In 1968, Dick Wooley was managing bandsin Atlanta and promoting records in the

Carolina’s with F&F Arnold, where he hadstarted several hit records, including some forAtlantic Records. Dick’s successes promptedMiami’s super-promo man Dick Kline to in-troduce him to Jerry Greenberg at an Atlanticconvention in the Bahamas. Jerry Greenbergwould be the next president of Atlantic, andJerry invited Dick to work as a regional pro-

motion executive for Atlantic Records cov-ering the Southeast and Midwest. Dick wel-comed the opportunity and opened Atlan-tic’s promotional office in Cincinnati.

Record promotion was not an easy taskback in the halcyon days of vinyl records, be-fore the Internet, or the Interstate highwaysystem. Dick regularly drove fifteen-hundredmiles a week over two-lane black top roadsthroughout the Midwest and Southeast

blues rocks the world • september-october 2007 | 47

A Legend of King MojoThe original AllmanBrothers Band.Photo courtesy ofPhillip Rauls(www.philliprauls.com).

A fter watching a new generation of fans packing festivals and clubsfeaturing contemporary blues, jazz, roots rock and fusion music, Dick Wooley

started King Mojo Records in 2004 without major label backing. “It’s always funto be out in front of the big guys,” says Wooley. His history supports this enthu-siasm. He has launched several of today’s legendary artists, has been awardednumerous gold and platinum albums and has himself become a legend.

Dick Wooley by Kiki Lee

Three album national release August 7thKing Mojo Allstars, Vol.3

TGZ – Living Dangerously

Big Shanty – Ride With The Wind

Featuring:

TGZ, Big Shanty, Liz Melendez, Russell Gulley,Little G. Weevil.

“Some of the verybest original artistsplaying today. Theirperformances light upthe field in contempo-rary blues, roots, jazzand fusion music.”

The tracks fromBig Shanty,Russell Gulley and Little G. Weevilare all previouslyunreleased.

Featuring:

Dan Toler – the legendaryguitar player formerly of theAllman Brothers Band andDickey Betts & GreatSouthern;Ed Zinner – the guitarpower of Southern Legend;Ron Gary – the piano wiz,formerly with WebsterYoung and Tom Browne.“An unrivaled combination oftalent, passion and imagination.”

“Is Big Shanty ‘the white Jimi Hendrix’ with a Neil Young grunge aestetics?.. A loopingdrum beat from Scott Robertson, wild guitar by Liz Melendez and Hendrix-like vocals by Big Shanty… In a sense, he’s a Bluesier versionof Beck…This is truly alternative music.”

Dylann DeAnna, BluesCritic.com

U.S.A. distributor: Select-O-Hits, www.selectohits.com

King Mojo Records & Entertainment • www.kingmojo.com

PHOTOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF KING MOJO REC.

pendent FM stations and playing progressiverock, driving the timid AM’s out of themarket.

After months of vacation traveling, Dickwas energized, full of ideas, and ready for achallenge. In early 1972, Frank Fenter calledDick from Macon, Georgia and invited himto a meeting with himself and his partner,artist manager Phil Walden.

Dick had worked with Frank Fenter at At-lantic Records. Frank ran Atlantic’s Europ-ean operation from the company’s Londonoffice. He was a brilliant record man, andeveryone was surprised when he’d moved in1969 from London to Macon to start Capri-corn Productions. In Macon, Frank Fenterwas the man behind the scene that pulled thedeal together with Atlantic Records, allow-ing Atlantic to finance the company. Then,to start the ball rolling, Jerry Wexler gavethem a Top 10 hit single,“Sunshine” by Jon-athan Edwards.

Phil and Frank persuaded Dick to comeonboard and help them transform their pro-duction company into Capricorn Records.In the new venture, Frank naturally wouldmanage the record company production, Philwould manage up-and-coming artists WetWillie and the Allman Brothers Band, andDick would do national record promotions.

