Atlanta Rhythm Section
Are You Ready?

These seventy-five minutes of live music, among my absolute favorites, were released on a double LP in 1979, when the southern rock sextet originally from Georgia was at the height of success. In fact, the performance captured here benefits from the evident feedback of a vast audience, warm and engaged as they distribute applause and shouts of approval, ecstatic and excited by the mellow and rounded music spread by the band.

The album title "Are You Ready?" echoes the classic prompt stated right at the beginning by the presenter of the moment, who, after welcoming the affirmative roar of the crowd, shouts the name of the group and steps aside, allowing the explosive opening of "Sky High" (from the sixth studio album "A Rock'n'Roll Alternative", dating back three years earlier). What a thrill! Savory, powerful, cohesive, and rich, this gem of southern repertoire immediately reveals the many qualities of the band, from the well-organized and dynamic rhythmic interplay between Dean Daughtry's electric piano and the two guitars of J.R. Cobb and Barry Bailey, to the precise and steady groove of the rhythm section, especially regarding the corpulent and talented bassist Paul Goddard, from the manly and prolific voice of frontman Ronnie Hammond to the elegant soloist of Bailey himself, a musician endowed with superior touch and sublime phrasing. In this very episode, Bailey's class shines pure, thanks to the long instrumental tail in which he, accompanied only by Daughtry, makes the woody and majestic sound of his Les Paul De Luxe resonate at full volume and full control until a collective and breathtaking finale. If I had to exemplify the essence and quality of southern rock at its peak to someone, I would choose this live number from ARS!

Bailey offers a reprise in the long solo tail of "Angel" (from the third studio work "Third Annual Pipe Dream" from '74), one of those melodic and enveloping numbers typical of the band. After Hammond displayed all his charm proving to be the best voice of southern rock (on par with Gregg Allman), the blonde lead guitarist veers off captivatingly with his measured but compelling style, extremely expressive and engaging.

The fast, concise, and for ARS standards, scathing "Large Time" (opening of their seventh album "Champagne Jam" a year earlier) is dedicated to the Lynyrd Skynyrd, as at the time the echo of the air tragedy that had decimated this group was still current. Following this, the bearded singer promptly soothes the spirits of those present, and stirs the estrogen of the females present, with the confidential and semi-acoustic "Conversation" (from the second studio attempt "Back Up Against The Wall" from '73), clearly demonstrating that instead of facing a rock band, he could have also applied himself as a folk-rock songwriter, and the results would have been equally excellent.

The gargantuan "Another Man's Woman", already extended for almost ten minutes on the fifth career release "Red Tape" (year 1976) adds here another five supplementary minutes and serves, as always, to rotate the instrumentalists to the foreground, particularly the bulky Goddard who, with the snapping sound of the Rickembacker, keeps everyone's attention and admiration alive.

Well-presented, as in each of their performances, are the replays of the singles that brought them fame and economic well-being, but also a distorted reputation of being a soft, almost pop group. Sure, "Imaginary Lover", "Champagne Jam", and the same "Angel" are extremely catchy and "radio-friendly" songs (in the sense that this term represented in the seventies), played on balance and style rather than urgency and spectacle, but in the meantime, their live replays, although respectful of the originals, add new nerve and power. And then, above all, these digressions into a more popular genre have always been episodic, no more than a couple of tracks per album, for the rest filled with blues rock and electricity.

Formidable class, brilliant and full of feeling soloists, competence, and passion, total absence of narcissism or other types of arrogance, a beautiful and rich discography here represented at its best, at least in its first half (six or seven more studio productions will follow this record): the sweet but always pure and manly southern rock of the Atlanta Rhythm Section represents, in my opinion, the absolute pinnacle of this genre that is very dear to me, including obviously the equally marvellous Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd who enjoy much greater credentials.