|
|
Welcome to the MSMA Newsletter!
By Jimmy Nutt
Will Muscle Shoals ever be the "Hit Recording Capital of the World" again? Will there ever be another "Swampers" rhythm section? Will there ever be another Jerry Wexler to bring artists to the Shoals to record? Who will win this long, painful Presidential Election and will we ever have a better-supported live music scene??
I don't know!
What I DO know is that there is a lot to be proud of in the Shoals. There is absolutely no denying that there is a resurgence in our local music scene.
Please take the time to check out some of our local artists. Go to Pegasus Records and buy their CDs (or vinyl). Check out their websites, Facebooks, Twitters and such. Go to their shows. Buy their T-shirts. Tell your friends. Repeat.
Most of you know by now that some of our artists were featured in the September issue of Relix magazine (it's kind of a big deal!). Writer Cherokee Lair does a great job honoring the past, present and future of the Shoals music scene. Her article really brings in to focus how much there really is happening here.
We hope you enjoy the October issue of the Muscle Shoals Music Association Newsletter!
 Photo of Relix Magazine
Shoal's Artists Featured In Relix Magazine!
"During the ‘60s and ‘70s, Muscle Shoals, Ala., was a musically fertile area where artists ranging from The Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan visited and recorded. Then, the Muscle Shoals hits started to dry up. But, in recent years, the magic has returned and The Shoals is once again a musical mecca." Cherokee Lair traces the area’s rich musical history and zooms in on Muscle Shoals’ current crop of buzz bands. While stylistically diverse, bands like The Pine Hill Haints, The Local Saints, Fiddleworms and Nightmare Boyzzz are all leading the charge behind Muscle Shoals’ renaissance.6 Degrees of the Shoals Productions hosted several "Meet and Greet" gatherings around town with the artists that were featured in the article which culminated at the "Relix Wrap Party" held at the Marriott Shoals. The events were attended by some of our local music legends as well as many "newcomers" to the Shoal's Music Scene.
For more information about these events, go to 6 Degrees of the Shoals Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/sixdegrees.shoals
It is not too late to get your copy of RELIX with a feature article on "The New Sound of Muscle Shoals". You can find them at:
Rivertown Coffee - Florence AL
Pegasus Records - Florence AL
Coldwater Books - Tuscumbia AL
Marriott Shoals - Gift Shop or at the Front Desk
Vertical Records - Huntsville, AL Photo of David and Judy Hood
First Singing River Sculpture Unveiled
in Sheffield
By Judy Hood The first in a series of Singing River Sculptures was unveiled in Sheffield on Sunday, September 23. The 18-foot-tall aluminum monument depicts a svelte guitar-wielding musician crooning into a microphone. The super-sized rocker gleams proudly on Montgomery Avenue, a fitting location just up the hill from the former home of the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and within walking distance of the state-of-the-art NuttHouse Recording Studio where up-and-coming Shoals musicians are making their mark on the world. “When A Man Loves A Woman” was cut less than a mile down the road at 104 East Second Street and a young upstart named Elvis Presley once broke in a pair of blue suede shoes a stone’s throw away at the Sheffield Community Center.
The sculpture was created by celebrated local artist Audwin McGee. “I’d like to say thanks to the many talented musicians in this area for all that you have done over the years,” said McGee. “I’m glad I was able to do something for you.”
Fundraising efforts for the Singing River Sculptures were spearheaded by Bill Matthews and David Anderson. Wise Metals donated the aluminum for the project.
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
Eddie Hinton is well known as a creative guitar player, having played definitive licks on records by Percy Sledge, R.B. Greaves, Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers. He is also lauded as a great writer and penned songs for Sledge, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Womack and many others – including some very funky gems for himself. Thirty-five years ago this month, Eddie began recording tracks at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios for his now-classic solo album, “Very Extremely Dangerous.”
