Something in the river: in search of the Muscle Shoals Sound

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By Alli Patton

There is a place in North Alabama where magic happens. 

The Muscle Shoals area has given life to some of music’s most enduring hits, producing a sound that musicians far and wide have sought for decades. Part soul, gospel, country and rock, it’s something that transcends any one genre, ultimately getting chalked up to the “Muscle Shoals Sound.”

Locals often say that there is something in the water, or more specifically, something in the Tennessee River, running alongside the North Alabama town, that initially lent to such a sound.

“I’ve always heard it’s the sound of the river from back before the dams were built,” longtime resident Gina Scott said. “The singing sound of the river just brings a lot of people here.” 

Local Rob Lanfair echoed something similar.

“Everybody wants to have that unique sound. They say it comes from the river. Probably does. Close your eyes and listen. You’ll hear it,” Lanfair said.

Perhaps there is something in the water there, but to someone like Rodney Hall, it’s bigger than that.

“More than anything it’s the people,” Hall, the son of FAME Studios founder and producer Rick Hall, said. 

Today, Rodney Hall is the proprietor of the legendary recording studio. 

Decades ago, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, became an unexpected home to the hits – a place where everyone from Aretha Franklin to The Rolling Stones have come to record some of their most enduring works. The catalyst for such a hit parade can be traced back to FAME Studios where Rick Hall, as well as a fleet of talented session musicians known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, or more familiarly, “The Swampers,” brought it all to life. 

“My dad had already had a lot of success by the time I was born,” Rodney Hall said. “In fact, the week I was born, he was recording Wilson Pickett’s ‘Mustang Sally,’ ‘Funky Broadway,’ and ‘Land of A Thousand Dances.’”

As a kid, what was happening in between the walls of FAME didn’t immediately strike the young Hall. 

“It was just always my dad’s work to me … Later on, as I got into my teens, the artists would stay at our house. Then a couple weeks later I’d see them on the Johnny Carson show … I started seeing that my dad’s doing something a lot different than what everyone else is doing,” Hall said.

Since FAME was founded in 1959, the Muscle Shoals music scene has only grown and the town, with its signature sound, is still widely sought by artists today. Grammy Award-winner Mike Farris was the most recent among them.

“Once I got down there and started to work, I realized, man, I could not have made this record in Nashville,” the musician said.

Farris made the pilgrimage to FAME Studios, voyaging South from his native Nashville, to bottle the magic that happens there. What resulted was his album, The Sound Of Muscle Shoals, which was released on March 7.

“The musicianship down there, I could not have found in Nashville,” he said. “The spirit surrounding the place, just the energy you couldn’t get in Nashville. There’s something about going down there and reconnecting with the true essence of what making music is all about. That’s why people started going down there.”

Farris added, “You can be anywhere in the world, especially now. If you have something important to say, and you’re talented enough, and you have the will to do it, the world will find you.”

That’s what FAME founder Rick Hall did with the studio all those years ago – brought the world to Muscle Shoals and Muscle Shoals to the world. It’s something that has stuck.

“We’re still a relatively small town, but per capita, we have more great musicians and songwriters and producers than probably anywhere in the world,” Rodney Hall said.

According to Hall, what happens in a Muscle Shoals recording studio is something distinctly human. 

“Music, today, has become very impersonal and very digitized in more ways than one,” he said. “With us, it’s human beings. It’s five, six guys sitting in a room that have all worked together for years … There’s just a human element to it and I really think that’s a huge part of it. It’s kind of become our niche. As everyone else has moved away from that, we’ve stayed with it.”

Because of that, Farris found himself getting back to the basics when crafting his latest album. 

“It’s a sense of we’re there just to make music,” he said. “It’s getting back to making music for the sake of making music. That’s a special thing that had gotten lost for me for a while.” 

At FAME, a near-dozen of Farris’ most personal songs found the perfect foil, the Muscle Shoals Sound lending a depth and vibrancy that can only be found in one place. 

“There’s something spiritual that you connect with instantly,” Farris said. “When I go down there, it’s something deeper going on. It’s really where I want to make music for the foreseeable future. I can’t imagine myself going anywhere else.”

Defining the Muscle Shoals Sound is no easy task. It’s something that transcends any one genre and goes beyond mere skill. Many sum it up as something that’s perhaps more of a feeling than just a sound.

“The thread that runs through it all is soul,” Rodney Hall said.