{"id":37650,"date":"2024-06-28T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=37650"},"modified":"2024-06-28T10:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:00:33","slug":"muscle-shoals-alabama-flexes-its-legacy-as-birthplace-of-miracles-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/06\/muscle-shoals-alabama-flexes-its-legacy-as-birthplace-of-miracles-and-music.html","title":{"rendered":"Muscle Shoals, Alabama Flexes Its Legacy as Birthplace of Miracles and Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luisa P Oswalt\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Little Muscle Shoals, Alabama, boasts a significant legacy as the birthplace of blue, \u201cBrown Sugar,\u201d and miraculous American icons. W.C. Handy, Helen Keller, and Sam Phillips were each born along this sleepy stretch of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. Keller\u2019s story of overcoming deafness and blindness to become an author and icon was told in \u201cThe Miracle Worker.\u201d Handy, \u201cThe King of Blues,\u201d is one of the most influential musicians in history. Both are still celebrated in\u00a0birthplace museums\u00a0around Muscle Shoals.<\/p>\n

Phillips changed the course of pop culture when he founded Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee and discovered a young singer named Elvis Presley. Millions of people around the world know the name Muscle Shoals, however, and its hit-making musicians, the Swampers, from the\u00a0Southern-rock anthem\u00a0“Sweet Home Alabama.” Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zant rhapsodized in the band\u2019s\u00a0biggest chart hit, “Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers\/And they\u2019ve been known to pick a song or two.\u201d The Swampers was the common nickname for the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.<\/p>\n

They were the house band first at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, then later at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio just down the road in neighboring Sheffield.\u00a0They recorded some of the biggest hits by the biggest stars in music history: the Rolling Stones, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Bob Seger, Percy Sledge,\u00a0Paul Simon\u00a0and Aretha Franklin, to name just a few.\u00a0“Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones, “Mustang Sally” and “Land of 1000 Dances” by Pickett, “Kodachrome” by Simon, and “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Seger are just some of the global rock and R&B anthems recorded at FAME or Muscle Shoals studios. The Swampers played on almost every major hit by Queen of Soul Franklin. Among them: “Respect,” “Think,” and “Chain of Fools.”<\/p>\n