2017 July 22, Events of the W. C. Handy Festival Saturday

I went to the Visitor Center to listen to Tom McDonald talk about three of the books that he wrote and had for sale. 

1. Promises to Keep

2. Dirt Road Memories 

3. When Memories Come Calling

I should have bought one. 

I stopped to talk to Tom for a few minutes about growing up in East Florence. 

Tom said that he grew up on Sweetwater Avenue.

I live in East Florence, but our paths never crossed. 

Tom went to Brandon School from the first to the sixth grades.

When we moved to Florence, I had already passed the sixth grade.

Tom's family moved to the Central area around the time we moved to East Florence. 

We talked about Sweet Water Creek and walking along the old railroad tracks down by the canal on the bank of the Tennessee River. 

When we lived in East Florence, my sisters and I would walk to McFarland Park to swim in the Tennessee River.

We also swam in the canal, which was not far from our home. 

Tom said once that he had tried floating down the Sweet Water Creek in a washtub and that he had hoped to make it to the Tennessee River in that tub, but it turned over, and he never made it. 

What sweet childhood memories we both could recall.

Then I went to Florence Library to read Watermelon Wine, the Poetry of American Music. 

Where I listened to Anne E DeChant, sing and play on her guitar some of her storytelling songs (she was very good)

 I left the library and rode to Jack's for lunch. There, I ordered a kids' Chicken Finger Meal, which consisted of two Chicken fingers, green beans, Rice Kirby, and Diet Coke. I also ordered an Apple Pie. 
I still had time to kill before returning to the Visitor Center, so I went back to the Library.
There was a car show that was about to end, so I stopped to take a few pictures. It was going to be long with walking, so I just took several long-distance pictures. I walked back through the Library and saw Anne DeChant and Frye Gilard standing at the counter in the Library, so I walked up to them.
I told Anne DeChant that I loved her singing and playing and that her music reminded me of the storyteller and singer Tom T. Hall. 
She thanked me and said she appreciated the compliment. 
They were getting directions to Legends, where they were going to eat lunch. I said they have good food. 

 Then, back to the visitors center for Swampfest Songwriter showcase series #2 to listen to Buzz Cason and Russell Medford sing and play. 
The audience sang along with Buzz in a couple of his songs. "Hank Williams Christian songs. One way I saw the light. Russell talked about meeting a couple of songwriters at Killen Diner (which has since burnt down) to write a song. 
The fun show ended around 3:30PM.

I rode to Taco Bell to get supper, and there was a line of cars all the way to the stop sign. 
When I got up to the window, I said, you have been busy today. The girl at the window said we have been like this since 11AM today because we had four people to call in. What a bummer!!

After my busy day, all I wanted to do was eat my Taco Salad,  prop my feet up, and watch TV.

2016 June 19, Sunday, Singing River Statue of Muscle Shoals 🎶🎶🎶🎶

Legend of the Singing River
The Yuchi and other early inhabitants living along the banks of the mighty Tennessee River held the legend of a Spirit Woman who lived in the river. She protected and sang to them. When the river was angry, she sang loudly. When the river was peaceful, she sang softly and sweetly, sometimes humming a comforting lullaby. Some say that all they heard was the high waters' mighty rush and roar over the mussel shoals, or at other times, the calm low waters babbling through the river rocks. Others say she is real and can still be seen in the early morning mist, hovering over the waters, just as she did those many years ago. In her honor, they called it the Singing River and in her honor, we named these sculptures the Singing River Sculptures.

Singing River Statue of Muscle Shoals

Singing River Statue of Muscle Shoals 

The World-changing Muscle Shoals Music
From throughout the 20th century to the present, Muscle Shoals area artists, musicians, songwriters, and music-industry professionals have helped shape the world’s expansive music heritage. Few styles of music were untouched by Muscle Shoals, and local contributions have been made in all other areas of the complex industry: producers, recording engineers, songwriters, music publishers, and other positions in the music business.

Many of the world’s greatest performers began their ascent to stardom in Muscle Shoals, and artists, such as Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, the Staple Singers, and Bob Seger, along with many others, quickly created a legacy that earned the area the title, “Hit Recording Capitol of the World.”

The area grew as a music center by drawing together people of all races and religions. In the 1960s, despite the segregation of the races enforced outside the studios, great soul classics were being created in the studios with each musician contributing his innate musical talent. The collaborations created some of the most widely loved music of the 20th century, including Steal Away, Mustang Sally, Tell Mama, Patches, Respect Yourself, and many others.

