A Musical History of Muscle Shoals

Despite the fact that they spent two decades releasing inspired folk-gospel music, it was when the Staple Singers embraced R&B and soul that they gained mainstream success. The second album cut at Muscle Shoals, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself defined the Staples for a new generation of secular listeners. Backed by the Swampers, the Staples catapulted no less than three songs onto the charts, with the beatific "I'll Take You There" ascending to... No. 1. No wonder why David Fricke called it "epitome of the Muscle Shoals Sound."

Who can forget that iconic shot of Keith Richards, bottle of Jack in his grip, leaning back and listening to the playback of "Wild Horses" in the Maysles Brothers' documentary, Gimme Shelter? Captured to tape at the console of Muscle Shoals Studio while on an ominous U.S. tour in 1969, the Stones made a special trip to the studio to cut some of their grittiest work to date: "Brown Sugar," Wild Horses"... and "You Gotta Move," three highlights from this classic album.

After a middling career that bore little fruit, Aretha Franklin signed with Atlantic and had the Swampers behind her on her first hit, "I've Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)." Shortly thereafter, she was crowned "Queen of Soul." With 1970's Spirit in the Dark, she returned to Muscle Shoals, recording an album that produced two more hits for her. A blend of divine gospel and rustic soul, with some... concise leads from Duane Allman, it was overlooked upon release but continues to be a beacon through dark times.

Before he helmed the outlaw movement in country music, an ostracized Nashville songwriter named Willie Nelson was in need of a career makeover. He had recently left RCA for Atlantic, and label head Jerry Wexler sent Nelson far from the restrictive climes of the country music capital. Down in Muscle Shoals, Nelson penned a concept record about divorce, with the man and woman each getting an album side, and the session band... two-stepped between country and soul, with stirring string sections to boot.

As the couple known as Sonny & Cher began to see the counter-culture that had once buoyed them begin to ebb away at the tail end of the '60s — their hit variety show sliding in the Neilsen ratings to boot — Cher decamped for the south to reclaim her mojo. And she had the Swampers to thank, putting them all on the front cover of an album named for the studio.... The music backs it up, with Cher handling everyone from Dylan to Otis Redding with strength and grit.

Having recently split from his frontman duties for the Steve Miller Band, Boz Scaggs went down to Muscle Shoals to figure how best to utilize his blue-eyed soul pipes in a more rock setting. Funky, down-home, and smooth yet with plenty of splinters, Scaggs's debut is made all the more incandescent by the slidework of a musician who had previously been sleeping in the nearby FAME Studio parking lot. Duane Allman's solo... on "Loan Me a Dime" is rightly considered one of rock's finest, blazing through blues, country and rock over the course of its 12 minutes.

A session man for artists like Aretha Franklin and Sly & the Family Stone, Bobby Womack soon struck out on his own. And when he ventured down to Muscle Shoals to cut a second album in the studio, he put to tape a tune written by his friend Jim Ford about his brother and wound up striking his first gold hit with "Harry Hippie." James Taylor made a hit out of "Woman's... Gotta Have It" while elsewhere, Womack funks up the Beatles and even Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline."

Separated from his songwriting partner Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon went down to Kingston and recorded with disparate musicians so as to have an eclectic sound on his debut album. But when he went to Muscle Shoals to record the follow-up, he didn't need to travel anywhere else the house band was able to do it all. Crisp and bright pop for "Kodachrome," Dixieland on "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," country gospel... on "Loves Me Like a Rock" or silky soul on "Something So Right," Simon and the Swampers traverse the musical spectrum without ever leaving the studio.

Tony Joe White is the only artist here whose roots sound might be even swampier than the Swampers themselves. So it makes sense that when White, post-"Polk Salad Annie," decamped in Alabama to cut this 1972 album, the resulting sound was acoustic, low-key and brooding. Swamp rock stompers like "Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll" are still here, but it's on the simmering numbers like the title track and tender piano-led track... "If I Ever Saw a Good Thing" that a sweeter side of the Swamp Fox reveals itself.

The Black Keys' Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach are devout students of music history, so it was no surprise that when the time came to decide on a studio for their sixth album, they went south to the historic Muscle Shoals. Cranking out 16 songs in 10 days, the resulting album, Brothers, yielded their highest chart position to date. That piquant twang of Aurbach's guitar is foregrounded and Carney's drumming is downright... monstrous on songs like the stomping "Howlin' for You." Decades of soul seep into songs like "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "The Only One," the latter of which could also double as an ode to the studio itself.