The city of Muscle Shoals, Alabama holds a special place in music history. The musicians that headed to the unassuming town in the Northwest corner of Alabama, near the Tennessee River, to record at FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound who tried to harness the “Muscle Shoals Sound” reads like the roster of inductees at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
For a solid twenty year period some of the most famous and influential rock, soul, funk, country and R&B songs and albums were recorded there – from Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You to Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years to Otis Redding’s Sweet Soul Music to The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses. The city was also the place where a young Duane Allman cut his teeth as a studio musician, most famously playing on Wilson Pickett’s cover of The Beatles’ Hey Jude.
In recent years the city has captured the imagination of a new generation of acts, looking to once again harness the city’s seemingly uncanny ability to bring out the best in bands, with The Black Keys, Drive-By Trucks and Alabama Shakes all recording albums there. The history of the famed city and recording studios and session musicians is the subject of a new aptly titled documentary – Muscle Shoals – which features interviews with the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bono, Steve Winwood and more. Let’s check out the trailer…
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After its debut at Sundance on the 26th, the film is expected to be screened at theaters across the country and should eventually make its way towards a DVD/Blu-Ray release.
