LIVE FOREVER
MUSCLE SHOALS’ WATERS are potent. For generations they have poured out hit records, a multitude of which have flowed from Alabama’s FAME Studios. The name stands for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises. In 1959, record producer/songwriter/guitarist Rick Hall founded the music hub as a place where race played no role. What mattered was serving the region’s native musical stew, which featured the participation of artists ranging from Duane Allman and Otis Redding to Aretha Franklin and Etta James. Hall’s son Rodney discloses the recipe in Shoals vernacular. “It’s a swampy kind of music,” he says. “Funky. A lot of bass, and a lot of kick drum. More than that, it’s an amalgamation of country, rock and soul, put together in a gumbo that’s been cooking in the Shoals for over 100 years.”
FAME’s past has been celebrated in the remarkable music made within its rooms. They include Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” and “Hey Jude” (the latter featuring Duane Allman on guitar), Jimmy Hughes’ “Steal Away,” James’s “Tell Mama” and Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Love You).” Today, the studio anticipates a vibrant future through an extensive renovation, set in motion when producer Glenn Rosenstein was in the Shoals and urgently in need of a studio. Having collaborated with Rodney Hall at FAME’s premiere Studio A, he hoped to use it again. However, only Studio B, built in 1967, was available. Rosenstein didn’t dismay. Indeed, he had an epiphany. “I said, ‘Rodney, B has tremendous acoustics,’” Rosenstein recalls. “Imagine installing better gear, making alterations and revitalizing it.’ Rodney, always plain-spoken,
