"I Met Hillary Clinton"

“People want to see you, people want to touch you, people want you to pray with them. Those are things that have to be done. She doesn’t have to live in South Carolina, but we expect her to run hard in South Carolina and be in position so that little girls can actually run up and say, ‘Oh, my God, I met Hillary Clinton.’ That is how the excitement builds.”

South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers

Ready for Hillary

Great Song, Great Singer, Great Guitarist

Beginnings of the Muscle Shoals Sound

". . down the highway in Muscle Shoals, music producer Rick Hall . . oversaw an earthy brand of soul music at his Fame Studio, played by a band of funky white guys and fronted by black singers steeped in the Baptist gospel tradition. In the spring of 1964, Rick's interracial soul blend went national in a big way via a former gospel singer, an Alabama man named Jimmy Hughes.

“Steal Away,” a song Jimmy wrote and the first recording made in Rick’s newly built studio, crystallized the sound the producer wanted. It was evocative of the soul-venting histrionics of the black Baptist church and the greasy blues of the juke joint. Whether it’s a religious or a secular context, the source of such an incandescent sound is the same."

FROM: "I Won't Tell Anybody Else: Jimmy Hughes Steals Away" by Rashod Ollison; October 16, 2013.

BRILLIANT: Muscle Shoals Doc from Independent Lens

Electrifying performances propel documentary of storied Southern studio where Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones and others produced classics

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, April 21, 2014, 2:00 AM

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Located on the banks of the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of the most creative and defiant music in American history.

Under the spiritual influence of the "Singing River" as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals is some of the most important and resonant of all time. "I'll Take You There," "Brown Sugar," "When a Man Loves a Woman," "I Never Loved a Man the Way That I Loved You," "Mustang Sally," "Tell Mama," "Kodachrome," and "Freebird" are just a few of the tens of thousands of tracks created there.

At its heart is Rick Hall, who founded FAME Studios. A musician himself, who overcame crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white musicians together — including during times when the state’s governor wanted "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" — to create music that would last for generations while also giving birth to the unique Muscle Shoals sound, and the unheralded but crucial rhythm section, The Swampers.

While fending off a budding rivalry in the Muscle Shoals heyday with Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, which was formed by The Swampers and would find huge success of its own, Hall maintained confidence in his brand and in himself.

Greg "Freddy" Camalier’s film brings in legendary artists including Aretha Franklin, Duane’s brother Gregg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Cliff, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Steve Winwood, and others, as well as archival interviews with the late Wilson Pickett and Etta James, all who bear witness to the magnetism and mystery of Muscle Shoals and why it remains a global influence today.

FROM: Independent Lens on PBS