They shared what had been the late OtisRedding’s office in the ramshackle RedwallMusic Publishing building on Cotton Av-enue. From the first day, Dick knew it was go-ing to be a tough work when he called radiostations around the country and they’d ask:“Capricorn what? Allman who? Maconwhere?” Many in the music community hadopenly stated the Allman Brothers Bandwould never recover from the untimely lossof their brilliant leader Duane Allman, andat that time the Allman Brothers albums hadonly sold a few thousand copies. But, Dickhad listened to the tracks that producer John-ny Sandlin was making for the company (rawtracks from the ABB’s yet to be released EatA Peach) and believed in the band’s poten-

tial. He decided instead of endless dialing ofstations that he didn’t know, to target oldfriends at the new FM radios (and a few stillat AM) and began calling in ancient favorsto play Eat A Peach. Even though Southernjam rock was not the type of music these sta-tions were accustomed to, several of Dick’sradio pals in Atlanta, Boston and Los Angelesbegan playing the new album and werestunned at the good response from listeners.

Eat A Peach began to inch up the charts,and Dick went to work on the more conser-vative middle-American radio markets. Thealbum was added to more and more stations,gathering chart speed until early the next yearit became the Allman Brothers Band’s firstgold (later platinum) album.

Taking advantage of the growing successof Eat A Peach, Dick had the radical idea ofcreating a special New Year’s radio show topromote Southern Rock. It was 1973, andnothing had ever been done like this before,but betting on strength in numbers Dick lined

blues rocks the world • september-october 2007 | 49

promoting Atlantic Records. It was challeng-ing work, because at the time Atlantic/Atcoonly had six full-time promotion men to cov-er every radio stations, show promoter andrecord distributor in America. This smallgroup of six guys headed by Jerry Greenberg,included Dick Kline, Leroy Little, Bob Green-berg, Vince Faracci and Dick Wooley. Dickreflected,“I felt privileged just being a mem-ber of that group, and it was a once in a life-time experience to be working for music ge-niuses like Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler andTom Dowd.”

Back in the 1960s, Atlantic Records es-tablished such legendary artists as Otis Red-ding, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, WilsonPickett, Joe Tex, King Curtis, Sam and Dave,Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, BuffaloSpringfield, Delaney & Bonnie, Derek andThe Dominos, Cream, Eric Clapton, Led Zep-pelin, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

But, this was also a time when people weremarching in the streets protesting the Viet-nam war. As Dick called on the major AMradio stations to promote Atlantic artists, hefound most programmers were paranoidabout attracting unwanted Government at-tention if they played what they referred toas “anti-war” or “hippie” music. So insteadof playing new progressive artists, these sta-tions settled on playing mindless “bubble-

gum” pop songs, which were considered safe.These paranoid radio programmers missedout on a once in a generation music revo-lution by not playing Janis Joplin, JimiHendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton…

This era was tough on record promoterstoo, their jobs depended on getting newrecords on the radio, and the followingpersonal account is just one example of the“Big Brother” times. Dick Wooley was in Mi-ami’s Criteria Studios when legendary pro-ducer Tom Dowd was recording “Layla” withEric Clapton, Duane Allman, Bobby Whit-lock, Jim Gordon and Carl Radle, known asDerek and The Dominos. It was electric inthe studio each night. Ahmet Ertegun, thePresident of Atlantic Records, loved theblues and was usually there. Much later, an-ticipation for the album release was big, butmajor AM radio stations refused to play it,citing the same old excuses.“For me … thiswas the last straw in dealing with program-mers who would not play great music likethis,” Dick recalls.“They sold airtime as rockand roll stations, so I reasoned, they shouldplay new progressive rock. New music is whatrock and roll is all about, right?.. Wrong! Iknew I had to find a better way to get airplayfor new artists.”

