Since 1999, Agent 45 (Brian Poust) has been researching and documenting the rich history of Funk and Soul from the state of Georgia. While its capital city of Atlanta entered the greater consciousness of the world through its burgeoning Hip Hop scene of the late 1980s and beyond, this was built on a solid foundation of R&B music going back to the earliest days of the Top Hat ( renamed The Royal Peacock), Builders Club and Waluhaje Night Clubs of the 1940s. While much of this music has since become widely known to DJs and collectors, Agent 45 has chosen to spotlight the often overlooked sounds of Atlanta Funk and Boogie artists of the 1970s and 80s, just before the capital of the "Dirty South" earned it's Hip Hop stripes. We begin with the sounds of one of Atlanta's most influential R&B stations of the 1980s, WIGO-AM, before jumping off into an hour of sounds from influential studios run by Calvin Arnold and Haywood Tucker, arrangements by legends such as Tommy Stewart. You'll also find a host of Atlanta artists who put out independent records on obscure, fly by night labels that couldn't last beyond their first release yet hiding their own unique treasure waiting to be discovered decades later.
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The new book Son of the City: A Memoir by Dante Ross, is the first release by the new author. Preorder is in limited supply and available now
When Victrola introduced the Revolution Go turntable to me and asked if we would be interested in trying one out, I was game, but these days I spend more time at my desk than hunting for records in dusty basements.