L-R (front row): Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, Jimmy Hall, Bettye LaVette and Candi Staton
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
Tonight, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum hosted a sold-out concert celebrating the opening of its newest exhibition Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising.
The concert in the museum’s CMA Theater featured artists and musicians involved in or inspired by Muscle Shoals’ musical legacy. Performers included Jimmy Hall, Tiera Kennedy, Bettye LaVette, Wendy Moten, Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, Maggie Rose, Shenandoah, Candi Staton and John Paul White. A house band of Muscle Shoals aces was led by guitarist Will McFarlane.
The concert was filmed and will be released later on the museum’s website and YouTube channel. Performances included:
- “I’m Your Puppet” – Dan Penn
- “You Left the Water Running” – Dan Penn
- “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” – Wendy Moten
- “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” – Wendy Moten
- “I Still Want to Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am)”– Bettye LaVette
- “Souvenirs” – Bettye LaVette
- “When a Man Loves a Woman” – Jimmy Hall
- “Land of 1000 Dances” – Jimmy Hall
- “Two Dozen Roses”– Shenandoah
- “The Church on Cumberland Road” – Shenandoah
- “You Better Move On” – John Paul White
- “We’ve Got Tonight” – John Paul White
- “I’m Just a Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin’)” – Candi Staton
- “Wild Horses” – Tiera Kennedy
- “I’d Rather Go Blind” – Tiera Kennedy
- “Chain of Fools” – Maggie Rose
- “I’ll Take You There” – Maggie Rose
- “Mustang Sally” and “Sweet Home Alabama” – Jimmy Hall, Tiera Kennedy, Bettye LaVette, Maggie Rose, Candi Staton and John Paul White
The band for the evening included bandleader McFarlane, Mark Beckett (drums), Mickey Buckins (percussion), Kelvin Holly (guitar), Clayton Ivey (keys), Shoals Sisters Marie Lewey and Cindy Richardson-Walker (background vocals), Bob Wray (bass) and Brad Guin, Steve Herrman, Jim Hoke and Charles Rose (horns).
The concert and other opening weekend programs are made possible in part by PEDIGREE® and PEDIGREE Foundation. The exhibit is supported by OneLouder.
Opening weekend programs
Upcoming programs in the museum’s Ford Theater are included with museum admission. Reservations are encouraged in advance.
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Songwriter Session with Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham – Saturday, Nov. 15, at noon (Ford Theater)Singer-songwriter Penn and keyboardist-songwriter Oldham first met in Muscle Shoals in the late 1950s and have been writing and playing songs together ever since. Together, Penn and Oldham have written songs for James & Bobby Purify, Percy Sledge, the Sweet Inspirations and others. Additionally, Penn wrote Conway Twitty’s 1960 hit “Is a Blue Bird Blue” and such classics as “Cry Like a Baby” (the Box Tops), “Dark End of the Street” (James Carr), and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (Aretha Franklin). Oldham played on “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” (Aretha Franklin), “Mustang Sally” (Wilson Pickett) and “When a Man Loves a Woman” (Percy Sledge) and is Neil Young’s longtime keyboardist.
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Panel Discussion: Making Music in Muscle Shoals with Marlin Greene, Linda Hall, Clayton Ivey and Candi Staton – Saturday, Nov. 15, at 2:30 p.m. (Ford Theater)Greene, Hall, Ivey and Staton will discuss living and making music in Muscle Shoals. Hall, who has been called “The First Lady of Muscle Shoals Music,” was married to FAME Studio founder Rick Hall for fifty-six years. She co-owns the studio and still keeps its books. Ivey played keyboards at FAME in the 1960s and recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio before he co-founded Wishbone Recording Studio. He played on Clarence Carter’s “Patches,” Mac Davis’s “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy,” the Osmonds’ “One Bad Apple” and many more songs. Staton was born in Hanceville, Alabama, and grew up singing in the Jewell Gospel Trio. Her former husband, Clarence Carter, brought her to Muscles Shoals in 1968, where she became “The First Lady of Southern Soul” and also recorded a string of classic country-soul records. Greene was there at the beginning, recording for James Joiner’s Tune label. He has produced and played on Percy Sledge’s hits, and worked with Leon Russell, Boz Scaggs, Eddie Hinton and others at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.
- Musician Spotlight with Mac McAnally – Sunday, Nov. 16, at 1 p.m. (Ford Theater) Producer, musician and singer-songwriter McAnally is a 10-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year. He came to Muscle Shoals when he was a teenager in the 1970s, made his first recording as a studio musician at Wishbone Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, and has also played on sessions at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound studios. Among the songs McAnally has written are “All These Years” and “Thank God for You” (Sawyer Brown), “Back Where I Come From” and “Down the Road” (Kenny Chesney), “Old Flame” (Alabama) and “Two Dozen Roses” (Shenandoah). His songs have also been recorded by David Allan Coe, Ronnie Dunn, Sammy Kershaw, Charley Pride and Ricky Van Shelton. Additionally, McAnally is a longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band.