In 1971, Dick had a life changing motor-cycle wreck and began to consider his ownand his family’s future. He said,“I’d workednon-stop for many years with Atlantic, nowthe timing was right and I decided on a va-cation … a long one.” For the rest of the yearDick, his wife and young son Christian trav-eled through Europe and North Africa.

Subsequent to Dick’s leaving AtlanticRecords, it took their great promotion staff,that now included Phillip Rauls and MarioMedius, a year of hard work to get “Layla”on stubborn radio playlists.

D ick’s extended hiatus was well timed, be-cause the tide turned and radio had

changed. When he came back, many of hisold friends were programming new inde-

48 | blues rocks the world • september-october 2007

The Allman Brothers Bandon stage in Atlanta, GA.Concert of July 4, 1971.L-r: Berry Oakley, DuaneAllman, Dickey Betts,Gregg Allman, Jai JohannyJohanson, Butch Trucks.Photo curtesy ofCarter Tomassi,(www.messyoptics.com).

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Frank Fenter, Dick Wooleyand Phil Walden in 1972.Photo by Rob Durner-Fenter.

Dick Wooley with platinum“edition” of the AllmanBrothers Band Eat A Peachalbum.

Phillip Rauls and Dick Wooley.

that it needed “something” to become readyfor radio. He took the tape into his office andplayed around with the arrangement for acouple of days, trying to find the rightcombination that would fit seamlessly intoseveral radio formats. Once satisfied, Dickand Frank flew it to LA, like they had doneonce before with the Marshall Tucker tape,and played the Elvin Bishop track for Warn-er Brothers’ Mo Ostin, Ed Rosenblatt andRuss Thyrett. They loved it, and in just a fewshort weeks “Fooled Around And Fell InLove” became the number one single on allTop 100 record charts.

For a long time Dick had been restless andeager to make a change, he reasoned therewould never be a better time to start his ownrecord company than with the Elvin Bishopsingle at number one, two Allman Brothersalbums high on the charts and two Marshall

Tucker albums climbing to the top. (Whileat Capricorn, Dick also launched into the na-tional spotlight the great Southern Bluesband Wet Willie, venerable singer-song-writers and Eric Clapton’s “favorite band”Cowboy, the legendary Southern Rock bandGrinderswitch, Bluesman John HammondJr. and rising Country star Hank Williams Jr.)

Dick decided to resign as VP of Promo-tions at the peak of Capricorn Records’ suc-cess.

Since Dick moved to Macon in 1972, thecompany’s growth had been truly astonish-ing. In four short years, Capricorn Recordshad come from a production company withan empty bank account and three guyswith a dream into a Southern Rock Empirewith sixty employees, a roster of great artistsrecognized worldwide and with sales of$30 million a year.

blues rocks the world • september-october 2007 | 51

up dozens of independent AM and FM sta-tions across the South, cobbled them together,bought time on AT&T telephone long dis-tance lines and called it a “radio network.” Ithad only cost about $700, so Dick gave theshow free to his affiliated stations providedthey played his albums in heavy rotation inthe weeks prior to the broadcast and gaveCapricorn advertising spots during thebroadcast.

The New Year’s concert live from New Or-leans featured the Allman Brothers Band andWet Willie. The program was broadcast inonly eight states, but was a big success forpromoters, bands, radio stations, the new“network” and Capricorn Records. And notleast, Capricorn got several great tracks to usein later ABB projects, and the classic live al-bum, Drippin Wet for Wet Willie, producedby Johnny Sandlin.

With momentum building, Dick beganplanning the next New Year’s show. Headded 150 stations to the “network” (nowcalled “CapCom”) and acquired two nationalsponsors, creating the first vertically inte-grated Rock & Roll radio promotion. The up-coming 1974 event was on a much larger scalethan the first one. It would be broadcast fromSan Francisco’s Cow Palace, with a capacityof 15,000, and the legendary Fillmore East

and West owner Bill Graham was to be theevent promoter. Dick and Bill had invited SanFrancisco’s FM pioneer DJ Tom Donahue tobe MC. Tom, in turn, asked several of his SanFrancisco rock luminary friends to sit in onthe show to add even more flavor to the spec-tacle.

