hop group I remember coming out of the area (they were from up around Dunwoody iirc) but as the 90s blossomed you had So-So Def and really grew the scene. This is about the time Chris Bridges was a local DJ (Hot 100?) and developing the Ludacris act.

Country music was blowing up with Travis Tritt out of Marietta, Trisha Yearwood from Monticello, Alan Jackson and Doug Stone from Newman. Confederate Railroad started as the house band at Miss Kitty's in Kennesaw, while Mark Wills and Darron Norwood both fronted the house band at the Buckboard in Marietta. Later John Berry came out of Athens.

On top of that the Masquerade in Midtown was hosting tons of national touring acts before they were big enough to fill theaters or arenas, and there were clubs like the Wreck Room down by Georgia Tech with local bands always playing.

Southgang

[quote]Indigo Girls came out of the Decatur coffee house folk scene.
I spent many nights at Eddie's Attic, catching up and comers like Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow and Ani Defranco.

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Black Crowes, REM, Widespread Panic, Collective Soul..

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Saw the Black Crowes at least 10 times during that period, but the craziest show I remember was the Atlanta Pot Festival at Piedmont Park in ‘92. They were headlining, free show, approximately 50k people there, it was completely out of hand, like a mini Woodstock. Great time. They were always one of the loudest bands I’ve ever heard. Always turned up to 11 for sure.

Starting from ‘92 on, I saw an absolute shite load of Widespread Panic. They played the Southeast a lot during that time and I traveled all over to see them. Saw them well over 100 times between ‘92 - ‘99. It’s a blur but I had a blast and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

Edit: absolutely loved REM also, but they weren’t touring much during that period, only got to see them once on the Green tour.
Funny Collective Soul story, saw them in a bar in Huntsville, around ’92, ‘93. Including the band, bar staff, and myself and a couple of buddies, there were maybe 12 people there. They were great. I asked Ed Roland, when we were talking to him during a break, if he had any acid he could sell us. He was very polite but declined my offer.
A couple of months later they released Shine and were all over MTV and blew up pretty big from there.

Ride the Bee

Remember The Producers and Mothers Finest

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I remember was the Atlanta Pot Festival at Piedmont Park in ‘92.

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That unlocked a memory. I remember seeing that on MTV.