The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, and Etta James all have one thing in common. These legendary musical acts all recorded hits in Muscle Shoals. The home of the back-up band known as the Swampers has had an international impact on popular music. Now, an effort is underway to preserve that musical heritage.
We’re milling around what looks like a museum exhibit at the University of North Alabama in Florence. There are photos. Lots of photos. But, it doesn’t stop there.
There are videos too. Visitors can hear from the people who helped create the Muscle Shoals Sound.
Singer Willie Hightower recorded what’s considered to be his biggest hit "Walk a Mile in my Shoes" at FAME Studios in the Shoals. He was just one name on a list of singers and bands who recorded here While the music was being made, people were taking pictures.
“There were around 10,000 negatives and most of them had not been scanned, and most of them have not seen the light of day," said Shoals area photographer Abraham Rowe. He’s referring to Dick Cooper. He was the manager for the Drive-By Truckers, and a photographer.
“From what I've seen, it's unbelievable," said Rowe. It's people that I didn't even know came through the shoals. You know, you hear the same names over and over again. You know Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, The Stones."
Cooper’s photos will be the subject of a new book. And Rowe wasn’t the only person thinking about these pictures and all the other memorabilia related to the Shoals.
"So yeah, about two and a half years ago, I taught a summer class," said Brian Dempsey. He teaches history at the University of North Alabama.
“It was a field work methods class, and we used the region to look at kind of the music and heritage landscape of the shoals.”
Dempsey and Rowe saw the photos and memorabilia and how was no one was doing anything with it. That is until now. University of North Alabama President Kenneth Kitts welcomed visitors during the opening of UNA’s Muscle Shoals Archive.
Of course, I wanted the Swampers in there and everybody in the studio," said UNA history grad student Cate Dill. She helped with the heavy lifting to make the Muscle Shoals Archive a reality. Dill says Dick Cooper’s photos are great. But, she has her eye on more.
"I wanted Arthur Alexander and Levon and John Prine and Shanna. I wanted to get gear like the guitar and the reels. But I just wanted, I just love how there is such a variety with his photographs. He was just photographing anything and everything and they all. They all turned out very lovely.
Dill just rattled off a lot of names associated with the Muscle Shoals music scene. Let’s focus on just one. Arthur Alexander was a songwriter who worked in the Shoals. You may not know his name. But, John Lennon and Paul McCartney did.
The Beatles recorded Alexander’s song "Anna, Go To Him." They wanted it for their first album. It’s trivia like this that gets supporters of the new Muscle Shoals archive fired up…
“I really just want to echo my appreciation for everyone who has made this project possible," said Terah Klein, Director of the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area. She also spoke during the opening of the archive.
"Obviously, today we're here because of the music," she said.
And there are questions to be answered as well. We met Brian Dempsey earlier.
"Why did the Rolling Stones choose to come here and record brown sugar, for example, right? Or Paul Simon, you know, and, and, and that, that answer is complicated, you know," Dempsey thought.
Again, Dempsey teaches history at the University of North Alabama. He points to a melting pot atmosphere that turned the Shoals into a musical factory. Dempsey points to radio coming in from Nashville, New Orleans, and even Mexico.
“And those stations weren't just playing one thing. They were playing a broad sort of array of music. And we're finding that a lot of those musicians sort of, in some ways, really broaden their own palette and their musicality from the exposure, not only to playing live music, but from hearing it on the radio and the like," said Dempsey.
We talked earlier about the mountain of photographs of musicians at work in the Shoals. Another concern are artifacts belonging to the session musicians that helped make hits for Percy Sledge, the Staples Singers, Aretha Franklin, and the Rolling Stones.
“I think a lot of the folks who are very important in the history of Muscle Shoals music, like the Swampers era guys have, are kind of reaching that age where a lot of them are passing away, unfortunately," said Rowe
Rowe is talking about old guitars and other memorabilia that may be inherited by family members who may not know what they have.
“If that's in the basement or in a closet, and, you know, moths and humidity and those kinds of things, you know, it might not last very long under certain conditions, and that's just the reality of living in the South and just putting things where you can, whether it's a closet, a basement, even a spare room or on the floor, all of those, all of those things can end up deteriorating a lot of that physical material," said Rowe
The concern now is spreading the word on what the Shoals Music Archive has and why people should care. Now, the physical exhibit is open to the public until April 20th, organizers are thinking about borrowing another phrase from the music biz. That’s taking their show on the road. A travelling program is in the works, so if people can’t come to the Shoals, a taste of that area’s musical history can come to them.
