Muscle Shoals is a 2013 documentary film about FAME Studios and Muscle
Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Available on DVD.
Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely
breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music. Under
the spiritual influence of the ‘Singing River’, as Native Americans called
it, the music of Muscle Shoals has helped create some of the most important and
resonant songs of all time.
At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing
poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in
Alabama's cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. He
is responsible for creating the ‘Muscle Shoals sound’ and The Swampers, the
house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio,
known as Muscle Shoals Sound. Greg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger,
Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to
Muscle Shoals' magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.
Muscle Shoals Documentary Reviews
“A stomping good doc.” Empire Magazine
“Magnificently sound-tracked.” The Guardian
“An astonishing musical legacy.” The Independent
“An essential record of a defining era.” Time Out