The warning issued in Arthur Alexander’s You Better Move On got the attention of the Rolling Stones. The Beatles heard Alexander’s song, Anna and each band acknowledged their respect for Alexander and his writing by recording their version of his songs on their first albums.

The songwriting tradition continues as one of the strongest facets of Muscle Shoals music, with area songwriters penning songs such as I Loved Her First, I Swear, 

The heart and soul of Muscle Shoals' music have always been the players and singers. Four members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section were immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Sweet Home Alabama. The lyric, “Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers, and they’ve been known to pick a song or two,” honors Jimmy Johnson, Barry Beckett, David Hood, and Roger Hawkins, studio musicians who produced and played on hundreds of hits recorded at area studios from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Muscle Shoals and Its Contribution to this Golden Era
Muscle Shoals bestowed much more than its name on the world-famous “Muscle Shoals sound.”

The city served as the birthplace for early breakthroughs in the local music industry and later provided a home base for some of the area’s top studios. The first commercial recording to emerge from Muscle Shoals — the Bobby Denton single, A Fallen Star — was produced by James Joiner in the Second Street studios of WLAY Radio in 1957. Four years later in an old candy-and-tobacco warehouse on Wilson Dam Road, aspiring producer Rick Hall joined forces with bellhop-turned-singer Arthur Alexander to cut Muscle Shoals’ first national hit, the Southern Soul anthem, You Better Move On. In the wake of that success, Hall built FAME Recording Studios on Avalon Avenue in 1962. Artists ranging from Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Etta James to Duane Allman, the Osmonds, and Bobby Gentry later recorded there. From 1970 to 1985, Muscle Shoals became known as “The Hit Recording Capital of the World” as FAME and Al Cartee’s Music Mill, Steve Moore’s East Avalon, and Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey’s Wishbone Studios generated hits by Clarence Carter, Hank Williams Jr., the group Hot, George Jones, the Forester Sisters, Mac McAnally, Shenandoah, and many others. In 2011 Hall received the American Music Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2014 he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his significant contribution to the recording industry.

The City of Muscle Shoals, Alabama
David Bradford, Mayor
Audwin Pierre McGee, Sculptor
Historical commentary by Terry Pace, Dick Cooper, David Anderson, and Bill Matthews.

Rick Hall and Duane Allman

FAME Studio at 601 E. Avalon Avenue (Photo furnished by FAME)

James Joiner and Bobby Denton at WLAY Radio 

Muscle Shoals City sign proclaiming it the Hit Recording Capital of the World (Photo furnished by FAME)

Wishbone Studios (Photo furnished by Terry Woodford)

East Avalon Studios (Photo furnished by Dick Cooper)

FAME Studio at old Candy and Tobacco Warehouse (Photo furnished by FAME)

The Singing River Sculpture, In Sheffield, Alabama

The Singing River Sculpture

The Singing River Sculpture

This sculpture is dedicated to the many individuals whose efforts made Sheffield and the Muscle Shoals area the “Hit Recording Capitol of the World,” and to those who continue that legacy in 2012

Legend of the Singing River 

The Yuchi and other early inhabitants who lived along the banks of the mighty Tennessee River held the legend of the Spirit Woman who lived in the river, protected them, and sang to them. If the river was angry, She sang to them loudly; if the river was peaceful, She sang softly and sweetly, sometimes humming a comforting lullaby. 

Some say that all they heard was the high waters' mighty rush and roar over the mussel shoals, or at other times, the calm low waters babbling through the river rocks. Others say She is real and can still be seen in the early morning mist, hovering over the waters, just as She did many years ago. In her honor, they called it the Singing River, and in her honor, we named these sculptures the Singing River Sculptures. 

The World-changing Muscle Shoals Music

From throughout the 20th Century to the present, Muscle Shoals area artists, musicians, songwriters, and music industry professionals have helped shape the world’s expansive music heritage. Few styles of music were untouched by Muscle Shoals, and local contributions have been made in all other areas of the complex industry: producers, recording engineers, songwriters, music publishers, and other positions in the music business.

Picture of 

Broadway Sound Studios with owner and producer David Johnson second from right

Picture of 

Legendary producer Jerry Waxler at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios’riverfront location

Many of the world’s greatest performers began their ascent to stardom in Muscle Shoals. Artists, such as Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, the Staples Singers, and Bob Seger, along with many others, quickly created a legacy that earned the area the title, “Hit Recording Capitol of the World.”

