After eating, I had considered just going home but I knew that the Alabama Music Hall of Fame was just right up the road. I decided to stop off to at least see how much it was to get in and look around the lobby. There was a very nice older woman in the lobby who told me the price was $8. She was also relatively vague about how long it would take me to get through it. I decided that it would be worth the time and money.
After I completed my tour of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, my next stop would be at the FAME Studios. FAME is the place that started it all for the music scene in Muscle Shoals. It was started by a man named Rick Hall. He is still active in the day to day operations of FAME. Any of the other studios that had success in Muscle Shoals were, in one way or another, spin-offs from his studio. Aretha Franklin recorded her first successful album there. Wilson Pickett also had several hits that were recorded in this studio. The Osmonds, Mac Davis and Jerry Reed are among the names of famous people that recorded at this studio.
About 3 years ago when I was traveling to Huntsville, Alabama, I went through Muscle Shoals. If I had ever been through there before, I hadn’t noticed it. I remember hearing about Muscle Shoals and the “Muscle Shoals sound” as it related to some of the music I heard when I was growing up. But I couldn’t tell you what that sound was, who made it, or what made it so special. When I got to Huntsville, I did a little research and found out that many of the songs I listened to when I was growing up were recorded in the this little town on the Tennessee River. I had a chance to drive back through and drove by the original building that housed the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio on the Jackson Highway. I knew from my research that they weren’t doing tours. It also looked like the place was practically abandoned. From the research that I did at the time, it seemed like this building was in a constant state of limbo as far as who owned it and what was being done with it. At the time, there was a website that had a lot of information about the recordings that were done at this studio. As of this writing, that website is no longer active. It’s also hard to find a good source of information about the history of this facility on-line. I follow a page for the facility on Facebook. Late last week, they posted information that said the building would be open on Friday and Saturday. I thought this would be a unique opportunity to visit a bit of music history. I was also going to be available to go on Saturday. In my research, I also learned about another historic studio in Muscle Shoals called FAME. Many major artists recorded there as well. I later found out the FAME was the studio that started it all in Muscle Shoals. I also found out that they were going to be doing tours on Friday and Saturday. This would give me even more reason for my trip. This will be the first in a series of posts about my trip to Muscle Shoals and it will focus on the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.