Welcome to the
MSMA Newsletter!
The annual W.C. Handy Music Festival starts July 20th here in the
Shoals. This festival showcases our rich local talent as well as some
amazing musicians from all over the planet! Music is everywhere during
the 9-day festival. The Blind Boys of Alabama will headline this year's
festival. We hope that you will come and be a part of the great
musical heritage that we have here in the Shoals! You can download the
Handy Events Calendar here: http://www.wchandymusicfestival.org/events.htm
Thank you to Steve Melton for reminding us not to forget about the
recording engineers that are a huge part of the Muscle Shoals legacy.
Stay tuned for some feature articles highlighting the guys that were
"behind the scenes" during recording sessions for The Rolling Stones,
Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Paul Simon and many, many more!
Please forward this newsletter to anyone that might be interested
in the Shoals music scene. We want to continue to promote our music
beyond our borders. Thanks for your support!
Christine Ohlman Joins The Decoys for Handy Show
By Terry Pace
A powerhouse voice in the world of pure, unadulterated American
rhythm-and-blues and soul-drenched rock ’n’ roll will be joining the
Muscle Shoals Music Association and a stellar array of Muscle Shoals
musicians for a spectacular, spirit-lifting concert celebration during
the 2012 W.C. Handy Music Festival.
The beloved “Beehive Queen” herself – electrifying soul singer
Christine Ohlman – will headline the MSMA fund-raiser on Thursday, July
26, at the Marriott Shoals Conference Center in Florence, Alabama. The
Shoals’ own Wildwood Ruminators will open the show at 7 p.m. The “Queen
of Blue-Eyed Rock and Soul” will perform – backed by the all-star Muscle
Shoals band The Decoys – beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets for the show –
co-sponsored by Northwest-Shoals Community College, the Alabama Music
Hall of Fame and the Marriott Shoals – are $10 per person and available
at the door.
“Soul music has always touched me so deeply, and never deeper than
the music of FAME, 3614 Jackson Highway and Muscle Shoals Sound,”
maintains Ohlman, who lives in Connecticut but considers the
Southern-soul mecca of Muscle Shoals her musical second home. “I
absolutely treasure, as well, the people of the Shoals. It's like being
part of a special, ultra-heartfelt family, and I am honored to be called
its adopted daughter.”
Renowned worldwide as the long-time vocalist for NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Live Band, Ohlman earned universal critical praise for her 2010 release with Rebel Montez, The Deep End.
The album – which was honored on five national Top Ten lists – features
unforgettable collaborations with special guests and duet partners Ian
Hunter, Dion DiMucci, Marshall Crenshaw and the late, great Levon Helm.
Award-winning music historian Peter Guralnick – author of Sweet Soul Music, Lost Highway, Feel Like Going Home and the two-volume Elvis Presley biography Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love – hailed Ohlman’s music as “tough, tender, thoughtful and sassy – R-E-A-L, as Sam Phillips was wont to say.”
For her Handy concert with the MSMA, Ohlman says she’s particularly
honored to be performing live with world-class Decoys musicians Scott
Boyer, Kelvin Holly, David Hood, N.C. Thurman and Mike Dillon – seasoned
players that she considers “the current standard-bearers” of authentic
Muscle Shoals soul.
"Our set on July 26 will lean heavily on Shoals favorites of mine –
with a sprinkling of Memphis Sun classics thrown in as a nod to Sam and
Jerry Phillips – melded with some of my more soulful originals – and,
of course, ‘Love Make You Do Stupid Things,’ ” Ohlman explains. “It’s a
dance concert, so don't plan on sitting down for long. Let's celebrate
the heart and soul of the Beehive/Shoals connection – and raise some
money for the good work of the Muscle Shoals Music Association while
we're at it!”
During her visit to the Shoals, Ohlman will also perform as a
special guest during the Handy festival’s climactic headliner concert by
the Grammy Award-winning Blind Boys of Alabama beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 28, at Norton Auditorium in Florence. Tickets for that
concert are $30 per person.
“Sitting in with the Blind Boys promises to be especially memorable
for me – what a gift, what a joy!” Ohlman concluded. “I only hope to be
able to give back with my music some of the love that has been showered
on me.”
In addition to the Ohlman concert, the MSMA will also co-sponsor
(with Pillar of Fire and the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library) two
special W.C. Handy Music Festival editions of The Screening Room film series at the library in downtown Florence. Admission is free.
Legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section musicians Jimmy Johnson and David Hood will help introduce the concert documentary Wattstax (1973,
featuring the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, Luther Ingram, Eddie Floyd
and other Muscle Shoals and Memphis recording artists) at 2 p.m.
Tuesday, July 24. Muscle Shoals singer, songwriter, guitarist and former
Little Richard band member Travis Wammack and Shoals native Ken
Lovelace – guitarist, fiddler and leader of Jerry Lee Lewis’ band for
the past 45 years – will help introduce the concert documentary The Legends of Rock ’n’ Roll (1989), featuring Lewis, Richard, James Brown, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Fats Domino and Bo Diddley, at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 26.
David's Diary
Muscle Shoals Rhythm
Section Bassist David Hood has kept all of his work diaries from the
mid-sixties to the present. Because they contain information that
spotlights the rich history of Muscle Shoals Music, he will share one
segment of his diary in this column each month.
By David Hood
A chance meeting in an airport sparked an idea that turned into a
Muscle Shoals music institution. In 1981, while waiting on a flight,
Florence veterinarian David Mussleman and Sheffield/Yale University
musician and educator Wille Ruff started talking about their shared
interest in the music that originated in the Muscle Shoals area. This
conversation led to the formation of the Music Preservation Society and
the W.C. Handy Music Festival.
In August of 1982 the first of thiry years of this great hometown
attraction was held at Norton Auditorium. The headliners were jazz great
Dizzy Gillespie and the Mitchell/Ruff Duo. Every year since the
festival has featured artists from all genres with acts such as vocal
groups Take 6 and Manhattan Transfer, blues artists Bobby Blue Bland and
Little Milton, R&B stalwarts Percy Sledge and Clarence Carter, jazz
instrumetalists Jimmy Smith and Ramsey Lewis. Representing more modern
music have been Mac McAnally and the Drive-By Truckers.
The Blind Boys of Alabama will headline this year's festival as we enter the next 30 years of Handy celebrations.
MSMA 2012
Board of Directors
Jimmy Nutt - President
Rodney Hall - Vice President
Larry Bowser - Sec/Treasurer
David Hood - Past President
Wiley Barnard
Dick Cooper
Nick Martin
Suzanne Bolton
Terry Pace
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