The area grew as a music center by drawing together people of all races and religions. In the 1960s, despite the segregation of race enforced outside the studios, a great soul classic was being created in the studios with each musician's contributions to his innate musical talent. The collaborations created some of the most widely loved music of the 20th century, including Steal Away, Mustang Sally, Tell Mama, Patches, Respect Yourself, and many others. 

The warning issued in Arthur Alexander’s You Better Move On got the attention of the Rolling Stones. The Beatles heard Alexander’s song, Anna and each band acknowledged their respect for Alexander and his writing by recording their version of his songs on their first albums.

NorAla Studio where Quin Ivy and Marlin Greene recorded Percy Sledge's When a Man Loves a Woman.

The songwriting tradition continues as one of the strongest facets of Muscle Shoals music, with area songwriters penning songs such as I Loved Her First, I Swear, Blown Away, Before He Cheats, and hundreds of other hits over the decades.

Picture of the original Swampers, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Jimmy Johnson at their 3614 Jackson Highway studio.

The heart and soul of Muscle Shoals' music have always been the players and singers. Four members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section were immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd songs Sweet Home Alabama. The lyric, “Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers” and “they’ve been known to pick a song or two,” honors Jimmy Johnson, Barry Beckett, David Hood, and Roger Hawkins, studio musicians who produced and played on hundreds of hits recorded at area studios from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Dexter Johnson at his garage studio, the first in the Muscle Shoals area

Sheffield and Its Contributions to this Golden Era

Sheffield made major contributions to the area’s music heritage and to the creation of the Muscle Shoals sound. The first audio recording studio in the Muscle Shoals area was constructed in a Sheffield garage in 1950 by Dexter Johnson. His nephew, Jimmy Johnson, would go on to become one of the Swampers, immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Sweet Home Alabama, Johnson, along with Swampers, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, and Barry Beckett, established Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield in 1969 and operated until 1985, recording hundreds of songs on hitmakers of that ear. 

The area’s first Number One record and first Gold Record, Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, was recorded by Quin Ivy and Marlin Greene at NorAla studio on 2nd Street. Proceeds from that hit allowed Ivy to construct Quincy and South Camp labels. In 1973 Ivy sold the facility to his studio manager and recording engineer David Johnson, who renamed it Broadway Sound Studios and recorded artists into the 1980s. 

Recording has continued to be a prolific industry in Sheffield over the last six decades. 

The City of Sheffield, Alabama

Ian Sanford, Mayor

Audwin Pierre McGee Sculptor

Historical commentary by Dick Cooper, David Anderson, and Bill Matthews

Fiscal Agent: Tennessee Valley Art Association 

WISE

Wise Alloys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wise Metals Group, began operations in April 1999 when the parent company purchased the local assets and facilities of Reynolds Alloys Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds Metal Company. Today, Wise Alloys is a worldwide leading supplier of aluminum can sheets and processors of recycled aluminum. The company continues to expand its operations and maintains its presence as one of the leading employers in the Shoals. Wise is extremely proud to be a part of the Shoals community and pleased to have contributed all the recycled aluminum as the artistic medium for the Singing River Sculpture and the Singing River Sculpture Garden. 

The Shoals began its long heritage as an aluminum manufacturing community with the construction of the Reynolds facility in April 1941. It was proposed for the Defense Plant Corporation, a federal agency. Incredibly, just three months later, the first ingot was rolled on the Hotline. At that time, our country was just beginning to recover from the Great Depression. The construction and opening of the plant created much-needed jobs in our community. The selection of the site in the Shoals area was primarily due to the abundant electrical power created by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the dam system along the Tennessee River. 

Initially, the facility produced aluminum to support the World War II effort. 

March 4, 2013

The people of Sheffield and the Shoals express their heartfelt gratitude to those generous individuals, families, businesses, and organizations whose love for our legendary Muscle Shoals music has made this Singing River Sculpture possible.

🍀🍀🍀We were lucky growing up!!!

We were very lucky growing up when it came to visiting grandparents because both our grandparents' maternal and paternal grandparents lived within blocks of each other. 

Neither were rich in material things but both were loaded in love. 

Our maternal grandmother was a great cook and one of my favorite sweets was her Sweet Potato Kisses.

Years later, when I had a home of my own, I ask her for the Sweet Potato receipt.

You take a small potato boil it with the jacket on and cook until done.

Peel the potato mash it up and roll it out. 

Add powder sugar and peanut butter to the center. 

