Low rhythm rises in Nashville
Is there a soundtrack to your life?
Inside RCA Studio B in Nashville. Dolly Parton and Porter Wagner defined my Saturday nights, sitting in front of the TV listening to country music with friends Dolly and Porter. This is the oldest surviving recording studio in Nashville.
Chances are the majority of melodies playing on your turntable - especially those of a certain generation - were born in Muscle Shoals. Alabama, a tiny town that is now defined by its musical legacy. Multiple studios fill the town today and still engage rising stars to walk in and make music and follow in some mighty big footsteps. Since the late 1950s, two studios hit the mother-lode of emerging artists: FAME Recording Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio began producing a new sound, resonating with everyone regardless of race or culture.
The new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville, Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising, transports you into the community that produced these global sensations. According to the Country Music Hall of Fame website, “Producer Rick Hall and his FAME Recording Studio and the session aces at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio built a home-made approach to cutting music that mattered. As a result, hitmakers from R&B, rock, pop, and country music flocked to this quiet backwater to record, and a new rhythm arose.”
Photography: 📸 Len Garrison
F.A.M.E. Recording Studio
At F.A.M.E. (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises), feel the power within the walls of Studios A and B. Founder Rick Hall produced music and launched careers of artists that continue to inspire new-comers like Jason Isbell and St. Paul and the Broken Bones. Some of the great sounds that emanated from FAME include:
🎵Aretha Franklin - “I Never Loved A Man”
🎵 Etta James - Tell Mama
🎵 Wilson Pickett - “Mustang Sally”
🎵Clarence Carter - “When A Man Loves A Woman”
🎵 Paul Anka - “One Hell of A Woman”
🎵Jason isbell & the 400 Unit - Sirens of the Ditch
🎵 Alicia Keys - covered “Pressing On”
🎵 Alison Krauss - “Whiskey Lullaby”
🎵 Vince Gill- I Still Believe in You
Two studios - the historic Studio A (since 1961) - continue to pump out award-winning music. Overhead, the entryway reads: “Through these doors walk the finest musicians, artists and producers in the world.” Hundreds came in search of the soulful sound that mysteriously emerged from this small Southern town.
FAME Recording Studio.
FAME Recording Studios, 603 East Avalon Ave., Muscle Shoals, AL
Backstage Tour Experience: $40 (advance booking encouraged), not ADA accessible
Standard Tour: $20
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Opened by four musicians in 1969 - The Swampers who began at FAME (David Hood on bass, Jimmy Johnson on rhythm guitar, Roger Hawkins on drums, Barry Beckett on keys) - the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio’s first client was Cher. From Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, The Staple Singers (“Help me David” referring to David Hood in “I’ll Take You There”) to Paul Simon (“Kodachrome”), artists arrived through the front door, or if you were the Rolling Stones, arrival via the back door in the dead of night, finding inspiration in this small Southern town. Contemporary artists like Black Keys and Chris Stapleton have uncovered their vibes here.
The studio is open for tours while opening its recording studio once again after an extensive renovation that concluded in 2017. The studio has been restored to its 1969 state, including that green and orange carpet.
The first release from Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was Cher’s 1969 debut album “3614 Jackson Highway,” featuring the outside of the studio on the album cover.
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, 3614 Jackson Highway, Muscle Shoals, AL
Studio Tours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. , $25.00 (adults)
Muscle Shoals arrives in Nashville
When you find yourself in Nashville for a long weekend, expand your music history by visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and experience the Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising exhibition. The exhibit showcases the emergence of the Muscle Shoals, AL, area with never-before-seen artifacts, some from the studio archives and some from individuals who kept things (t-shirts, jackets, scribbled lyrics on paper, etc.) ‘just in case.’ The exhibit runs through March 31, 2028.
Over three years in the making assembling over 5,000 artifacts, it was a “labor of love for the curators.” Taking multiple trips to Muscle Shoals, interviewing musicians, learning the behind-the-scenes workings of studios - everything congealed to tell its story. The exhibit describes the '“spiritual weight of a working class town” as it exposes it deep roots and reveals exactly who they are. In this unlikely space with these unlikely people, Muscle Shoals “rockets country boys who were writers and singers” to the pinnacle of their craft.
Once you walk through this exhibition, it will inspire a trip to the Shoals. Make plans to visit Muscle Shoals and the Florence AL areas and return to a time when music defined your existence.
In a small corner of Alabama by the Tennessee River, local musicians, songwriters and producers created a swampy, Southern sound merging R&B, country, pop music and more. Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising tells the story of this distinctive music and how black and white creators found a way to work together at a time when segregation prevailed.
Hitmakers flocked to this otherwise quiet community seeking a new sound created by homegrown talent with a touch of Southern grit and soul. Paul Simon said he would only come to the studio if those same black studio musicians that he had heard accompany others were there, not realizing that it was four white men - The Swampers - curating that undeniable soulful sound.
Aretha Franklin had a career-defining moment in Muscle Shoals and Country Music Hall of Fame member Willie Nelson recorded his beloved Phases and Stages album there. Music recorded in Muscle Shoals included Arthur Alexander’s “You Better Move On,” Mac Davis’ “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me,” Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy,” Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll,” Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome,” Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” Candi Staton’s “Stand By Your Man,” Bettye LaVette’s “Your Turn to Cry” and much more. Enduring music continues to be made in the community today by the Alabama Shakes, the Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell, the Secret Sisters, John Paul White and others, with artists continuing to record in Muscle Shoals.
View these, and much more, at the exhibit:
🎵 Aretha Franklin - the piano from FAME, recorded “I Never Loved a Man”
🎵 Duane Allman electric guitar - used when he was a session musician at both studios
🎵 Mac Davis song manuscript - the early draft of “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me”
🎵 Wilson Picket stage wear - the jumpsuit worn on the cover of 1971 LP
The exhibit showcases the sound that continues to reverberate through today’s contemporary landscape.
Country Music Hall of Fame, 222 Rep. John Lewis Way S, Nashville, TN
Museum Admission: $31.95 (adult), $21.95 (6-12)
Optional Add-Ons (not to miss): RCA Studio B Guided Tour, $23.00; Hatch Show Print Guided Tour, $23.00
Experience It All Package: $82.95 (adult), $67.95 (6-12)
Opening night of Low Rhythm Rising at CMHOF
The story of the exhibition’s opening night lives the stories of those who took the stage. Jason Isbell, Bettye LaVette, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham performed legendary hits that were a product of the Shoals community. Regardless of the genre each finds themself in in 2025, sounds of R & B, country, pop and others mingle unexpectedly as old vocals and new melodies find common ground.
Jason Isbell sings “Wild Horses” written by Keith Richards and recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio on their 1971 album release Sticky Fingers.
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham take the stage at the opening reception for the exhibit performing “I’m Your Puppet.” Oldham, legendary keyboarder and songwriter, played on original recordings of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man.” Penn and Oldham co-wrote “I’m Your Puppet” for James and Bobby Purify. Oldham was part of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, The Swampers.
The legacy of Muscle Shoals takes the stage during the opening weekend: Jimmy Hall, Tiera Kennedy, Bettye LaVette, Wendy Moten, Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, Maggie Rose, Shenandoah, Candi Staton and John Paul White. The house band of Muscle Shoals aces was led by guitarist Will McFarlane and includes Mark Beckett (drums), Mickey Buckins (percussion), Kelvin Holly (guitar), Clayton Ivey (keys), Shoals Sisters Marie Lewey and Cindy Walker (background vocals), Bob Wray (bass) and Brad Guin, Steve Herrman, Jim Hoke and Charles Rose (horns).
