Monday, July 30

Ricatoni's Italian Grill - Florence, AL.

Helen Keller - Water pump

Helen Keller birthplace - Tuscumbia, AL.

3614 Jackson Hwy - Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - Sheffield, AL.

W.C. Handy birthplace & museum - Florence, AL

The Muscle Shoals Area is steeped in music history.  Florence, AL. is frequently referred to as "the birthplace of the Blues" -  W.C. Handy was born here and is generally regarded as the" Father of the Blues."  Every year the W.C. Handy Festival is held featuring blues, jazz, country, gospel, rock music and R&B.  Unfortunately, we missed it.  We did catch an act Sunday night by a very talented local artist, Dylan Hodges, who won the national flat picking contest at the age of 17 years old. 
Two music studios in the area are standouts - FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL. and 3614 Jackson Hwy.- Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, AL.  Between the two of them such great songs & artists as "Brown Sugar" - Rolling Stones, "I'll Take You There" - The Staple Singers, "Kodachrome" - Paul Simon, "Old Time Rock and Roll" - Bob Seger, "Mustang Sally" - Wilson Pickett and many many more were recorded here.  
 It all started with the FAME Studio that featured studio musicians called "The Swampers", whose distinctive accompaniment and arrangements were heard on many legendary recordings. 
3614 Jackson Hwy - the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, was formed when The Swampers left FAME to create their own studio.  With their reputation well established in the music world they attracted such performers as The Rolling Stones (Sticky Fingers was recorded here,) Elton John, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan.  
Switching gears we made a quick stop at Ivy Green:  Birthplace of Helen Keller, located in Tuscumbia, AL. (Charlie stayed in the car)  It is here that Anne Sullivan revealed the mystery of language to 7-year old Helen by spelling the word w-a-t-e-r into her hand as water flowed over the other hand.  It was at that moment, that Helen learned her first word, "water."  She went on to graduate from Radcliffe College and was actively involved with The American Foundation for the Blind well into her 80s.

W.C. Handy - Father of the Blues - Florence, AL.

The locals living at the Florence Harbor Marina are a friendly bunch - a young man on our dock, who owns the marina restaurant, was very knowledgeable about the current music scene in Muscle Shoals and gave us several CDs of young artists.  One of them was Angela Hacker who was the winner of Season 5 - Nashville Star.  She & her brother (who came in second) grew up in the area and return often to play in the clubs.  Being the music lovers that we are, we are finding this place to be pretty cool.