Take all ingredients and roll them into a ball and slice them into pieces.

Our maternal grandmother was also handy with a needle and thread.

Money was always tight at my maternal grandparents so, she made do with what she had.

She made everything she gave us for Christmas and birthdays. I remember one Christmas she made us sock monkeys and rag dolls.  

My memories of the tree she decorated at Christmas still bring a smile to my face. 

Her Christmas tree would light up any room with her bubbling lights, angel hair, icicles, stringed popcorn, and tiny trinkets.

Our maternal grandfather loved to smoke Prince Albert Tobacco.

We would watch as he took out those white papers and pour Prince Albert Tobacco inside and then he would roll them tightly, licking to seal the tobacco inside.

We would gladly walk to the store to buy him a can of  Prince Albert Tobacco because he always gave us a nickel for candy. 

On a hot day, we might use that nickel to buy a coke, a popsicle, or even a candy bar. 

Our maternal grandparent's yard was covered with white clover, weeds, and buttercups(in the spring).

We very seldom wore shoes when we were out of school. 

I remember one summer stomping around in the grass and having a good time when I stomped right onto a bee. 

I started to cry holding my foot when my grandfather came outside to see what was wrong.

He went back inside grabbed his tobacco, and a glass of water, and came back outside.

He placed me in his lap and began to make a cake with his Prince Albert tobacco which he placed on my foot. 

One of our maternal grandfather's pet peeves was the grandkids climbing up in his trees. 

He kept the limbs trimmed so, we could not reach them. 

Our maternal grandfather loves to tell scary stories about Bloody Bones. 

He would have you set on the edge of your seat, and all of a sudden he would say, "GOT YOU"!!

Our maternal grandfather grew a variety of fruit trees which we enjoyed eating. 

He would say, if you swallow any seeds, you would grow into a tree. 

We spit out every seed. 

Our maternal grandparents never had any indoor plumbing. There was an outhouse and the water came from an outside faucet. 
They never owned an automobile so they never learned to drive. 

My Maternal Grandmother rode to church with Mr. Ulman and I attended church with her many times. 

At Church, we sang old hymns while someone played the piano and someone else played an accord.

In our Sunday School Class we learned about Daniel being put in the Lion's Den for praying, Noah’s Ark, Jonah, the whale, and Jonah's disobedience to God. 

One Sunday night after services as we were riding home, the passenger door flew open, and out onto the pavement flew my cousin. 

We both had fallen asleep on the ride home and were leaning on the door. 

Our Aunt Willie lived on Penny Lane in Huntsville. 

She worked at Red Stone Arsenal.

Our dad would take the entire family to spend the day at Willies. 

Our maternal great-grandparents lived in Town Creek. 

Our maternal grandparents would take the train from Sheffield to Town Creek to visit her family.

Our dad took them several times.

Our great grandparents lived in an Old Military Dining Car.

On one end of the trailer was a large round table, encircled with bench seating. Many soldiers had dined at this table. 

A sofa, fold-out bed, a chair, and a coal heater stood in the middle of the trailer. 

Food was cooked in the kitchen area which was located at the opposite end of the trailer. 
They got their water from a well and they use an outhouse.

Since their home was so small we were sent outside to play, sometime grand-paw would come outside to play with us.

He said I can show you how to catch a worm that he called a Chicken Choker. 

He said, get a straw, poke the straw into a small hole, and wiggle the straw into a worm the worm will catch hold and you can pull him out of the ground.

It Worked!!!

I looked up the meaning of Chicken Choker. 

It is a long yellowish color worm with humps on it back 6 legs a hard head, brown with two-inch pinchers that would catch hold of the straw.

Chicken Chokers are larvae of tiger beetles that ambush predators of other insects, lying in wait in their burrows with their heads flush with the surface of the soil.  

It is said that chickens do more harm to the larvae(Chicken Chokers) than the grubs.

1993 ~June 4-5 Festival of Lights in Nashville, Tennessee

Day 1: Friday, June 4, 1993

We went to the Festival of Lights in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. We met up with some of my husband's co-workers, Nelson Richardson Junior, Phillip Ritter, and their wives. 

We stayed at The Hermitage Hotel in Downtown Nashville, 231 6th Avenue North Nashville, TN 37219, (615) 244-3121 which overlooked the Festival of Lights on Church Street.

City of Lights Festival 

Performing that weekend was Alison Krauss with her band Union Station. 

When Alison came on stage to sing a couple of songs the stage was almost blown away by a thunderstorm. 

