Small town. Big Music. – Muscle Shoals documentary coming to B.R.

In theaters Wednesday: 47 Ronin, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Wolf of Wall Street

It’s the glitzy, slinky horns climaxing over Mavis Staples’ conviction-stacked promise to “take you there.”
Ow! Uh! It’s a caterwauling Wilson Pickett party-starting with the mash potato and the alligator. All right!

It’s Mick Jagger drowning in the sound of bourbon and crying “let’s do some living after we die.”

It’s Ronnie Van Zandt calling for what everyone else in the bar is already thinking: his rebel rousing Southern band ought to “turn it up.”

Holy smokes, it’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

It’s a place so backwoods Alabama, apparently there’s really nothing to do there but make killer records—the kind that grab you by the throat and don’t dare let go.

But the two studios in Muscle Shoals founded by Rick Hall and gassed by house band The Swampers—name-checked in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”— did much more than that. They made history. On Dec. 27, an acclaimed new documentary about the recording studio, the talented, nearly forgotten men behind it, and the many music legends of the 20th century who flirted unabashedly with its powers, makes its Baton Rouge debut. Muscle Shoals screens at the Manship Theatre this Friday at 6:30 p.m. One night only to see on the big screen, “Rock ‘n’ roll heaven, man,” as Keith Richards puts it in the film.

Muscle Shoals trailer:

Aretha Franklin, Gregg Allman, Bono, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys and more make appearances, too, in this richly detailed portrait of a humble, out-of-the-way and location, which, in all of its unlikelihood, holds now a place in the pop culture pantheon alongside other music Meccas like Abbey Road studios, Sun Records and Motown’s Hitsville U.S.A.

Greg “Freddy” Camalier directed and co-produced the documentary, a trek into the heartland of American music that, for him, started in 2008 when he and a buddy backtracked 20 miles on their cross-country road trip just to pay homage to the studio. “We were taking the Southern route, real back roads and stopped in Muscle Shoals for the night,” Camalier recalls. “But we were so moved by the place we stayed an extra day just soaking it all in. It was a profound time, and I knew then I wanted to tell this story.”

In 1959, Rick Hall founded FAME studios in the northwestern corner of Alabama. Six years later, The Swampers, a locally sourced rhythm section of soulful country boys moved in, and the rest is aural history. “These guys worked hard at their craft and were able to create such a unique sound that the top recording artists of the day were saying, ‘I want some of that!’” Camalier says. “It was hit after hit.”

Wilson Pickett “Land of a Thousand Dances”

With so many iconic voices recounting the ingenious, hilarious and occasionally debauched funk of the studio’s heyday, Camalier had a huge challenge with this project.

“There are so many characters, so many stories, we had to leave some out or else it would be too large and too confusing to weave it all together,” the director says. “I needed to tell this amazing story in the most compelling way so that it would resonate with movie and music lovers.”

The Staple Singers “I’ll Take You There”

Camalier says these music legends were drawn to the documentary by the sheer reverence of their experiences in rural Alabama and the memorable sounds that were born from their time there. “They all knew what an incredible story this little studio was, and that was the draw,” Camalier says. “I was just privileged to be a part of that process. With each interview I learned new things and had a great experience.”

The Rolling Stones recording “Wild Horses” at Muscle Shoals in 1969.

Choosing his favorite song recorded at Muscle Shoals is like choosing among children for Camalier. “There are just so many to choose from,” he says. “Just recognizing the diversity of genres, the impact of this music across different decades and cultures and generations, it really is staggering.” Visit manshiptheatre.org for tickets.