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General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board

Now available the highly anticipated new CD by

General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board

also available online at bestbuy.com and rollingstone.com

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That's My Story "And I'm Stickin' To It" General Johnson and Chairmen of the Board

General Johnson and Chairmen of the Board's new single is now available!!

That's My Story "And I'm Stickin' To It"

 

Download now at Amazon.com , Napster.com  and other MP3 online download stores

 

The 30 or so Greatest Southern Songs

Y’ALL, March/April 2009, Volume 7, Number 1, page 36

A note from Y’all Magazine associate publisher Keith Sisson:

Basically all forms of American music originated in the American South. From The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers to Elvis Presley and Robert Johnson, the South’s cultural influence on American music cannot be argued nor measured. Why is it that so many Southerners go on to make some of the deepest marks in musical history? Perhaps it could be the people and the place that inspires them. There is no doubt that the South has the highest concentration of regional pride in the country and that pride can be illustrated by our music. That got all of us at Y’all Magazine thinking about what the greatest Southern songs of all time would be. The criteria would have to be that the songs provoke a uniquely Southern experience, either by place or emotion. The songs could be of any format and would need to have stood the test of time. The following is a list of songs we rank as the “Greatest Southern Songs.” We hope you enjoy our list. If you feel we have made and error in the rankings or left something out, we would like to hear from you. Please email us with your feedback at southernsongs@yall.com or leave us a comment at www.yall.com.

11. Carolina Girls

A song doesn’t have to be a smash hit in order to become popular. That is evident from the success of “Carolina Girls.” When the band Chairmen of the Board first came to the Carolinas, they noticed the girls there had a specific style. Band member Danny Woods noticed that New York girls and California girls had their own songs, and that girls from the Carolinas felt left out.

With the release of “Carolina Girls” in the famed mid-Atlantic beach music style, girls from both North and South Carolina had a reason to be prideful. General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board released the song in 1980, and it would prove to forever be an empowering and endearing song to not only Carolina girls in the ‘80s, but future generations of Carolina girls to come. The song spurned bumper stickers, license plates, and clothing. Girls from both states were proud of the song’s claim that “Carolina Girls (are) best in the world.

The women’s athletic teams at the University of North Carolina use the song as an unofficial fight song. Other schools do similarly, some even having marching band adaptations.

 

Nearly forty years after crashing onto the pop and soul charts with the hit "Give Me Just A Little More Time," the Chairmen of the Board continue to defy gravity, regularly playing to sellout crowds and recording while many of their early 70s R&B peers have long since left the music industry.  Two decades ago they became the face of Carolina Beach Music, a rollicking brand of music that mirrors the feel-good R&B of the 60s and early 70s (wonderfully captured in the group's 2008 documentary Under the Radar) and they've ridden the wave they created to continued success.

It has been four years since the group's last regular studio album, All In The Family, and fans could have legitimately thought that the act's recording days were over.  But General Johnson was positively enthused late last year when he talked to us about the songs he was writing for the group's brand new release, Soul Tapestry.  During a spell in the early 70s, Johnson was one of popular music's most celebrated songwriters, providing hits for several of the acts on the Invictus record label.  But he still had the fire, and he believed, the tunes to share, even as he and his bandmates enter their sixties.

The good news is that Soul Tapestry demonstrates that both General Johnson the songwriter and The Chairmen as a group are solid as we exit the first decade of the 21st Century.  Johnson's historic success has largely been due to his talent as a storyteller, from the now legendary child-turned-man song "Patches" to the sly 8th Day hit "You Gotta Crawl Before You Walk" (which is covered again by the Chairmen on Tapestry).  And these stories are central to group's concerts, where their multi-culti, multi-generational audience sings along with every word.  Soul Tapestry adds a few new tales to the collection, most notably "That's My Story (and I'm Stickin' To It"), the private confession of a philandering man who won't admit to an affair despite all the evidence against him.  But just as infectious are "I Go Crazy," a bouncy cut that sounds like the successor to "Dangling On A String," and the sing-songy "Beatin' the Bushes."

