A Staycation in Florence Alabama

We arrived in Florence on September 21st. We had planned on spending a day or two here to be tourists. There were a few things we wanted to see. The town is located on the Tennessee at muscle shoals which were a major navigation challenge Prior to the construction of the Wheeler and Wilson dams just up river.

The Muscle Shoals Studio tour was highly recommended by Ernie, it the owner of Me and Mrs Jones. It was definitely worth the price of admission. The docent was a raconteur of the first order. He provided an intimate look at the studio and the studio band that created the southern rock sound that many artists admired. The four founders of the studio, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson and David Hood, were session musicians at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios; they were officially known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section but widely referred to as “The Swampers”.

The first artist to record in the studio was Cher, followed eventually by the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, George Michael, Wilson Pickett, Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker, Levon Helm, Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Tamiko Jones, and Cat Stevens to name a few.

I won’t share all the stories except for the one about Keith Richards locking himself in the room below with his guitar for two hours. When he came out Wild Horses was finished. Plus luminaries like Elton John and Paul Simon tinkled the ivories on this piano.

This is not a fancy place but one of the original Swampers, who was also a physicist employed at the nearby nuclear lab, invented the first mixing board. The quality lies in the musicians and their professional approach to music. This Spotify playlist has a sampling of the hits recorded here.

There is also a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Florence – The Rosenbaum House. This house only had one owner before the municipality purchased it. Following serious re-construction, the house was opened to the public as a municipal museum. Again the docent was superb. Drawing our attention to some of the details and explaining FLW approaches to design.

We borrowed the courtesy van with two other loopers, Melinda and Daune, from Surface Interval III and head out for some barbecue and live music at Flobama. While not much on presentation – sectioned styrofoam plates – this place served the best ribs we have had outside South Carolina. The place was empty which quite surprised us but we suspected it had something to do with the high school homecoming parade passing by on the street.

The marina is a busy spot with a very popular restaurant on site. However, the weekend saw a new level of activity as it was home base for a fishing tournament. A hundred and four teams participated. All boats are launched between 4:30 and 6:30 a.m. – almost silently. The rules were read, followed by singing of the national anthem, then all the boats idled out of the marina one at a time.

We also visited the Indian Mound Museum. It does not have an extensive collection but it is housed in a beautiful building beside the mound itself.

The musical reputation of Muscle Shoals is intimately entwined with the musical sounds of the water passing over the shoals of the Tennessee River. Prior to the construction of Wilson and Wheeler dams, the was known as the Singing River by the Yuchi people (sometimes spelled Euchee), the Indigenous people of this region. They believed there was a woman in the river who sang songs and protected them. The shoals of the river were a sacred place and the sound of the rapids could be heard up to a mile away.

In the end we stayed for six days, catching up on boat chores and just relaxing and playing tourist. We are looking forward to stopping on our way back down the Tennessee River.