something we had in common…that's when I got this idea for this." Custer's concept for DAG was to record old-school funk, but with original songs rather than covers. DAG's first release, Righteous (1994) was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, with Custer producing, writing or co-writing the tracks. Because of the timeline suggested by Columbia and the newness of the band, Custer says the songs were written on the spot, in the studio. True to its inspiration of 1970s funk, Righteous featured guest performances by Roger Hawkins of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and jazz trumpeter Jeremy Davenport. The first reviews of Righteous were "glowing," praising its "undiluted funk." Vibe magazine hailed the album as "one of the best funk records since 1978. DAG's debut, Righteous, is definitely some of the most ass-grinding grooves you've heard since back in the day." Other releases by DAG and Custer include Apartment 635 (Columbia 1998) and A Guide to Groovy Lovin' (Columbia 1998). Other projects While working in artist development for Columbia, Custer produced the album Din of Ecstasy for singer–songwriter Chris Whitley in 1995, and wrote the song "Ha Ha Ha" with Sass Jordan's for her 1997 album Present (1997). Custer was shortlisted to produce the next Aerosmith album, but really wanted to help bands in North Carolina. Custer said, "Arrowsmith does not need me, but I thought there were some bands from here [North Carolina] that should have been the biggest thing ever." As a result, he decided to stay in North Carolina and see what he could make happen. Custer worked on Some Get Lucky (Lalo Records, 1994), the first album of Larry Hutcherson (Backsliders). He also co-produced Invisible and Bullet Proof (Hal Jalikakik,1995) for Automatic Slim. In 1998, Custer produced the album The Brothers' Love and Movie for the band Hipbone from Chapel Hill. Custer also produced Gran Torino Two (26.2 Music, 1999) for Knoxville's Gran Torino. Chris Ford, Gran Torino's lead singer, said the band brought in "hip producer John Custer to improve its sound". Raleigh quintet Dolo got Custer to produce their self–titled album Dolo (Really Big Record, 2000). Dolo was led by Bill Guandolo—of the Rob and Bill Talk Show that featured original music by Custer. For this project, Guandolo again turned to Custer who wrote seven of the album's ten songs. Custer says, "Dolo is a real poppy thing." In 2004, Custer recorded COC's Mike