Last month marked the passing of Aretha Franklin. “The Queen Of Soul” is on the list of greats who were fortunate to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with legendary producer Rick Hall in his Fame Recording Studio.
Hall died in Jan. of this year; he was 85-years old.
Songs such as Aretha’s “I Never Loved A Man (the way that I love you)”, Etta James’ “Tell Mama”, Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock And Roll”, “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” and Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman” are just a few of the hits cut at Fame.
On September 28th a tribute album, “Small Town, Big Sound”, was issued, celebrating Hall’s incredible body of work, and 60-years of the Muscle Shoals sound.
Included are performances by Allison Krauss, Steven Tyler, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson and more, plus a star-studded collaboration between Jamey Johnson,Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton and Leann Womack performing Bob Dylan’s masterpiece “Gotta Serve Somebody.”
One assumes the tribute will contain the enormous contributions of Barry Beckett and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. While there’re far too many to list I would hope that mention is given to the first Boz Scaggs album (1968 or’69) produced by Barry and Jann Wenner. It contains about an eight minute extraordinary guitar solo by Duane Allman that’s the best I’ve heard in 40+ years in radio and the music business. …and the ‘build’ between Barry’s boys and Duane ‘tears the roof off the sucker !’
Bob Sherwood
ps–pass on regards to The Duke !