Muscle Shoals

— “Muscle Shoals” (Netflix) is a fascinating documentary. I can’t believe how much of the soundtrack of my life—of everyone’s lives—was touched by a couple of studios in a small town on the Tennessee River in northwestern Alabama. What an unlikely spot to surface as the crossroads for so many musical styles and so much talent. The film documents the birth of the “Muscle Shoals” sound thanks to Rick Hall’s FAME Studios, and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, founded by “The Swampers" who originally were session musicians working for Rick Hall. It’s also a reminder that, even in the early 1960s, black and white musicians came together, blind to color when segregation and inequality were commonplace all around them.

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[2013. 111 min. Directed by Greg “Freddy” Camalier. Featuring Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys, Bono, Etta James, Percy Sledge, Jimmy Cliff, Candi Staton, Clarence Carter, Greg Allman, and Keith Richards.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/muscle-shoals-2013
http://www.artsatl.com/2013/10/review-muscle-shoals-theyve-swampers-music-cut/