Although Greensboro is still an accommodating home for touring artists and local acts in the R&B, rap and soul canons, few transplants and newcomers realize how deep the roots of Greensboro's solid music scene run.
Built by a few driven individuals, Greensboro's bountiful record labels and industrious super groups were responsible for a musical legacy that rivals that of Motown or Music City, closer to home and for a fraction of the cost.
"Greensboro was a real hot city back in the late '60s early '70s," says Greensboro bluesman Roy Roberts. The city "had clubs all over town, live entertainment going all the time."
A look back at some of the notable talents:
A movement blooms on Market Street
Although brother-and-sister combo Charlie and Inez Foxx gave Greensboro its first national R&B hit in 1963 with the pop bopper "Mockingbird," the story of Greensboro's soul music legacy begins at Curt's Records and Gifts at 2031 E. Market St.
A Charlotte native, Curt Moore was a sales representative for Fuller Products, a cosmetics company that manufactured skin and hair-care products for African Americans. Opened in 1961, his shop would become a springboard for many local entrepreneurs, including local cosmetics mogul Joe Dudley.
"He started Dudley Products in the back of my store," Moore recently said. "He used to make grease on the stove at his house in big pots, and then he'd bring a load to the store and sell it at the shop."
Although Curt's maintained a steady flow of customers, Moore saw the burgeoning record industry as a promising way of increasing traffic.
"When I first started, I had about 16 records, and they weren't even by the right artists," Moore says. "I was interested in cosmetics, but then the record business just took off, and I stayed involved with both."
In addition to hosting an elaborate series of beauty pageants and variety shows, Moore forged his own record labels, Boro and Tina (named for his oldest daughter), cutting some of Greensboro's earliest indigenous singles, which he sold from his shop.
When Moore and a young Roy Roberts cut "The Legend of Otis Redding" just months after Redding's death, the moving tribute attracted the attention of many, including Nina Simone, who augmented the single's propulsion by releasing it on her own independent label, NinaAndy, cementing both Moore and Robert's legacies in the Gate City and abroad.
The Mighty Majors
N.C. A&T played an integral part in attracting talented teens to the area. A native of Asheville, George Bishop came to A&T on a music scholarship. In preparation for an approaching campus talent show, Bishop assembled a group of affluent music majors, who soon began performing around town as the aptly named Majors and later as the Mighty Majors.
The Majors would become the de facto backing band for numerous touring talents, subsequently becoming a fixture on college campuses up and down the East Coast, winning teenage fans such as Katie Couric (University of Virginia) and Brooke Shields (Princeton). But back at A&T, Bishop's reputable writing and arranging skills first attracted the attention of an ambitious classmate Walter Grady.
"When I first came to A&T, they were doing all these write-ups about this young guy that was coming to A&T," recalls Bishop of his own publicized arrival. "Walter Grady was the first person to show up at my door. He had been writing lyrics, and he needed somebody to put it to the music. Back in those days, you couldn't get a copyright unless you had a lead sheet. So he had all these songs, and I helped him to put them to music."
Although he claimed to be from Connecticut, Grady's 2008 obituary revealed to even his oldest associates that he was from Harnett County, just below Fayetteville. Grady was known as a hustler, and although many accused him of exploiting his fellow Carolinians, there is no doubt that "Shady Grady" did much to establish Greensboro as a musical force. He brokered several deals for regional artists, often without their knowledge. Many artists complained of not getting paid. He lived a long and storied career in the music industry, but he burned many bridges along the way.
"Walter was a true soldier," says Wayman "Slack" Johnson, a former disc jockey at WEAL (1510 AM). "He's like a Greensboro Don King. He was unscrupulous, but he was my man to the end."
Slick Slack and the big WEAL
A Greensboro native and graduate of Dudley High School, Slack started his radio career with a 25-minute slot on WEAL, "the Big WEAL." He quickly became a conduit for Greensboro musicians, playing local records alongside artists such as James Brown, Solomon Burke and Wilson Pickett. Although the charismatic Johnson would climb many industry ladders, arriving at the top of several, an interview in the News & Record from 1987 revealed that even the flashiest locals tended to keep Greensboro close to their hearts.
