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Atlanta
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Years active	1983-1988
Labels	MDJ, MCA
Associated acts	The Vogues
Former members
Jeff Baker Allen Collay Alan David Bill Davidson John Holder Tony Ingram Darrell "Boo Boo" McAfee Brad Griffis Bill Packard Dick Stevens Jody Warrell

Atlanta was a country music band formed in 1982 in Nashville, Tenn. In their career, the band recorded two albums for MCA Records, and charted nine hit singles on the Billboard country charts. Their chart history included two Top Ten country hits in "Atlanta Burned Again Last Night" and "Sweet Country Music". The latter was also their highest charting single, peaking at #5 in 1984.

Contents 1 History 2 Band members 3 Touring 4 Discography 4.1 Albums 4.2 Singles 5 References

[edit] History

Atlanta was formed in 1982 by Brad Griffis, Bill Packard, Dick Stevens, Alan David and Bill Davidson. Later additional members were added; Jeff Baker, Tony Ingram, Allan Collay (Callais), and John Holder. The group performed their first concert during the Country Music Week celebrations in Nashville, with four of the founding members, and the "Nashville Super Pickers", including innovative electric guitar player Phil Baugh and pedal steel guitar master Buddy Emmons as additional back up.

The band released their first single, "Atlanta Burned Again Last Night" in 1983. This recording rose to number nine on the Billboard country chart, considered a first for an act on an independent record label (MDJ) with the limited marketing available. This hit led to their signing of a recording contract with MCA Records. The group followed with a release entitled "Dixie Dreamin'", and then followed with "Sweet Country Music", which respectively reached #11 and #5.

The album release Pictures, came in early 1984, containing these songs as well as the single "Pictures". The use of music video as a marketing tool, which was considered new to the country music scene, contributed to the high volume of sales for this album and also provided the new CMT television station with much needed material. Atlanta videos were in heavy rotation on CMT nationwide in 1983 through 1986.

In 1984 Atlanta released the MCA album titled simply Atlanta which contained the single releases "Sweet Eyed Georgia Girl" and "Can't Ya Hear That Whistle Blow", as well as "Why Not Tonight", the albums only real hit song. After leaving MCA due to a problem with marketing, the band settled back in the Atlanta area and worked for two years on and off the road, with no new radio airplay. A revival was attepted in the mid 1990's with new material and some Nashville interest, though no recording contract was established. By the late 1990s Atlanta had an album recorded, but not released. Their original releases were on vinyl and in cassette format, so no digital media of their albums is currently available. Sweet Country Music and Why Not Tonight are on compilation cd albums, "MCA Country Classics".

[edit] Band members

Band members included Brad Griffis (bass guitar and vocalist), Dick Stevens (vocalist), Bill Davidson (rhythm guitars and vocalist), Alan David (lead gutar and vocalist), Tony Ingram (fiddle, drums, percussion and vocalist)son(guitars) ,(vocalist)Allen Callais (Collay) (keyboard and vocalist), Bill Packard (keyboard and vocalist), Jeff Baker (harmonica and vocals) and John Holder (drums and vocalist). Later Darrell McAfee replaced Holder as primary drummer.In 1986 Jody Worrel replaced Alan David as lead guitarist.

[edit] Touring

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Atlanta toured constantly from 1983 until 1987, when business pressures forced them to retire from active touring.

As a touring act Atlanta set a record in income for their first year with earnings of almost two million dollars. This was unusual for a new country music act in the 1980s, especially for one recording on an independent record label. The band played over 160 dates in the first year of continuous touring 1983-4, on tours that encompassed coast to coast and north to south travel throughout the United States.

Atlanta recorded songs for the sound track of the movie Ellie with Shelly Winters and Pat Paulson. They were featured on TV shows,including Merv Griffin, the Jimmy Dean Show, a special on Atlanta TV " Making it in Music" and they appeared numerous times on the Nashville Network on the Ralph Emery Show,"Hee Haw" and others. The group also was closing act on the prestigious "New Country" show for radio program directors and country music industry members. ^[1]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Year	Album	US Country	Label
1984	Pictures	8	MCA
1985	Atlanta	33

[edit] Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions		Album
		US Country	CAN Country
1983	"Atlanta Burned Again Last Night"	9	—	Pictures
	"Dixie Dreaming"	11	—
1984	"Sweet Country Music"	5	2
	"Pictures"	35	31
	"Wishful Drinkin'"	22	—
1985	"My Sweet-Eyed Georgia Girl"	57	—	Atlanta
	"Why Not Tonight"	58	—
1987	"We Always Agree on Love"	75	—	Singles only
1988	"Sad Cliches"	70	—

[edit] References

• Atlanta - ATL Alive The reformed band's webpage.
• Atlanta at Allmusic