2018 Shoals Front Porch Storytelling Festival

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

On Thursday, I attended a free concert at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame featuring Kate Campbell. 

Kate played guitar, sang, and told stories. (3:00–4:30 P.M.)

One of the stories/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 listening to Josh Goforth tell stories about his tobacco-chewing PawPaw. 

Josh played the banjo, Fiddle, and guitar. He can play as many as ten instruments. Very talented young man. (5–6 P.M.)

Josh Goforth playing the banjo 

On Friday, I was joined by three friends at the storytelling festival held at the Shoals Theater from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. 

The Movie Projector at Shoals Theater is 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 featured him dressed as a Southern gentleman from 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 who worked for Loveman's Department Store, "In her own fashion." 

Bobby Horton played 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 5 P.M., the storytelling stopped for a dinner break.
My friend and I both went home. I would have loved to have stayed until 9 P.M. for the rest of the show, but I was just too tired.

I was between Dolores Hydock and Tim Lowery at intermission. 

2015 ~Saturday May 9, I Got Swamped!

I Got Swamped!

Another day of fun!
From 11–12 P.M., 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 War in the Shoals, who 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, along with many others.

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 trolley driver told the story that the trolley originated in Philadelphia, near the Eastern State Penitentiary, and was used to transport 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 also from 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 wear hoods so they remained confined even as they wandered through the 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 visit there during Halloween to experience Terror Behind the Walls, available at different prices ranging from $13 to $39.

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

One of the tourists is 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 provided us with as much history as he could in 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 in 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 who were on the trolley

David & Patterson Hood, and Me

David Patterson, Judy Hood, and others 

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

Record store owner and WLAY disc jockey Quinn Ivy established North Alabama Recording Studio (Norala) at 104 E. Second Street in Sheffield in 1965. He purchased the equipment, including an AMEX 351 and Berlant mono tape recorders, as well as 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 Sled cut the classic "When A Man Loves A Woman." With proceeds from the Slede session, Ivy completed a better-equipped studio across town in 1968 and named it Quinyy. 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 Sled recorded 'When a Man Loves a Woman' at Quin Ivy's studio in 1966. Sled'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 Roger Hawkins' request, 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 Sled 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.
EverMuseum has given the freedom to view the Museum at their own Museum
I was very impressed by the diverse musical instruments used by the entertainers.
There were autographs from entertainers, music playing, a bus donated by the group Alabama, Webb Pierce's Boneville, featuring six-shooter door handles, steer horns on the hood, and rare silver dollars inside, stars for the inductees, and 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 Museum's lady behind the Museum's counter in the Museum's gift shop. The Museum's telling me about the entertainers who come once a month and play at the Museum's entrance for free.
It's the entertainers who get to know their fans.

We loaded back into the trolley and rode back to the visitors ' center.
On the visitor center lawn, 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 delightful day.