"It's funny coming home and realizing that it's the best place in the world," Slack said from Los Angeles. "I like Hollywood, but I'd rather be in Greensboro."
Slack left for Charlotte in 1972, leaving Greensboro a three-minute memento of his stay ---- a 45 called "The Real Thing" by the Electric Express. Guitarist and songwriter Vic Hudson found that younger audiences from the Carlotta Supper Club and older audiences from the Elk's Club responded favorably to the song's infectious riff. After Slack assured them that the song was indeed a hit, they approached Walter Copeland of Crescent City Studios at 1060 Gatewood Ave. with $60 in hand. Copeland was a reasonable man, but studio time was precious; his offer was firm: "I'll record one take." Luckily, the band's constant gigging and the informal nature of the composition yielded a hit for the mighty quartet.
Released on Grady's Linco imprint, "The Real Thing" was picked up by Atlantic Records for distribution and sold more than 800,000 copies. This was an early triumph for Johnson, who cites "The Real Thing" as an important facet of his career's progression.
"People would say, 'Slack, we was on this show with the Ohio Players the other day, and we smoked them!' and I used to always say, 'Well, what did they get paid and what did you get paid?' And don't get me wrong, I was so proud for them. But even back then, my motto was, 'Let's not be No. 1 in Greensboro; let's be No. 1 in the world.' "
Roy Roberts: A global impact
One musician whose perpetually evolving music has had a global impact is Roy Roberts. At 67, the Tennessee native has been making music in the Triad for nearly 50 years, receiving praise and press from Winston-Salem to Warsaw. But he may not have been the musician he is now were it not for the nurturing musical community of Greensboro.
"Me and some guys got together one night and went into the El Rocco (a popular Greensboro club), and Victor Hudson's band was backing Jerry Butler. And man, it was wild! I said, 'Man, this is it; this is what I want to do!' "
Roberts found out where Hudson lived, and like a good neighbor, Hudson fostered the eager teenager.
"He used to wake me up every morning, 5 or 6 in the morning with that guitar. That's how bad he wanted to play," Hudson recalls. "He wanted to be a star."
Roberts hit the ground running, first as a backing man, performing behind Eddie Floyd, "Little" Stevie Wonder and Dee Clark, and then as a band leader in his own Roy Roberts Experience. Roberts recorded a handful of 45s for a smattering of Greensboro indies, including Grady's Linco and Moore's Tina, even playing an unaccredited organ on the Electric Express' "The Real Thing." Although his main occupation is now the blues, he was flown to Wales in 2007 to perform his '60s sides for an eager audience at the Prestatyn Northern Soul Weekend, proving that Greensboro's music of yesteryear still endures.
Changing of the guard
The unifying work ethic that bound most Greensboro musicians resulted in a resilient scene that endured well into the '70s. Many artists were content to work the area's abundant clubs; others left for the promising pastures of New York and Atlanta. However, the rising tide of disco in the late '70s flooded nightclubs with DJs who could afford to work for a fraction of what bands were asking.
"When the disco started coming in, it started putting a lot of people out of business," Roberts recalls. "A lot of the older generation didn't care that much about going out and hearing somebody spinning records; they could do that at home."
Roberts shifted to country, while others shifted to gospel and still others to beach music. But one thing was for sure: Times were changing.
Curt's Records and Gifts remained open until 1990. By then, its catalog included selections by Salt-n-Pepa and 2 Live Crew. The singles on Linco and Boro were long gone. After closing shop, Joe Dudley called Moore out of retirement, hiring him as a public relations consultant for Dudley Products, which had become the prototype for black-owned business in the transpiring decades. When asked exactly when he retired, Moore laughs.
"Man, I'm always doing something," he says. "I got a super idea now, if I can find some young person who wants to make a lot of money. I'll tell you about it one day."
Jon Kirby helps maintain the blog carolinasoul.org. Contact him at JonathanCKirby@gmail.com.
