Muscle Shoals

The Staple Singers: “God’s Greatest Hit-makers”

in Artists, Chicago, Gospel, Memphis, Muscle Shoals

Family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples was born near Winona in Minnesota. In the early 1920s his family moved to Will Dockery’s plantation near Drew in Mississippi, where Roebuck was introduced to Delta blues. Charley Patton inspired him to learn the guitar. In his teenage years Roebuck started singing with gospel […]

Jerry Wexler

in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, New York & East Coast, Producers, Record Companies & Recording Studios, Soul

Jerry Wexler is remembered for many things within the music industry, but perhaps the most significant of all is his invention in 1949 of the term Rhythm and Blues to describe the music being recorded by and for the black population of the United States, music which up until then […]

Just Possibly the Best Soul Album Ever?

in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, New York & East Coast, Soul

The Best Ever? Strangely, one of the best Soul albums ever was released in the UK in 1968. It was manufactured by Polydor Records and pressed at the CBS Pressing Plant in Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, UK. The music on the album was a distillation of Soul music by artists […]

Muscle Shoals Sound Studios

in Muscle Shoals, Musicians, Record Companies & Recording Studios

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio opened for business in 1969. It was owned and run by four musicians who had previously worked for Rick Hall at FAME Studios. They decided to leave following a dispute over how much they were paid. (See the article entitled “The Swampers Leave FAME” on this […]

Bob Seger at Muscle Shoals

in Artists, Muscle Shoals

Bob Seger had a succession of platinum and multi-platinum albums entirely and partially recorded at Muscle Shoals Studio. His first certified multi-platinum album (two million copies sold) was entitled “Beautiful Loser”, released by Capitol Records on the April 12th 1975. Most of the album was recorded with the session musicians […]

Bobby Womack at Muscle Shoals

in Artists, Muscle Shoals

Bobby Womack’s debut album on United Artist Records was recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with instrumental support from key members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. The album, entitled “Communication”, did extremely well on the Billboard Hot Soul Albums chart by reaching number five. It was originally recorded in […]

The Swampers Leave FAME

in Muscle Shoals, Musicians

A key event occurred in Muscle Shoals in 1969 when Rick Hall’s studio Gang number two (David Hood on bass, Jimmy Johnson on guitar, Roger Hawkins on drums and Barry Beckett on keyboards) departed from the FAME Studios organisation to set up their own studios and production facilities down the […]

Candi Staton at Muscle Shoals

in Artists, Muscle Shoals

During the period when Clarence Carter was beginning to develop his singing and song-writing career at FAME, he introduced Candi Staton to Rick Hall, who helped to launch her major solo career as a Southern soul stylist. She recorded over sixteen Soul and R&B hits for Rick Hall’s FAME Studios […]

Etta James at Muscle Shoals

in Artists, Muscle Shoals

In 1967, another artist not originally from the Muscle Shoals area, by the name of Etta James (who was under contract to Chess Records at that time, based in Chicago), was sent down to FAME Studios to be produced by Hall to see if she could achieve the same success […]

Bob Dylan at Muscle Shoals

in Artists, Gospel, Muscle Shoals

The final studio album of significance to come out of Muscle Shoals Studio at the end of the 1970s was Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming”, featuring the classic hit single “Gotta Serve Somebody”. The album was co-produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett. This was the nineteenth studio album by […]