Tag Archives: Muscle Shoals

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Alecia Elliott was country music’s answer to the female teen pop wave of the late 90s. It sucks that you have to begin every story about her with that, but it’s an elephant in the room that absolutely can’t be ignored. Not that she’s ignoring it. She embraces it. That just isn’t the person that Alecia is now.

“I’m Diggin’ It” was the catchy, MCA Nashville country answer to Britney Spears. She had a short-lived teen comedy on NBC. Then, she was gone. She and I talked much more in depth about all of that in my first book, The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME. 

Alecia is the rare soul that is actually from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, not the “idea” of Muscle Shoals. Not the surrounding communities that identify as “Muscle Shoals” because that’s the thing that resonates with people. Alecia went to Muscle Shoals, that is, until Tony Brown of MCA (you know, the guy that signed George Strait, Reba McEntire and half of the 80s and 90s country canon) found her. Continue reading →

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September 29, 2020 · 2:10 am
May 17, 2019 · 10:42 pm

John Paul White brings “Countrypolitan” to Birmingham on Saturday

John Paul White looked to many of his heroes when he sat down to write The Hurting Kind, the follow-up to 2016’s Beulah. Opry legends like Bill Anderson. Guys like Bobby Braddock, who notably co-wrote the George Jones classic “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and the 2009 Billy Currington hit “People Are Crazy.” White knew that he wanted to make a country record, and he knew that if he challenged himself by writing alongside some of the best, he would quickly learn if his aim was on target. Continue reading →

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August 1, 2015 · 5:47 pm

Pegasus In-Store with Jay Burgess, Russell Mefford and Hannah Aldridge

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The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME: In-Store performance and signing at Pegasus Records

On Saturday, July 18, I was joined by Jay Burgess of The Pollies, Russell Mefford of Fiddleworms and Hannah Aldridge for a discussion and performance to celebrate the release of “The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME.” Each had a big hand in the book’s story, and each was gracious enough to join me for the chat. Hear the audio from the event below:

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June 25, 2015 · 7:14 pm

#TBT The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME, IV

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#TBT The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME, IV

“The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” isn’t the same telling of the FAME story you know. Rather, this story is about the impact Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, the recording studio and publishing company, had on the community that surrounded it and how it changed the next fifty years of music in Muscle Shoals. I couldn’t make all of the photos that I had at my disposal work in the book, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to provide a little more context for this story with some of the photos that I couldn’t use.

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June 18, 2015 · 2:35 pm

#TBT The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME, III

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The Shooters

“The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” isn’t the same telling of the FAME story you know. Rather, this story is about the impact Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, the recording studio and publishing company, had on the community that surrounded it and how it changed the next fifty years of music in Muscle Shoals. I couldn’t make all of the photos that I had at my disposal work in the book, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to provide a little more context for this story with some of the photos that I couldn’t use.

The Shooters were a country songwriting supergroup, bridging the period most known for sessions through the glory days of Muscle Shoals songwriting to the current live scene which has evolved in the last decade. Walt Aldridge, Gary Baker, Barry Billings, Chalmers Davis and Mike Dillon – the first two wrote a pile of country hits you’re unaware that you know, while Billings mentored kids like Chris Tompkins, Shonna Tucker, Bo Bice and Jason Isbell at La Fonda’s Mexican Restaurant on Highway 72. During a dark period when the Shoals doesn’t receive a lot of credit for the music it was creating, The Shooters gave the community life.

I’ll be signing copies of “The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” at Alabama Booksmith on June 29. They will have an exclusive hardcover edition of the book for sale, which you can reserve here. You can also preorder on Amazon here. I have also created a Spotify playlist that offers a little more context for the time period the book covers. Subscribe to it here.

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June 4, 2015 · 1:11 pm

#TBT: The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME, I

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Apollo

“The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” isn’t the same telling of the FAME story you know. Rather, this story is about the impact Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, the recording studio and publishing company, had on the community that surrounded it and how it changed the next fifty years of music in Muscle Shoals.

I couldn’t make all of the photos that I had at my disposal work in the book, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to provide a little more context for this story with some of the photos that I couldn’t use.

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June 27, 2014 · 4:21 am

A few words about an announcement?

A few words about an announcement?


I don’t know where to start with this. I’ve never shied from gloating about personal achievements, but then in my defense, I’ve never shied about sharing disastrous failures and shortcomings. I began radio at the age of 17, and by the age of 22, my life was playing out, daily, on 50,000 watts. At minimum, eight hours a day. I’d often joke with my ex, “If you ever wanted to cheat on me, you can turn on your radio and know exactly where I am one third of every day.” I didn’t expect her to use that to her advantage. 

So I’ve never really known privacy as an adult and always kind of accepted that my life and its obstacles and successes were “warts and all.” And I think, at least, that that transparency is part of why people enjoy whatever it is that I do. 

There. That was frank. So I want to share the first hurdle I have crossed in achieving a lifelong dream.

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