Band Recognition
Atlanta’s country music clubs are making celebrities out of the city’s regular acts. Catch the next big thing before everyone else does.
COUNTRY TIME Fans go wild for Chris Cagle at Wild Bill’s, billed as the country’s largest dance club and concert hall.
It’s “Welfare Wednesday” at The Peachtree Tavern in Buckhead. Although the $3 cover and cheap drinks are enticing, most of the people quickly filling the 300-person-capacity space are here for the night’s headliner, Thomas Tillman. An Atlanta native breaking out on the country scene, Tillman is following in the footsteps of the local Grammy Award-winning Zac Brown Band (which graced this very stage just three years ago) and Leesburg, GA-native Luke Bryan (who still plays acoustic shows at the venue—sometimes for free).
As Tillman begins his set—starting with covers to get the crowd going, then transitioning into original material like his new song, “John Deere-John 3:16”— you’d think you were in downtown Nashville, where live country music is performed at bars on Broadway Street almost every night and the crowds never fail to sing along. Yet this is Atlanta’s country music scene—one that has gained serious recognition in the past few years thanks to a handful of superstars that call the city home, including Zac Brown Band and Sugarland.
“These bands have opened a lot of doors for Atlanta artists. I feel like I’m playing the same circuit they did years ago,” says Tillman, who has played in house bands at Wild Bill’s and Cowboys (both large Atlanta-area venues) and recently made his solo debut at the intimate Eddie’s Attic.
Atlanta has long been known for its thriving hip-hop scene, but country has recently crept to the forefront. One reason is because the music here isn’t your typical Nashville country sound. “As a songwriter, I feel there is something to be said for the sound that comes out of here. It has a bit more blues to it, a bit more pop to it, a bit more swamp on it than just the country western tradition,” says Jennifer Nettles, Sugarland’s lead singer. The other reason? A variety of top-notch venues—from the “listening room” that is Eddie’s Attic to the 5,000-person-capacity (and appropriately named) Wild Bill’s—that have welcomed these artists with open arms.
“Eddie’s is pretty much the home base if you’re a singer-songwriter in Atlanta,” Nettles says. The city’s “premier home and listening room for the performing songwriter” has been the springboard for artists like Nettles, John Mayer, Shawn Mullins and others.
Eddie Owen, who opened the 150-seat venue in 1991, envisioned a place “where songwriters could come play in a listening-room environment—a comfortable, warm, small, accepting, community-oriented little joint,” he says. Try talking or answering a phone call during a performance, and you’ll be told to “hush up.”
There’s nothing quiet about the crowd at the vast Wild Bill’s in Duluth, however. The seven-year-old, 70,000-square-foot country hotspot is billed as the largest dance club and concert hall in the US. After scoping out venues all over the country, owner Bill Gentry created a flawless club-meets-honky-tonk atmosphere where the energy hits you like a freight train as soon as you step in the door. A
country music artist himself, Gentry knew how to go about creating a first-rate performance space. “This place was built by musicians, so it has the best sound and lighting you can get,” he says. “Lots of artists won’t go anywhere else when they come to town.”
Cadillac Jack, morning deejay for country station Kicks 101.5, points to Wild Bill’s as the spot to go for a country show. “They do a great service to the big tours, but they’re also not afraid to bring in up-and-comers,” he says.
Many up-and-comers often hit Dixie Tavern in Marietta, GA, a casual bar-meets-restaurant that Zac Brown Band used to frequent. “We’d actually always been a rock venue more or less,” says co-owner Anthony Chiovetta, “but ever since Zac got big, other bands have started to follow his lead, and we’re seeing a lot more of those types of acts. A lot of the bands that used to play rock even seem to have more of a country sound now.” The 300-person venue never has a cover and is the perfect place to grab a booth and a bite before making your way to the stage for the night’s show.
Tillman is just the kind of artist Dixie Tavern likes to book, but right now he’s still working the crowd at Peachtree Tavern. As he belts out his original song “Love Letters,” it’s easy to picture him headlining a larger venue one day, bringing thousands of excited country fans to their feet. He’d be joining the ranks of the latest luminaries, who all saw no reason to leave the thriving scene and city that brought them celebrity.
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