page_title: Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
section_title: Later years
hierarchical_section_title: Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section / Later years
caption_attribution_description: Muscle Shoals Sound at new location off Alabama Avenue
context_page_description: The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section is a group of American studio musicians based in the northern Alabama town of Muscle Shoals. One of the most prominent American studio house bands from the 1960s to the 1980s, these musicians, individually or as a group have been associated with more than 500 recordings, including 75 gold and platinum hits. They were masters at creating a southern combination of R&B, soul and country music known as the "Muscle Shoals sound" to back up black artists, who were often in disbelief to learn that the studio musicians were white. Over the years from 1962 to 1969, there have been two successive groups under the name "Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section" and the common factor in the two was an association with Rick Hall at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals.
  The original group hired by Hall in the early 1960s was Norbert Putnam, David Briggs, and Jerry Carrigan who created hit records that brought recognition and stature to this unknown and out-of-the-way studio. This group was lured to Nashville studios for independent careers.
context_section_description: The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section closed the original on Jackson Highway in April, 1979, and moved to a new studio at 1000 Alabama Avenue in nearby Sheffield. The town leaders sold Sheffield's abandoned 31,000 square feet (2,900 m²) Armory to the Swampers at an unbeatable price, to counter a nearby city's offer to lure them away. That year, the new studio recorded the Bob Dylan album, Slow Train Coming, co-produced by Barry Beckett, who also performed on it.  The new studio marked a new beginning for Beckett, Hawkins, Hood and Johnson allowing them to move toward production and publishing rather than performing.  They continued to operate there until 1985 when they closed the business. They sold it to their longtime friend Tommy Couch, owner of Malaco Records, based in Jackson, Mississippi. At that time, three of the Swampers joined other session players, such as the keyboardist Carson Whitsett, backing Bobby "Blue" Bland and other artists recording for the Malaco label. They occasionally worked at other studios.
  Beckett left Alabama in 1982 to move to Nashville where he became A&R man for Warner Music Group. He later worked independently with Alabama, Asleep at the Wheel, Kenny Chesney and others. He performed on recording sessions until 2005 when health problems forced him to retire. He died in 2009 at age 66.
  During the 1990s and later, the group continued working as a studio band, often with Clayton Ivey on keyboards, for artists including Gregg Allman (All Night All Stars), T. Graham Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Melissa Etheridge, John Hiatt, the Oak Ridge Boys, Johnny Paycheck, Etta James, and Joe Louis Walker.
caption: Muscle Shoals Sound - New Location
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