BlankOk, I'll get it done for you; it probably won't let you unsub unless you
send the request via that email address.
----- Original Message -----
From: John Jacques
To: msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2018 8:28 PM
Subject: [msb-alumni] Re: Rick Hall, who Founded Muscle Shoals, Dies at 85
Great article Steve, I really enjoyed it. By the way, I am still getting
messages at the Juno address, it doesn’t want to let me unsubscribe.
John Jacques Amateur Radio Station KD8PC Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 3, 2018, at 2:01 PM, Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Rick Hall discusses recording equipment in a NAMM oral interview in 2015:
https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/rick-hall-0
Rick Hall discusses mainly convincing Clarance Carter to record "Patches,,"
which became his first #1 hit, Carter felt the record was "demeaning to his
people ..." and Hall convinced him to do it because he had grown up the same
way, as a son of a sharecropper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnHDW8gW2VI
Rick Hall, Architect of the Muscle Shoals Sound, Dies at 85
By JON PARE
Rick Hall, who helped develop the Southern soul style known as the Muscle
Shoals sound, receiving an award for lifetime achievement at the Grammy Awards
in 2014. Credit Todd Williamson/Invision, via Associated Press
Rick Hall, the producer who forged the Southern soul style known as the
Muscle
Shoals sound, died on Tuesday at his home in Muscle Shoals, Ala. He was 85.
His wife, Linda Kay Hall, said the cause was prostate cancer.
Mr. Hall turned small-town Alabama into a crucible of soul, country, pop and
rock after he founded FAME Studios in 1959 in Florence, Ala. FAME stands for
Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, although in 1961 the studio moved to nearby
Muscle Shoals, where it remains. Mr. Hall also started FAME Publishing, which
would amass a substantial catalog of hits, and FAME Records.
Mr. Hall’s versatile output drew on Southern roots — country, blues, R&B,
gospel — and on his instincts for concisely emotive storytelling, lean
arrangements and solid grooves. He was a proud taskmaster in the studio.
“For every hit I have ever produced, I have given three pints of blood and
one
pint of sweat,” Mr. Hall wrote in his 2015 memoir, "The Man From Muscle Shoals:
My Journey From Shame to Fame."
In the segregated Alabama of the 1960s, black and white performers
collaborated at FAME, as they did at another fortress of Southern soul, Stax in
Memphis.
"It was a dangerous time, but the studio was a safe haven where blacks and
whites could work together in musical harmony," Mr. Hall wrote.
Mr. Hall was a producer, co-producer or engineer for major hits by Aretha
Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, Etta James, the Osmonds, Mac Davis,
Paul Anka and the country group Shenandoah, among many others. His preferred
recording method was to gather trusted musicians and seize the best ideas from
studio jams.
"We cut them from the heart, not from the charts," he told The New York Times
in 2015.
Rick Hall was born Roe Erister Hall on Jan. 31, 1932, in Forest Grove, Miss.
He grew up in rural poverty in northern Alabama, raised by his father, a
sawmill
worker and sharecropper. He was 6 when his father gave him a mandolin, and he
would go on to learn fiddle, guitar and bass.
By the mid-1950s, he was in a band, the Country Pals, with a daily radio show
on WERH in Hamilton, Ala. Billy Sherrill, who was in another local band, began
writing songs with him. Mr. Sherrill would become one of country music’s most
important producers.
Photo
Duane Allman signing a contract with Mr. Hall at FAME Studios in 1968. Before
achieving fame with the Allman Brothers Band, Mr. Allman was the studio’s lead
guitarist. Credit The Hall Family
In 1959, Mr. Hall, Mr. Sherrill and a third partner, Tom Stafford, started
FAME as a demo-recording studio and music publisher. Mr. Hall and Mr. Sherrill
also formed a rock ’n’ roll band, the Fairlanes, that added Dan Penn as lead
singer; he would become a Southern soul mainstay as a songwriter and producer.
The initial FAME partnership fractured, and Mr. Hall restarted FAME Studios
across the Tennessee River in Muscle Shoals. He wrote songs that were recorded
by country singers including Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee and George Jones. But he
saw more opportunity in rhythm and blues.
In 1961, he produced a hit: the soul singer Arthur Alexander’s “You Better
Move On,” which would later be recorded by the Rolling Stones. That song
financed the studio where FAME is still located, built in 1962 at 603 East
Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. Another soul hit in 1964, Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal
Away,” established FAME as a record label.
