Are You Ready!

Nice clean double album housed in a smart gatefold cover.

Atlanta Rhythm Section (or ARS) is an American Southern rock band, formed in 1970 by Rodney Justo (singer), Barry Bailey (guitar), Paul Goddard (bass), Dean Daughtry (keyboards), Robert Nix (drums) and James B. Cobb, Jr. (guitar). The band's current lineup consists of Daughtry and Justo, along with guitarists David Anderson and Steve Stone, bassist Justin Senker and drummer Rodger Stephan.

In the spring of 1970, three former members of the Candymen (Rodney Justo, Dean Daughtry and Robert Nix) and the Classics IV (Daughtry and James B. Cobb, Jr.) became the session band for the newly opened Studio One recording studio in Doraville, Georgia, near Atlanta.^[2]

After playing on other artists' recordings, the Atlanta Rhythm Section was formed, with Rodney Justo (singer), Barry Bailey (guitar), Paul Goddard (bass), Dean Daughtry (keyboards), Robert Nix (drums) and James  (J.R.) Cobb (guitar). Bailey and Goddard had played together in several groups and, like the Candymen, had also backed up Roy Orbison. The group's name was thought up by Studio One's owner Buddy Buie and his two partners in the venture, Cobb and Bill Lowery.

Signed by Decca Records, the band released their first album, Atlanta Rhythm Section, in January 1972. Due to the record's limited commercial success, Justo quit the band, relocating to New York City as a session singer. He was replaced by Ronnie Hammond, assistant to Studio One's engineer, Rodney Mills. Mills also later worked as the band's road manager and sound man and Buie, also the band's manager and producer as well as co-owner of Studio One, is listed first on almost all of their songwriting credits. With Hammond on board, the band's second release, Back Up Against the Wall (February 1973), also failed to sell and Decca dumped ARS from their roster.

Buie's manager, Jeff Franklin, who was based in New York and had gotten the group the Decca deal, was then able to get ARS signed to Polydor for their third release, Third Annual Pipe Dream, in August 1974. As a special thank-you to Bailey, Daughtry and Goddard for appearing on his pioneering 1970 Christian Rock album Mylon, We Believe, Mylon LeFevre performed on one of the Pipe Dream tracks, "Jesus Hearted People" (Buie, Bailey, Goddard, Daughtry and Rodney Mills had all been regular players at Master Sound and LeFevre's studio, LeFevre Sound, before they built Studio One). Pipe Dream yielded the band's first hit single, "Doraville", which peaked at #35 and pulled the album up to #74 on Billboard's Top 200 by November 1974.

Buie and the ARS also developed a close relationship with Polydor's director of marketing, Arnie Geller, which helped make the promotion of their records a top priority at the company.

Though considered a Southern rock band, the addition of Hammond led them towards a more laid-back sound incorporating Bailey's distinctive lead guitar and bassist Goddard's use of a flat pick, with Daughtry's acoustic and electric piano frequently at the forefront.

The band's next two releases, Dog Days (August 1975) and Red Tape (April 1976), sold in lesser quantities, but ARS toured extensively in 1975-1976, with numerous shows in the South, Northeast and Midwest. On July 18, 1975 the band appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during an outdoor show in Atlanta in Chastain Park. And in August of that same year, they opened both for The Who at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida and The Rolling Stones at the Municipal Auditorium in West Palm Beach, Florida.