2018 Shoals Front Porch Storytelling Festival

I spent the last three days attending different functions of the Storytelling Festival.
May 17,18,19, 2018

Thursday I attended the free concert at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame by Kate Campbell. 

Kate played guitar sang and told stories. (3:00-4:30PM)

One of the story/songs was about Tomatoes and Jesus Coming Soon. 

The special guest was Spooner Oldham. Kate has made many recordings with Spooner. 

Later that day at Florence Library,  I enjoyed listing to Josh Goforth tell stories about his tobacco-chewing PawPaw. 

Josh played a banjo, fiddle, and guitar. He can play as many as ten instruments. Very talented young man. (5-6PM)

Josh Goforth playing the banjo 

Friday I was joined by three friends at the storytelling festival held at the Shoals Theater from 9-5PM. 

Movie Projector at Shoals Theater displayed in the lobby

We enjoyed lunch at Legends which is located across the street from the theater.
We listened to Bil Lepp tell funny stories. 

Josh Goforth sings, tells stories, and plays the banjo, guitar, and Fiddle. 

Tim Lowry's long program he was dressed as a southern gentleman of South Carolina. 

After lunch, we listened to Donald Davis, Dolores Hydock, Bill Lepp, and Josh Goforth. 

There was a dinner break and we all went home. 

Saturday I was joined by one friend and we listened to Tim Lowry tell a story about attending an AME church in a Confederate Soldier Uniform. 

We listened to Donald Davis, Kate Campbell, & Josh Goforth.

Delores Hydock's long program was about a woman that worked for Loveman's Department Store "In her own fashion." 

Bobby Horton playing guitar while Dolores told the story of Ninette Griffith & Loveman's Department store 

My friend and I enjoyed a meal at City Hardware. I ordered a red, white, and blue salad with chicken. 

Red, White, and Blue Chicken Salad 

At 5PM the storytelling telling stopped for a dinner break.
My friend and I both went home. I would love to have stayed until 9PM for the rest of the show but I was just too tired.

Me in between Dolores Hydock and Tim Lowery at intermission 

2015 ~Saturday May 9, I Got Swamped!

I Got Swamped!

Another day of fun!
From 11-12PM listened to Mitch Mann a one-man band play his guitar while singing a variety of songs from Blues, Folk, Country, Pop, and Rock.
He sang about Tom Clark a bandit during the Civil in the Shoals, that robbed and killed people.
He was caught, put into jail, taken out by a mob of townspeople, and hanged along with two members of his gang.
He sang Big Midnight Special by Johnny Cash.

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me,

Let the Midnight Special shine her ever-loving light on me. (Traditional)

The song is historically performed in the country-blues style from the viewpoint of the prisoner and has been covered by many artists.

He sang several songs about the small town where he grew up and many more.

After the entertainment, we watched a short video about the shoals.

Quad Cities Taxi& Limousine

Everyone walked outside and loaded into the trolley.

Opened windows with the wind blowing your hair and no air conditioner, long windows for a great view, a jolly driver, and the Swampette Judy Hood was our tour guide. 

The story told by the trolley driver was that the trolley came from Philadelphia near the Eastern State Penitentiary or was used to take people to view the Penitentiary that once held Al Capone!

A prison sentence at Eastern State Penitentiary not only separated you from the outside world - but all human contact.

Built in 1829, it was the first jail to implement solitary confinement for every single inmate which is thought to have brought on mental illness.

Even outside the tiny cells, guards would cover their heads with a hood so they remained in confinement even when they wandered through its stone halls.

The prison, which closed its doors in 1971, is considered by many people as one of the most haunted buildings in America. 

You can go there during Halloween to see the Terror Behind the Walls for different prices from $13 to $39.

http://www.easternstate.org/halloween/visit/schedule-prices

One of the tourists playing the piano 

Studio B instruments

Our first stop was FAME Studios

A twenty-four-year-old man was our tour guide for FAME STUDIOS. He took us to studios A & B and he gave us as much history as he could in just a short time.
He was very knowledgeable about the history of the Music of the Shoals.

We were allowed to take pictures inside but not up close to the entertainers.

We loaded back into the trolley and rode to building 3614 on Jackson Highway Sheffield, Muscle Shoals Sound where we met David and Patterson Hood.

David and Patterson told the history of this studio.

Many of the trolley riders had their picture taken with the Hood family members.

Muscle Shoals Sound 

Some of the people that were on the trolley

David & Patterson Hood and Me

David, Patterson Judy Hood, and others 

We rode by the historic marker of Percy Sledge who recently passed away but was in the Shoals for the unveiling of his marker. 
Unveiling was September 30, 2014.
Percy Sledge was born on November 25, 1940- and died on April 14, 2015. 
He was 74 years old.

Record store owner and WLAY dis jockey Quinn Ivy established North Alabama Recording Studio (norala) at 104 E. Second Street in Sheffield in 1965. He purchased the d equipment, including AMEX 351 and Berlant mono tape recorders and a radio station console. Ivy-mounted egg cartons on the studio walls to deaden stray frequencies.
The first song recorded at NORALA was Florence native Donna Jean Thatcher's "I'm Out of Touch." Several months later Percy Sledge cut the classic "When A Man Loves A Woman." With proceeds from the Sledge session, Ivy completed a better-equipped studio across town in 1968 and named it Quinv y. Ivy also produced Tony Borders, Buddy Causey, Jeanie Green, and Z.Z. Hill, Ben E. King, Mickey Buckings and The New Breed, Don Varner, the U.S. Male, and the Wee Juns.

Percy Sledge
"When A Man Loves A Woman"
Hospital orderly Percy Sledge recorded 'When a Man Loves a Woman' at Quin Ivy's studio in 1966. Sledge's breakup with a girlfriend inspired the lyrics credited to songwriters Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright.

The release featured Marlin Greene (guitar), Spooner Oldham (Farfisa organ), Albert 'Junior' Lowe (bass), Roger Hawkins (drums), Jack Peck (trumpet), Bill Coifed (tenor sax), and Don Pollard (alto sax). Greene and Ivy produced the cut. At the request of Roger Hawkins, Ivy played the recording for Rick Hall, owner of FAME Studios. Hall felt it had hit potential and contacted Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler, who released it. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was Atlantic's first certified gold record. Rolling Stone magazine ranks it number 54 among the best songs of all time.

Percy Sledge was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Spooner Oldham followed in 2009. Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux, who sang backup on the hit, was inducted in 1994 with her husband Keith Godchaux, and other members of the Grateful Dead.

Our next stop was the Music Hall of Fame.
Everyone was given the freedom to view the Museum at their own pace. 
I was very impressed by the different musical instruments that were used by the entertainers.
There were autographs from entertainers, music playing, a bus donated by the group Alabama, Webb Pierces Boneville with six-shooter door handles, steer horns on the hood and rare silver dollars inside, stars for the inductees and so much more to see!!

Group Alabama 

Music Hall of Fame walkway

Billy Joe Royal's signature

Aaron Wilbourn picked cotton to purchase this used Kay guitar for $140 this was his first guitar.

I talked with the lady behind the counter at the museum's gift shop. She was telling me about the entertainers that come once a month and play at the entrance to the museum for free.
It is where the entertainers get to know their fans.

We loaded back into the trolley and rode back to the visitors center.
On the lawn of the visitor center, a young woman was entertaining a crowd.
Had a great day, even though it was in the 90s & I did not get too hot. 
With the windows down in the trolley and my hair blowing in the wind, I had a very enjoyable day.