In 1967 Rick Hall decided to set up a horn section at FAME Studios, probably influenced by the success of the Memphis Horns, Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love. He had been hiring the Memphis Horns for studio work at FAME, but the cost of bringing them in from Memphis suggested that a FAME horn section might be more cost-effective.
FAME Studio A (2010)
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress (Wikimedia Commons)
Most of the musicians to whom he offered contracts for the horn section were experienced in the field of Jazz and had received formal music training. The line-up remained together (with one change) until the mid-eighties, working at FAME and at other studios in the Shoals area. Four men formed the core of the horn section, augmented as necessary by other session musicians. The four were Ronnie Eades, Aaron Varnell, Harrison Calloway and Harvey Thompson. In 1970, Varnell left and was later replaced by Charles Rose. When those first contracts expired, the group decided to go freelance, calling themselves the Muscle Shoals Horns. They were then able to take work not just at FAME Studios but also at other studios in the wider Shoals area and beyond.
Calloway, Eades and Thompson met each other as students whilst at Tennessee State University in Nashville. They started performing together, supporting various local bands, and on one occasion played with a young guitarist called Jimi Hendrix!
Eades later crossed paths with Barry Beckett, a fellow native of Birmingham, Alabama. They were both in Pensacola, Florida, working with Don Schroeder, when the opportunity arose to join a recording session at FAME Studios that Schroeder organized for James and Bobby Purify.
From 1967 onwards, members of the new horn section became members of the new FAME Gang and played on some classic albums recorded at FAME, including recordings by Clarence Carter, Candi Staton, Wilson Pickett and Etta James.
Later, they released several albums under the Muscle Shoals Horns name: “Born To Get Down” (1976), “Doin’ It To The Bone” (1977) and “Shine On” (1983).
In 2015, after a gap of thirty years, they played together once more, to celebrate the re-release of their albums as CDs.
In 2019, the original Muscle Shoals Horns were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.
Ronnie Eades
Ronnie Eades was born in Tarrant City, Alabama, near Birmingham, in 1942. At the age of ten he started playing saxophone and also took oboe lessons. He played with a variety of groups, including the Esquires. In 1966, he came to FAME with Don Shroeder and Barry Beckett to work on “I’m Your Puppet” with James and Bobby Purify. Barry Beckett contacted him the following year to tell him that Rick Hall was setting up a horn section. Eades decided to move to the Muscle Shoals area to seek work at FAME.
When he found out that Hall was looking for a baritone sax player, Eades bought one and offered his services. The investment paid off! He signed a contract with FAME Studios in 1967 and joined the FAME Gang. One of the first sessions he worked on was Clarence Carter’s “Patches”.
Eades did not have the formal training that some of his fellow musicians had, but he was a quick learner and picked up what he needed from those around him. The most important lesson of all he learned from Rick Hall, as he explained in an interview with David Blacker for airgigs.com: “Rick taught us that session musicians had to be very creative”. He learned to keep things simple, to enhance the song, rather than clash with the artist’s vision. “Never take away from what the artist is doing”.
By 1981, Eades had played with over four hundred different singers.
Harrison Calloway
Harrison Calloway was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1941. He teamed up with Ronnie Eades and Harvey Thompson while at university in Nashville, playing trumpet, and joined them at FAME in 1969. He also played flugelhorn and piano.
He became the unofficial leader of the horn section, contributing many key ideas to the sessions. He worked with all the FAME artists and then, when the Muscle Shoals Horns went freelance, with the Osmonds, Bob Seger, Bob Dylan, Elton John and many others.
He developed into a songwriter, producer and arranger, as well as trumpet player. Later in his career he worked at Malaco Records in Jackson, Mississippi.
Harrison Calloway died in Jackson in 2016.
Harvey Thompson
Harvey Thompson went to school in Tuscalosa, Alabama, and later studied music at Tennessee State University. He started playing with Eades and Calloway while still a student. Local Nashville R&B singers used to come to the campus to find students willing to play for them. It was an excellent introduction to the music business. Rick Hall signed all three to the FAME Gang, taking advantage of their musical capabilities and their experience of playing together. Thompson’s first recordings at FAME Studios were the Muscle Shoals Horns album in 1969 and Clarence Carter’s “Patches” album, released in 1970. He played tenor sax and flute, contributing to hundreds of sessions. His credits include recordings with Candi Staton, Joe Tex, Bobby Womack and many more.
As a member of the Muscle Shoals Horns, he played on sessions at other local studios, including Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and at Malaco Records. It was at Malaco that the horn section joined the sessions for Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue” album, released in 1976.
Later in his career, Thompson toured with Lyle Lovett and played with a diverse group of artists, including John Denver, Elton John and Kim Carnes.
A recent session at NuttHouse Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals (July 2018) illustrated another side of Thompson’s musical interests. It was a live recording of an album entitled “Muscle Shoals Jazz”, played by the Harvey Thompson Trio and released on Crazy Chester Records. The “trio” consists of Harvey, his son Harvey Jr. on electric piano, Phil Lee on bass guitar and Marcus Pope on drums. It was this versatility that persuaded Rick Hall to hire those young horn players from Tennessee State University.
Aaron Varnell
Aaron Varnell joined the FAME Gang as a trombone player. He played on sessions in 1968 with Clarence Carter and Etta James, in 1969 with Wilson Pickett, in 1970 with Clarence Carter for the “Patches” album, and in 1971 with Candi Staton for the “Stand By Your Man” sessions. He left FAME at the end of 1971 and was replaced by Charles Rose.
Charles Rose
Charles Rose is a native of Sheffield, Alabama. He studied music at Murray State University, majoring in trombone. He also plays keyboards, arranges and produces. In recent years he has been leader of the Muscle Shoals Horns and of his own Jazz combo, the Charlie Rose Trio (on piano!).
His contributions at FAME started in 1971. Since then, he has played on hundreds of sessions, covering a wide range of musical styles.