A bigger surprise on Tapestry is Johnson's more serious take on family and social issues.  "What's Up" is a pre-Obama rant of an exasperated man tryin to make sense of inequality, homelessness and an ill-conceived war, and "All In The Family" relies on family as tie-that-binds in a world of personal and societal failings.  Best of all is "Chances Are," a rumination of an older man who looks back at his financial and business failings, but finds comfort -- even redemption -- in the romantic love he found during his life.

Like many recent independent albums issued by classic soul artists, Soul Tapestry lacks the rich orchestration that the Chairmen would have had in their Invictus days, but programmer Mark Stallings does a nice job without a major label budget, particularly the wall of sound he establishes on "Chances Are."

It is uncertain how many people outside the Carolinas will be able to find Soul Tapestry in their local stores, but it is worth seeking out.  It is a fine disc that features the fun, entertaining sounds for which the Chairmen have largely established their legacy but also provides a deeper, more mature set of songs that make the album a sweet, enjoyable addition to an already solid group discography.  Recommended.

By Chris Rizik

 

All of the Chairmen of the Board products are available at

www.surfsiderecords.com or call (704) 372-9918

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"UNDER THE RADAR"  Now Available!

 

The Chairmen of the Board, against all odds, escape the artistic

and business shackles of the mainstream music industry.

 

Under the Radar they found solace and unprecedented success

in a music utopia called "Carolina Beach Music".

"Starring General Johnson and The Chairmen of the Board."

"Written and directed  by Billy Camp."

"UNDER THE RADAR" the Chairmen of the Boards 90 minute beach music documentary,

Which consists of behind the scenes interviews and exciting concert footage.

A must have DVD! for only 24.95 plus shipping.

Order NOW!

 

Preview the DVD "Under The Radar"

A Documentary of General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board.

Watch it HERE

 

The Chairmen of the Board came out of Detroit in the early 70s with a string of major soul hits, led by General Johnson's plaintive vocals and underrated songwriting.  Songs like "Patches," "Dangling On a String" and "Give Me Just A Little More Time" gained for the group a sizeable following among R&B fans, but not the kind of across-the-board success that their talent merited.

For most of the US, the Chairmen were an afterthought by the mid-80s, no longer recording national hits and seemingly another in a string of soul groups that peaked quickly and faded into oblivion. But the new documentary Under the Radar shows a much different story that has largely been hidden from the popular media: that of a group that has not only survived but thrived on its own terms, as the leading purveyors of "Carolina Beach Music," a brand of good-time R&B unique to a loyal fanbase in a specific geography. 

Under the Radar centers itself at a Chairmen 2007 outdoor North Carolina concert of over 12,000 fans, and it is a stunner for those who assume that all music is driven by powerful oligopolies in New York, L.A. and Nashville.  Here are thousands of people, ranging from teenagers to senior citizens, wildly participating in a concert filled with songs that 95% of Americans have never heard. And the audience clearly knows by heart the dozen or so sing-along songs like "Gone Fishin'" and "Carolina Girls." Even more of a non-sequitur is seeing a group that 30 years ago was viewed as an R&B act that couldn't "cross over" now performing for an enthusiastic, almost exclusively white, Southern crowd.

More than just a concert film, Under the Radar provides a history of an act that, out of the national spotlight, went to the South and created a sound for which the region was ready. For decades, segregation and racism had largely kept R&B an underground music in the Carolinas, but thousands of suppressed white R&B fans found their solace in the musical freedom that existed at the beach.  The Chairmen became the right group at the right time in the 80s to capitalize on this and create a very different type of "beach music" than the Beach Boys/Jan and Dean version that was known around the US.  It was instead a rollicking brand of R&B that was perfect for the regional crowd and took on the "Carolina Beach" moniker. And the Chairmen have been riding that wave now for over two decades, performing dozens of concerts in the region around the year, but especially in the Summer.