Bill Graham was an original showman,and he proved it during the sold-out showwhen he descended from the highest balconyin the great hall onto the stage at midnight,inside a giant Plexiglas hour-glass, dressed as“Old Father Time” with a flowing whitebeard. The Allman Brothers, Boz Scaggs,Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker andthe Grateful Dead all stopped playing for afew seconds to hail the New Year, thenpicked back up on the jam just where they leftit. It was a surreal and magic New Year!

The coast-to-coast event was the “first ofa kind” for radio. In addition, the show waspicked up by Armed Forces Radio andbroadcast live all over the world to an esti-mated 40 million listeners. By design, theshow launched a group that Dick and Frankbrought into Capricorn, the Marshall Tuck-er Band.

The results in album sales after the eventwere immediate – the Allman Brothers’current and catalog albums sold through theroof, and the debut Marshall Tucker’s albumsold 250 thousand copies within a couple ofmonths, becoming their first gold (laterplatinum) album.

The New Year’s broadcast was a headlinegrabbing success. The following week, newsof the event was splashed across the frontpage of every entertainment trade paper ofthe day, including banner headlines in Bill-board, Radio & Records, Cashbox. Later, inJuly of 1975, the prestigious business mag-azine Fortune printed a major article on therise of Capricorn Records with group and in-dividual stories on Phil, Frank and Dick.

In 1976, Frank Fenter played Dick a trackfrom a new Elvin Bishop album that was inproduction. Dick liked the song, but found

50 | blues rocks the world • september-october 2007

The original MarshallTucker Band.

The originalGrinderswitch.

coast of Savannah, Georgia. At the time, itwas a quiet fishing village of about 1500 peo-ple, and a perfect spot to relax, think, writesongs for his publishing company CottonStates Music, learn to sail a Hobie Cat, builda beach house and look at the record busi-ness from the rear-view mirror.

Fast-forward to 2004, we find Dick en-joying sunset views from the deck of his

beach house, still writing songs for his pub-lishing company and, with his businesspartner, Benchmark/Atlantic President Ar-thur Schultz, having just finished buildingand selling 500 new college and beachfrontinvestment condos.

Never one to be without a project for long,Dick decided that a new goal was needed. Hewatched a new generation of fans fill to ca-pacity the fusion-blues festivals and clubsaround the country and sensed an oppor-tunity to serve an under-served market. Af-ter talking with musician friends, he reasonedthat if he started a label, its artists would haveto be so special that they would brand it asa unique, original, not just cookie cutter la-bel. On the short list of such original artistswas his good friend of 30 years, guitar legendDru Lombar, leader of Grinderswitch. Theysoon met, Dru loved the idea and immedi-ately signed on to the new King Mojo label.

Traditionally, blues and jazz fans havedriven the success of blues music, but today’snew generation of fans expect somethingnew. They want all kinds of blues-based mu-sic integrated with roots blues, rock, jazz andclub beats. It’s really cool stuff, and it’s be-ing done nightly in the successful clubs, butcould it be a new direction? The whole la-bel just seemed to grow around that one ideaand immediately found traction and gaineda momentum all its own.

As the new label began to evolve, its oneprinciple was to find great music.“Find thebest original artists in contemporary blues,jazz, roots rock and fusion, then showcasethem exclusively using the Internet,” Dicksays. A few months search revealed severalgreat artists equal to the challenge. By mid-2004 they were showcased on King Mojo’sfirst Internet based release, King Mojo Allstars,Vol. 1. The artists were: Diane Durrett, thecutting edge of blue-eyed soul; Mike Lowry,a multi-talented guitarist, singer, the real deal;the Polk Street Blues Band, a blues-rock jamact; Grinderswitch.

