Dewey Lindon Oldham Jr. was born in Center Star, Alabama, in 1943. His father played mandolin and encouraged Dewey to take an interest in music. The nickname “Spooner” came as a cruel reference to an accident he had as a child, in which he lost the sight in his right eye. He was hit by a spoon.
Dewey played in bands at school and enrolled at North Alabama University on leaving high school. He was attracted, however, to a career in music and soon left to find work at local recording studios, playing piano and organ. He had joined a band called Hollis Dixon and the Keynotes, that played in the Muscle Shoals area and may well have crossed paths with Dan Penn, who was playing in a different band working in the same area. They possibly met at SPAR Studio, above the drugstore, which they both visited, and they certainly met at FAME Studios, where they soon started writing songs together.
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham
The songwriting duo produced around four hundred songs over the years, many of which became national hits. When Penn moved to American Sound Studio in 1967, Oldham stayed on in Muscle Shoals until a replacement keyboard player could be hired and then followed Penn to Memphis. Together, they produced a string of hits for the Box Tops, the Sweet Inspirations, and many other artists.
The session playing also brought Oldham a host of opportunities to play with some big names in the industry. His smooth, spectral organ sound can be heard on a series of hits, first at FAME and Norala Studios in the Shoals, and then at American Sound in Memphis.
As the impact of Southern Soul grew weaker, especially after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Oldham moved on to Los Angeles and widened the scope of his playing. He worked with Linda Ronstadt, Gene Clark, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, sometimes in the studio but also on the road.
In 1993, Oldham joined a group of musicians from the old times to play on Arthur Alexander’s album “Lonely Just Like Me”.
In 1998 Penn and Oldham teamed up again, this time as performers! They completed a tour of the UK, which resulted in the issue of a live album entitled “Moments From This Theatre”.
In 2015, a company called Light In The Attic reissued Oldham’s solo album from the seventies, “Pot Luck”. It is a great way to remember his talent. In recognition of his contribution to popular music, he has been inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2009), and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame (2014).
The haunting, church-like lines played by Spooner Oldham, often on a tiny red Farfisa organ from Italy, are a trademark of the Muscle Shoals sound. The opening bars of Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman” say it all.
A portable organ made by the Italian company Farfisa
(Photo courtesy of audiofanzine.com)