The album was produced by Barry Beckett, who also contributed piano, organ and Moog synthesizer. It featured Eddie on vocals, guitar and piano, and he was supported by Roger Hawkins on drums, Jimmy Johnson on guitar and David Hood on bass. The horn section included Harrison Calloway on trumpet, Harvey Thompson on tenor sax, Ronnie Eades on baritone sax and Dennis Good on trombone. The album was engineered by Steve Melton and Greg Hamm. It was released by Capricorn Records and almost instantly became a favorite on tour buses of bands traveling all over the country.
Unfortunately, through a recurring streak of hard luck that seemed to plague Hinton throughout his career, Capricorn Records went out of business before the album could reach its full potential. “Very Extremely Dangerous” is a true classic and an example of one of Muscle Shoals’ greatest talents who left this world way too soon.
Sam Phillips Music Celebration 2012
Photo of the Atlanta Rhythm Section by Dick Cooper
By Terry Pace
The 2012 Sam Phillips Music Celebration honored the life and lasting legacy of one of the Muscle Shoals area’s most influential native sons – the world-famous “Father of Rock ’n’ Roll,” Florence native Sam Phillips (1923-2003).
In spite of an extreme turn in the weekend weather (from pleasantly warm and clear to unseasonably cold and wet), hundreds of hardcore music fans braved the unpredictable conditions just after sunset the evening of Saturday, Oct. 6, for the annual all-star outdoor concert presented by the Phillips family and the family-owned, Florence-based Big River Broadcasting Co.
This year’s full-force musical lineup included former Muscle Shoals recording artists Wet Willie (when showers intensified shortly before midnight, lead singer Jimmy Hall was literally “smilin’ in the rain” as the group closed the show with a rousing rendition of their uplifting anthem, “Keep on Smilin’ ”), award-winning Muscle Shoals singer-songwriter Mac McAnally (joined by several fellow members of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band as well as Muscle Shoals studios alumnus Steve Nathan), the Atlanta Rhythm Section and Second Creek.
Together these eclectic performers filled the streets of downtown Florence with a warm, gritty, high-energy blend of rock, rhythm-and-blues and country soul that reflected Phillips’ maverick musical spirit.
“I don’t like categories of music,” the Sun Records founder always insisted. “I don’t care if it’s country, gospel, pop, rock, blues, jazz or polka – I like good music.”
The celebration took place less than two weeks before the announcement in Memphis (where Phillips founded his legendary Memphis Recording Service studio and the equally influential Sun label in the early 1950s) that he and one of his musical idols – fellow Florence native W.C. Handy, the equally revered “Father of the Blues” – are among twenty-five charter inductees into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
The class also includes four of Phillips’ most famous discoveries – “The King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” Elvis Presley (who performed three legendary shows at the Sheffield Community Center in 1955) and “The King of the Blues,” B.B. King, plus “The Killer,” Jerry Lee Lewis (whose band is led by Shoals native Ken Lovelace), blues pioneer Howlin’ Wolf and soul dynamo Rufus Thomas – as well as former Muscle Shoals recording artists Bobby “Blue” Bland, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers and Jim Dickinson (who played piano on the Rolling Stones’ Muscle Shoals Sound recording “Wild Horses”), Stax Studios singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes (who frequently traveled to the Shoals to pitch songs in the 1960s), singer and evangelist Al Green (who recorded for Hi, a Memphis label co-founded by former Shoals musicians Quentin Claunch and Bill Cantrell), producer and later Hi owner Willie Mitchell, the Stax rhythm section Booker T. and the MGs (whose musicians occasionally played on sessions in the Shoals), Z.Z. Top, Stax founders Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, disc jockey Dewey Phillips, Memphis Minnie, Nat D. Williams, Lucie Campbell, Jimmie Lunceford, Professor W.T. McDaniel, George Coleman and the rap group Three 6 Mafia.
The Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony – which crisscrosses the musical heritage of the Memphis-based Sun, Stax, Hi and American studios – will take place on Nov. 29. The announcement of the first class of inductees was made Tuesday, Oct. 16, by the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum.
MSMA 2012 Board
of Directors
Jimmy Nutt - President
Rodney Hall - Vice President
Larry Bowser - Secretary/Treasurer
David Hood - Past President
Wiley Barnard
Dick Cooper
Nick Martin
Suzanne Bolton
Terry Pace
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment