WHEN Rod Stewart first arrived in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record what would become his hit single “Sailing” back in the 1970s, the British bad-boy rocker had quite the shock.
“I thought the band was black!” bass player David Hood recalls Stewart crying out. Hood and his band, The Swampers, had already recorded with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and The Staple Singers (of “I’ll Take You There” fame).
Immortalized in the famous song, “Sweet Home Alabama” (“Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers .¤.¤. “), the band, the pride of this northern city just a few miles from the Tennessee state line, has recorded with more than a dozen superstar acts, from Bob Dylan to Paul Simon to The Rolling Stones.
Every one of these musical greats has passed through the unassuming Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, a physically unexciting affair with just a little more leg room than, say, the more famous Sun Studios in Memphis. (Legend has it that the Stones’ “Wild Horses” was written in the bathroom when Keith Richards got trapped in there as the band recorded another song outside.)
Today, the studio — bathroom included — is open for tours, as well as available to musicians looking to record on equipment that might be older than they are.
Noel Webster bought the place in 1999, and recently purchased a working 1961 Capitol Records control console that Frank Sinatra sang through.
“People come here for the history, and then they fall in love with the sound of the building,” says Webster.
“It’s very real and doesn’t sound fabricated. We don’t cut, chop and puree audio. We just do live studio recording.”
Webster’s is not the only studio in town; an integral piece of the area’s rich musical heritage is Fame Studios, just three miles away. It claims a list of hits stretching all the way back to 1959. The band Alabama recorded here; today contemporary acts like the Drive-By Truckers keep the consoles humming.
How a place as nondescript as Muscle Shoals became such a musical mecca — the area is home to the growing Alabama Music Hall of Fame — is hotly debated by locals and tourists alike.
Four neighboring towns comprise the region that most people refer to as the Shoals: Florence, Tuscumbia, Sheffield, and Muscle Shoals are all clustered along the banks of the scenic Tennessee River, which used to be impassable here; giant boulders jutted out of the water and spelled doom for passing ships and barges. The Native Americans actually called it the “Singing River” after the sound of water passing around the stones.
In 1873, W.C. Handy, the “father of the blues,” was born in Florence. Handy’s father forbade him from pursing a musical career, saying he would rather see his son “in a hearse” than on stage. Handy disobeyed Dad, and went on to a long and legendary career playing, writing and publishing blues music.
Working as a black performer in the South was a very different thing around the turn of the last century, and Handy was shot at, threatened with arrest, and even lynching, for talking back to white men. Yet he eventually popularized blues music and made possible its evolution into jazz and then rock ‘n’ roll.
Today in Florence, the W.C. Handy Home and Museum has recreated the shack Handy grew up in, and has a freight car’s worth of photographs, musical instruments and personal items sent back to his birthplace after he died in New York in 1958.
Modern musicians in Muscle Shoals talk about being inspired by Handy’s global success, the ultimate local boy made good.
Residents also like to talk up the region’s livability.
“Muscle Shoals is one of the nicest places to live in all of America,” says Dick Cooper, a music writer and former curator at the Alabama Hall of Fame. Despite its location in the heart of the Bible Belt, Cooper explains that the region is often far less conservative than other parts of the state, even those in close proximity.
The Shoals’ may not fit Northerners stereotypes of the Deep South, but the food served in its restaurants sure does. You name it, it’s fried and on a plate for lunch. Delectable fried catfish, fried tomatoes, fried pickles, fried okra, fried steak, fried cornbread (otherwise known as hushpuppies) make a meal at Tuscumbia’s Rocking Chair, about as far from a macrobiotic diet as you can get in the lower 48.
For those seeking more elevated tastes, both in cooking and in actual altitude, the 360 Grille in Florence is located atop a 300 foot-tall tower that slowly rotates around stunning views of the Tennessee River. (A revolving restaurant with good food apparently does exist.) Just don’t rest your cellphone on the window ledge, or you may find it’s traveled halfway around the restaurant by the time you notice it’s gone.
For more information about the region, log on to colbertcountytourism.org and visitflorenceal.com. To learn more about Alabama as a destination, visit alabama.travel.
Shoals Sound
Top spots for hearing the Muscle Shoals Sound
1) Swampers Bar & Lounge — For upscale boozing and jamming, Swampers is the place. Located in the sprawling Marriott Shoals resort, the lounge features live music nightly. A great PA systems means guests can sit outside by the fire pits to enjoy a smoke and the night air, without missing out on any music (800 Cox Creek Parkway South, Florence [256] 246-3600).
2) LA Fonda Mexicana — This unassuming Mexican restaurant is where locals come to hear the best live acts in the region. A big rear dining room becomes a concert hall on weekends, and when you need a break from the music, a small front bar is home to some of the chattiest folks in town. Regulars will even jump behind the bar to fetch newcomers a beer if the bartender is busy (1221 Florence Blvd, Florence, [256] 767-4600).
3) Rattlesnake Bar — One of the most unique drinking establishments in Alabama, if not the county. This brand spanking new joint is tucked under a massive rock outcropping underneath an operating horse ranch called the Seven Springs Lodge. The Rattlesnake has an old-fashioned saloon feel, complete with swinging doors in the front. A large porch hosts live music and a hitching post, where wranglers do indeed hitch up before heading in for a cold one (1292 Mt Mills Rd, Tuscumbia, 256-370-7218).
4) Coon Dog Cemetery — An active pet cemetery, reserved for raccoon hunting dogs only, there is live music here but once a year. However, on Labor Day, the grounds become a rollicking, frolicking jam session and buck dancing celebration. BBQ and a “liar’s contest” round out this authentic Deep South experience (U.S. Hwy 72 to Alabama Hwy 247, follow signs [256] 383-0783).