 Information about Alison Krauss: I found on the internet:

“This was the year that she joined the Grand Ole Opry. She also signed with an independent record label Rounder Record. Performing at the East end of the park is Martina McBride.”

 We walk down Printer's Alley located between Third and Fourth Avenues stretching from Union to Church Streets, the Alley started before the turn of the century as the location of many of Nashville’s first Publishing and Printing Companies. 

Without the Country Music influences that started in the 1930s, Nashville could not have possibly been known as the Printing Capitol of the World. 

Nashville’s first entertainment hotspot has long gone but the World Famous Printers Alley remains, providing a Flair of Bourbon Street for those in search of Wine, Women, and Song. 

Printers Alley

Printers Alley

I took several pictures of Printers Alley, the Capitol Building, and Church Buildings. 

I was wearing a cute white embroidered short set that I bought in Cancun Mexico. 

For dinner we had plans to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory but, it was booked solid.

 History about the Spaghetti Factory: I found on the internet:

The Old Spaghetti Factory is a historic Victorian structured establishment and is filled with antiques from the period.

Classy enough for a business lunch and casual enough for a family dinner. Long Island ice tea flows like water from the romantic bar with love seats and intimate seating for couples. Families can eat an entire pasta dinner with salad and bread for about $8.00 each. Altogether, it is a formula for success even in the touristy climate of Second Avenue. “

 Information about The Music Queen:

“The Music City Queen was a dinner cruise that we had planned to take but minors could not go aboard.  It holds about 250 passengers. The Music City Queen offers exciting and unusual cruises on the beautiful Cumberland River departing from the Nashville Old Steamboat Dock (four blocks from the downtown Convention Center). Nashville is Tennessee's State Capitol. “

To take the dinner cruise you have to be twenty-one and my daughter was only sixteen.

We shopped at the mall and the square downtown.

 “

 The Music Queen

Shopping

Day 2: Saturday, June 5, 1993

We went to the Ryman Auditorium and Museum, which is located at 116 Fifth Ave. North, which was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 until March 16, 1974.

My daughter and I walked upon the stage, where many a Grand Ole Opry Star once stood and belted out singing. 

The seats were empty but that was okay because we were stars in our own right.

Singing at the Grand Ole Opry

We stopped in at Music Valley Village where we saw “The Car Museum” Featuring cars of country music stars including Elvis' Cadillac, Marty Robbins' limo, Louise Mandrell's MG, Webb Pierce's "Silver Dollar" car, Roy Acuff's last touring car, Barbara Mandrell's Rolls Royce, Hank Williams Jr.'s Cadillac and many more - 45 cars in all!  

On June 5, 1993, as we were listening to the radio, the radio announcer said, we are sad to announce that Conway Twitty has gone to meet his maker.  

Conway will be greatly missed and he will live on in his music.

A TRAIL OF NO RETURN

We stopped at the Muscle Shoals Library to view the second of a series of sculptures that are to be placed throughout the Shoals Area over the next few years.

This sculpture depicts a studio session bass player.

Singing River Sculpture

First, we stopped at several different auto parts stores looking for a part for my husband Fireo.

We ate lunch at Peppers in Muscle Shoals before beginning our adventure.

We shared a Lifeline Turkey and Avocado Sandwich and Chips and rotel with Salsa.

Roasted turkey, arcade sun-dried tomatoes, spring greens, cucumbers, and fat-free sun-dried tomato basil vinaigrette on a toasted whole-wheat bun.

Both ordered a large tea.

We stopped at a junkyard in Russellville.

Town of Littleville

On our travels, we passed many cows grazing in the fields.

Maybe some black Angus cows

We rode to Bankhead National Forrest.

We rode through the town of Moulton on Highway 33, around many curves, up the mountain, down the mountain,  down a very long gravel road.

Grove of trees on Bankhead Highway/33 Highway

We turned off Highway 33 onto Hickory Grove Road (graveled road) which went on for several miles.

We passed an abandoned chicken barn, cows, barns, ponds, and a couple riding horses and they were holding hands.

Caspey Creek

Two lovebirds

We crossed Caspey Creek Bridge, and we stopped to take some pictures.

We came out on Highway 41 South Danville Road, we traveled to 157 University of North Alabama Highway to Highway 101, and we crossed Wheeler Dam on Highway 72.

We ordered a pineapple and ham pizza from Pizza Hut, and we took it home to eat for supper.

YUM.