Dru Lombar and the new members ofGrinderswitch brought it all back home withthe band’s first studio album in three decades,Ghost Train From Georgia. Dru dedicated thenew band and new album to his late Grinder-switch bandmates Joe Dan Petty and StevenMiller. Tragically, his own life was cut shorton September 2, 2005…

After a surprising success, other artistswere added on the second release, King MojoAllstars, Vol. 2: Big Shanty, who transformsblues into beats, tales of hard luck, hard timesand hard women; Beau Hall, an unstoppableforce of energy; Bill Stewart and the ATL,original jazz cooked up by the very best At-lanta musicians; Little Phil, a great SouthernSoul singer; Dustin Sargent, a jazz statementmade and a powerful new wave.

In August 2007, King Mojo Allstars, Vol. 3was released, featuring some of today’s verybest original artists in contemporary blues,roots, jazz and fusion music: TGZ, Big Shan-ty, Liz Melendez, Russell Gulley and Little G.Weevil. The tracks from Big Shanty, RussellGulley and Little G. Weevil are all previous-ly unreleased.

Website: www.kingmojo.com

blues rocks the world • september-october 2007 | 53

What a wild year 1976 had been! Dickleft Capricorn Records with several hit

records at the top of the charts, opened thedoors at Dick Wooley Associates (DWA),helped the Jimmy Carter presidential cam-paign fund with free shows, and started Rab-bit Records. Dick’s old friends at Atlantic Rec-ords became interested in financing hisnew Macon, Georgia based Rabbit label, anda distribution deal was made.

Flush with development money, Dickasked top Warner Brothers’ promotion manAl Moss to join the new company and invitedtwo great working bands of the day to signon with Rabbit Records: Dru Lombar’sGrinderswitch, managed by Alex Hodges,who today heads up Neiderlander, and theWinters Brothers, managed by Charlie Da-niels’ manager Joe Sullivan.

Rabbit Records charted both the Grinder-switch and Winters Brothers albums that firstyear and built career momentum by book-ing the bands on hundreds of tour datesopening for the Charlie Daniels Band, theAllman Brothers Band, Marshall TuckerBand and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Dick’s office on Walnut Street in Maconwas across the street from the ArmstrongBooking Agency, and its owner Pat Arm-strong had an extensive roster of workingbands (he had also been Lynyrd Skynyrd’sfirst manager). Pat was anxious because hehadn’t participated in Southern Rock’s pop-ularity and came to Dick one day in 1977 toask if he would help him launch a new bandhe managed, called Molly Hatchet. Pat saidthey were being looked at by a major pro-ducer and a record company.

Dick went to see Pat’s band in the base-ment club of a seedy Macon flop-house calledthe Dempsey Hotel. The venue was a night-mare with water standing an inch deep onthe dance floor.“It was a miracle nobody waselectrocuted,”Dick said later. However, as badthe surroundings, Dick found the bandhighly promising. Later that year, a monthbefore Molly Hatchet’s album was released,Dick added so many radio stations to its pro-motion, that within a week Epic Records re-sponded by throwing big development mon-ey at the new “bad boys” of Southern Rock.

Molly Hatchet’s debut album was a bigsuccess, first going gold, then platinum.Dick was happy because he had launched hisfirst million selling band since leaving Capri-corn, which, unfortunately, after his depar-ture had been unable to launch any majorartist and was going bankrupt.

In 1980, the “disco craze” swept over thecountry like a tsunami and destroyed all air-play in its path. Dick had zero interest in dis-co music and decided to sit out the dance,take time off and start a quiet life at the near-est beach.

In 1981, he moved to Tybee – a small is-land at the dead-end of Highway 80, off the

52 | blues rocks the world • september-october 2007

Molly Hatchet.

Dick Wooley, Becky Bondiaand Al Moss in 1976.

King Mojo Records are distributednationally by Select-O-Hits

www.selectohits.com