But I remember, as a toddler, hearing them practice in the yard in the summer and in my grandmother’s living room when it wasn’t warm enough to go outside. It’s hard to describe even today, because they did sort of Appalachian, a little Western Swing, a little of the Louvin Brothers, Delmore Brothers songs, so it was a little odd mix they had going on. The three sort of sang together, you know, harmonies. I just remember being a toddler and all of them would get together. I don’t know if they had a name to the band, I never have known that. A lot of people still remember the old-timers, you know. Spooner Oldham: My dad had a band and they played around these parts. AL: How did you get started playing music? What follows is an edited transcript of the interviews with Fritts, Buckins and Oldham, each conducted separately in the Muscle Shoals area in 2014. (The Muscle Shoals Music Foundation purchased 3614 Jackson Highway last year.)Īlabama Living art director Michael Cornelison drew upon his ties to the area (his father, Reuel Cornelison, is also a Shoals musician) to interview three of the many veterans of era he sat down with Donnie Fritts, Mickey Buckins and Spooner Oldham, all natives of the area, to reflect on their life as Shoals musicians. ![]() After the “Muscle Shoals” documentary was released in 2013, Beats Electronics offered a project in partnership with the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation to preserve the rich history and culture of the iconic Muscle Shoals Sound. ![]() The competing Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, founded by the “Swampers” (FAME’s second house rhythm section) at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, was immortalized by the 1969 Cher album of the same name. Today, Southern rock ‘n’ soul is alive and well, and the last 50-plus years of music history still echoes within the walls of the legendary FAME Studios, started by music industry powerhouse (and rural Franklin County native) Rick Hall. While its golden era may have faded, the music studios of the Shoals continue to draw tourists and musicians alike today, buoyed by the success of the recent documentary “Muscle Shoals.” The Shoals area of northwest Alabama, with the broad Tennessee River flowing through its rolling hills, has been a fertile ground for soul-filled rock ‘n’ roll since the early 1960s, producing an array of outstanding music that retains its magic, even today.Ĭontemporary music legends – Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Otis Redding and Lynyrd Skynyrd, just to name a few – ventured to this remote part of the state to try to capture its Southern magic in sound, provided in part by the songwriters, session musicians and production technicians who worked not for fame or fortune, but for the love of the craft. Interviews by Michael Cornelison “I am music and all I thought about was music, starting when I was 15,” says bass guitarist Donnie Fritts. Photo by Michael Cornelison ![]() | Watch Spooner Oldham’s acceptance speech at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame | Legends look back on their place in music history
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