1979 Shotgun – Shotgun III

In the mid 60’s Cincinnati, Ohio was the hub for many R&B and Funk influenced bands. It was also the Headquarters for The G…odfather of Soul, James Brown, and his record label, King Records.

During this period a popular local party band, The DITALIANS, released a 45 for Mercury Records. It would be a couple years later that The DITALIAN members would start the sensational Show Band 24 CARAT BLACK. This group garnered considerable local attention and would record Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth with Dale Warren producing for the Stax/ Enterprise label. This album would ultimately enter the Music History record books as the ‘most sampled’ album ever by the Rap and Hip-Hop community spanning the early 90’s to present day.

After parting ways the core members formed SHOTGUN in April of 1975 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.. SHOTGUN embarked on a 7 year journey that would include 6 albums for major labels ABC and MCA Records. Numerous songs charted on the Billboard’s Hot 100 showcasing the groups signature Funk Rock rhythms and soulful harmonies.

A rigorous tour schedule through Collegiate America as well as opening for Peter Frampton, The Emotions and Brothers Johnson, The Spinners as well as an appearance on James Brown’s Future Shock TV show spread the band’s fan base.

The band would fade and break up in the early 80’s with group members moving to other projects musical or otherwise. An occasional licensed SHOTGUN rhythm track would be sampled by a rap artist or a song would turn up on a “best of” dance CD. A popular club track and near miss Gold single, “Don’t You Wanna Make Love” would to this date get frequent air play on Satellite Radio. Other than that it appeared that SHOTGUN’s fate would be in the hands of Father Time.

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, once said “R&B is the Truth” and we all know that
The Truth never dies……And Lo and Behold in 2008, it appears that the true SHOTGUN fans cannot be denied!

Many of the classic SHOTGUN songs started appearing on YouTube and began generating a renewed interest in the band’s music. But, it would be the comments that woke the band members to the fact that people still wanted to know more about the group and how to get a hold of their catalogue of songs.