The documentary's interviews with group members General Johnson, Ken Knox and Danny Woods are fascinating but too short. The explanations of the group's history and its surprisingly successful relocation to North Carolina provide wonderful context for the music that dominates most of the film.

Under the Radar is a particularly appropriate release at a time of major label implosion and the uncertain hope of independent artists.  It shows the story of a trio written off by the music establishment over two decades ago who have created both DIY success and an unexpected legacy as they enter their sixties.  It also provides a much needed -- but previously hidden -- ray of hope for struggling young artists to grasp as they search for their own place in a changing musical world.   Recommended.

by Chris Rizik

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Watch the new "King of Kings" video off of the Merry Christmas CD

Performed by General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board.

Watch it HERE

 

All of the Chairmen of the Board products are available at

www.surfsiderecords.com or call (704) 372-9918

 

General Johnson and The Chairmen of the Board ring tones are now available.

Featuring Hits like, Carolina Girls, Gone Fishing, On The Beach, Beach Fever and MORE!

Featuring songs from  All in the Family and Beach Music Anthology

 

On April 18 2007 in Norfolk ,Va  General Johnson was inducted in to the Legends of Music Walk of Fame. General Johnson was  inducted along with Clarence Clemons and other notable Tide Water Area Artists.

The Road to Success

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Xcel Music Group will release the Chairman of the Board’s

new southern soul version of “All in the Family”. 

The fifteen track CD features the R&B rendition of the title track “All in the Family”.  Also featured is the Chairman’s new southern soul single “The Blacker the Berry” and “You Gotta’ Crawl Before You Walk,” featuring a soulful performance by Danny Woods as lead vocalist.   The new “All in the Family”  CD arranged, remixed, written and produced by General Johnson, is now available.

         

Click here for more information and online sales.

 

Lyrical excerpts from the “All in the Family”

 

It Ain’t Easy Bein’ ME

 

It ain’t easy bein’ me

I don’t know about you

Just trying to be who I’m supposed to be

It ain’t easy bein’ me

 

It’s so hard to be good

It’s so good when it’s bad

Tryin’ to live so I don’t make you mad

It ain’t easy bein’ me

 

I can’t be you, you can’t be me

Why do you try to make me who you want me to be

I ain’t got but one life to live

I ain’t gon’ let you live it for me

 

It ain’ easy bein’ me

But who else can I be

I’m just tryin’ to be the best me I can be

Please let me be

 

 

 

All in the Family

 

Daddy lost his paycheck gambling all night long

Baby sister had a baby, her boyfriend refused to own

Big brother was strung out

Daddy wanted to throw him out

But mama said no, he’s our flesh and blood and together we can work it out

 

Mama said, it’s all in the family

Blood is thicker than water

In tryin’ times in our love we find the strength to keep keepin’ on

 

Bad boys tried to get baby brother to sell drugs

He had to choose between doin’ wrong and his families love

Mom and Dad had taught him right from wrong

We help him stay in school where he belonged

Today we’re as proud of him as we can be

He graduated from college with a masters degree

 

Mama said, it’s all in the family

Blood is thicker than water

In tryin’ times in our love we find the strength to keep keepin’ on

 

All for one, one for all

Together we stand divided we fall

When your back is up against the wall

You can count on family to come when you call

 

Big brothers off drugs now

Baby sister and her boyfriend are married now

I’m trying to make it in this world that has no love for me

But I know I can make it cause I got my family

 

I know it’s all in the family

Blood is thicker than water

In tryin’ times in our love we find the strength to keep keepin’ on

 

General Johnson

 

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General Johnson

&

The Chairmen of the Board 

1409 East Boulevard, Suite 231
Charlotte, North Carolina 28205
Telephone: (704) 372-9918 Fax: (704) 372-2754

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