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Muscle Shoals Sound Studios Added To National Historic Register

Muscle Shoals Sound Studios is added to the National Historic Register.

In recognition of its place in music history, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios building in Sheffield, Alabama, is named to the National Historic Register. The small stone building at 3614 Jackson Highway attracted an array of legendary musicians after the studio's founding in 1969, including The Staple Singers, Paul Simon, Bob Seger, and The Rolling Stones. Muscle Shoals is one of four small towns that sits near the Tennessee River in northwest Alabama. The area's music roots are deep: It is the birthplace of W.C. Handy, largely considered the father of the blues, and Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records. The bluesy, swampy fusion of rock and roll and R&B indigenous to the area is very distinct. Bono, lead singer of U2, says that the Muscle Shoals brand of music sounds as if it "comes out of the mud." The historic designation comes because the building "is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history." But while the building is historic, those who made it so no longer inhabit it. Muscle Shoals Sound Studios was formed in 1969 when four of the studio musicians from FAME Studios broke off to start their own operation. These guys, known as "The Swampers" and immortalized in the lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama" ("Muscle Shoals had got the Swampers..."), ran the studio until 1978 when they relocated to a bigger facility nearby. The original building became a music store, then an appliance store, and then an empty building in shambles. It was revived in 1999 when Noel Webster bought it, but the Swampers were not welcomed back. Not much happened there until 2009 when The Black Keys came in search of a vintage analog sound and spent 10 days recording. The resulting album, Brothers, won the Grammy for Album of the Year. The studio itself is the physical representation of the Muscle Shoals sound, but it's the people and the culture that are the spirit. The studio isn't even in Muscle Shoals: when the Swampers left FAME (which really is in the city and has never ceased operations), they named their Sheffield operation "Muscle Shoals Sound Studios" to associate it with the signature sound and also to get under the skin of Rick Hall, FAME's owner. There were hard feelings for a while, but after a few years Hall and The Swampers settled their differences. When Muscle Shoals Sound Studios goes on the Historic Register, many in the area are incredulous, since the guys who made it famous are no longer associated with it. The designation helps revive interest in the area though, and in 2013 the film Muscle Shoals is released, documenting the history of the area. That same year, Dr. Dre's Beats Electronics announces a grant to fund the renovation of both Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and FAME, with the goal of opening them to aspiring musicians and producers who can learn their crafts in these historic spaces.

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