Muscle Shoals, Alabama that is.

I saw this cool movie the other night on Netflix. I was trying to find “The Last Waltz”[1] and stumbled onto “Muscle Shoals” which is a documentary about the legendary studio FAME and its offshoot Muscle Shoals. FAME, built and run by Rick Hall, was a studio known for the sound of its “room”. FAME also had a group of studio musicians, The Swampers, who became almost as famous as the room (they ultimately leave Hall to start Muscle Shoals studios across town in direct competition with their old boss).

The number of famous musicians that came to this studio and created some of soul and rock’s greatest hits is nothing short of astounding. From the soul side we have Aretha (boy could she sing), Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, just to name a few. You forget the power of a song like Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman”.

Knowing a little about the history of Muscle Shoals, I was waiting for some of my rock heroes to show up. Duane Allman became part of the session musician lineup in the late 60’s before founding the Allman Brothers Band. He convinces Otis Redding to cover “Hey Jude” and contributes a searing solo during the extended coda. If you’ve seen the movie Gimme Shelter (and if you haven’t you must) you may remember the scene where the Stones go down to Muscle Shoals during their 1969 tour to record some of their new songs. “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses” was recorded during these sessions. Then in 1973 Steve Winwood and Traffic go down to Muscle Shoals to record “Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory” with the Swampers backing them up. Then Chris Blackwell, Traffic’s manager, convinces the Swampers to go out on the road with Traffic. The tour would ultimately yield the live album “On The Road” (see last week’s post). I think this may have been The Swampers only tour.

Even the stories about sessions that didn’t work out as planned are interesting. Lynyrd Skynyrd had sessions for their first record at Muscle Shoals but the band decided to go with another studio and the MS recordings were not used. The band does pay them back by giving The Swampers their place in rock immortality by mentioning them in the lyrics of “Sweet Home Alabama”.

The commentators include Mick, Keith, Steve Winwood and Bono. It’s a fascinating and fun documentary in the same vein as Dave Grohl’s, “Sound City” (don’t look now but I think I just mentioned an artist from the 21^st century). Check out “Muscle Shoals” if you get the chance.

[1] I had been re-reading a section on The Last Waltz in “Bill Graham Presents”, his autobiography (also a recommended read), and it made me want to check out the film, which I had not watched for a few years.

First things first, I loved this movie. It’s the best music movie I have seen since Almost Famous (which is THE best). It came out in limited release in a few months ago and recently has been released on a wider basis.  From John Carney, the director of the movie “Once”, the premise of the movie, which takes place in New York City, centers around two people from very different ends of the music business. Dan (Mark Ruffalo) is a washed up record exec who is disillusioned with the state of today’s music (this resonated) and Gretta (Keira Knightly) who is part of a singer-songwriter team with her boyfriend, Dave Kohl (a great Adam Levine), who drops her for another girl after a weekend trip to LA. Dan and Gretta cross paths at an open mic night in a bar, as they are both hitting bottom. I won’t spoil it but what happens from here is magic. (Though I will mention a priceless early scene where Dan is driving around the city listening to (and chucking out his window) CDs submitted by artists looking for a record deal.) The supporting cast also must be mentioned: Mos Def as Saul, Dan’s partner; Catherine Keener as his ex-wife Miriam; Hailee Steinfeld as his daughter Olivia; and Dan Corden as Gretta’s musician friend Steve, who takes her in (and Ceelo Green who is exceptional in an un-credited role as a mega rich rapper and one of Dan’s early clients). They are all spot-on. Begin Again has numerous opportunities to take wrong turns down the roads of cliché and expected Hollywood outcome and to its credit takes none of them.  It was very refreshing . It’s a cool story with great acting and good music (Some reviews were critical of Knightly’s singing. I have to say I thought she had a nice voice for the songs). In the end it’s a story about the restorative power of music. To quote  from Almost Famous , “…what to you love about music?”