Description
Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Rick Hall brought black and white together to create music for the generations. He is responsible for creating the "Muscle Shoals sound" and The Swampers, the house band at FAME Studios that eventually left to start its own successful studio known as Muscle Shoals Sound. Gregg Allman and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals' magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.

DVD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H3JHH6Q/?tag=imwan-20

Blu-ray
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H3JHE0K/?tag=imwan-20

Looks like another "must watch" music doc. I love them all.

Rick A.

Excellent music doc, in a year filled with them. A must see.

I just saw that this is being shown on PBS tonight at 9:00 as part of their "Independent Lens" series.

Thank you! Will catch a replay Wednesday morning.

Thanks for the tip Peter J, I taped it and watched it later.

This is excellent, one of the best docs I've ever seen, definitely transports you away. At almost 2 hours, it should have been twice as long! Or even a miniseries! My only complaint is that talking heads Bono and Alicia Keys should have been left out.

The other question, as reviewers on Amazon noted, was why wasn't guitarist Eddie Hinton mentioned / included? He was a major player on the scene, and appears to be left out completely, I'll have to watch it again though to make sure.

Eddie is a fascinating story in his own right, played on sessions for everyone coming thru the door including Wilson Pickett, Lulu, Boz Scaggs, and later Aretha, Elvis, Laura Nyro. And wrote several important songs for others including Dusty Springfield, The Box Tops, Tony Joe White. Seems he has numerous ties to Duane Allman, and according to this bio link was invited to join the Allman Brothers Band but declined in order to continue doing session work in Muscle Shoals:

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/fa ... ?id=h-2444

Agreed about Eddie Hinton. He was a key ingredient in the MS "SOUND".

Recorded it and watched over this past weekend. Enjoyed the hell out of it.

Watched this on Netflix Canada last night... It was marvellous.

I was there this past Thursday and took a tour of the studio. Very small place but a cool vibe to it.

It's been purchased by a music foundation in Muscle Shoals and they are in the process of acquiring appropriate period equipment to redo the studio. According to the person that was there construction to put it back to it's 70's era look will begin in September and should be completed in early 2016. Once completed, they'll give tours during the day and have recording sessions in the evenings.

Here are some pictures:



Main room with the control room in the background


Control Room


The downstairs lounge. You had to go out a side door, down some steps, go around back and down some more steps to get to this room.


The bill for "Wild Horses"


Looking into the control room

I just watched this on NETFLIX as well. Amazing story.