The producer Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records brought Wilson Pickett to FAME
for sessions that yielded five singles: “Land of a Thousand Dances,” “Mustang
Sally,” “Funky Broadway,” “Hey Jude” and “Hey Joe.” The idea of recording “Hey
Jude” came from the studio’s lead guitarist: Duane Allman.
Mr. Wexler returned to the studios with Aretha Franklin, who recorded two
career-defining songs there in a day: "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love
You)"
and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man."
But that day ended in a fistfight between Mr. Hall and Ms. Franklin’s husband
and manager at the time, Ted White. Ms. Franklin never returned to FAME
Studios;
Muscle Shoals musicians, without Mr. Hall, recorded “Respect” with her in New
York City.
Still, FAME’s soul hits continued, among them Etta James’s “Tell Mama” and
“I’d
Rather Go Blind” and Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away” and “Patches.”
A studio band Mr. Hall had assembled at FAME -- Barry Beckett on keyboards,
Jimmy Johnson on guitar, David Hood on bass and Roger Hawkins on drums --
became
recognized as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as the Swampers. In
1969, in partnership with Mr. Wexler, they founded the rival Muscle Shoals
Sound
Studio in Sheffield, Ala., and went on to record with the Staple Singers, Paul
Simon, Bob Seger, Traffic, Bob Dylan and many others. They eventually
reconciled
with Mr. Hall.
Mr. Hall gathered other musicians and continued to make hits. The Osmonds had
a No. 1 pop single with “One Bad Apple,” produced by Mr. Hall in 1970. Mr. Hall
was nominated for a Grammy Award for producer of the year in 1970, and
Billboard
magazine named him producer of the year in 1971.
Mr. Hall largely turned toward country and pop with hits including Bobbie
Gentry’s 1970 “Fancy,” Mac Davis’s “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” and Paul
Anka’s
1974 duet with Odia Coates, “(You’re) Having My Baby.”
He co-produced Shenandoah, which had been a bar band in Muscle Shoals, as it
became a country hitmaker in the late 1980s.
The Muscle Shoals sound got renewed attention with "Muscle Shoals," a 2013
documentary directed by Greg Camalier, and in 2014 Mr. Hall received the Grammy
Trustees Award for lifetime achievement.
Through the decades, FAME Studios has remained active. Gregg Allman worked
there on "Southern Blood," his final album, in 2016.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Hall is survived by his sons, Rick Jr., Mark and
Rodney; his brothers, Larry and Jerry; his sister, Betty Bedford; and five
grandchildren.
Steve's Note: I heard an excerpt on the BBC in an interview he did four
years
ago. He said he had a rough personal life -- growing up in poverty, etc. --
his
mother died when he was young. Later, he was driving his car and got in a
wreck
which killed his first wife; then, his father died two weeks later.
*****
FAME Recording Studios founder Rick Hall dies at age 85
a.. By Russ Corey and Robert Palmer Staff Writers
b.. Jan 3, 2018 Updated 13 hrs ago
c..
Buy Now
Rick Hall sits next to a wall of gold records at FAME Studios in Muscle
Shoals
in 2013, the year he was name TimesDaily's Newsmaker of the Year.
a.. Allison Carter
Buy Now
Rick Hall directs Ahbee Orton, left, and Kassidy Gean, right, as he talks
about buttons on the soundboard at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoal in 2013. Orton
and Gean are blind and were to perform for state government leaders. [ALLISON
CARTER/TIMESDAILY]
a.. Allison Carter
Buy Now
Rick Hall
a.. MATT MCKEAN
Buy Now
A copy of Rick Hall's book that released in 2015.
a.. Matt McKean
Otis Redding with Rick Hall at FAME approximately six months before Redding's
death. [COURTESY OF FAME]
Rick Hall at FAME with Little Richard. [COURTESY OF FAME]
Lou Rawls and Rick Hall at FAME studio. [COURTESY OF FAME]
The Fairlanes, FAME Studios' original house band: (from left) Rick Hall,
Charlie Senn, Randy Allen (drums), Billy Sherrill, Terry Thompson. [COURTESY OF
FAME AND THE HISTORY CHANNEL MAGAZINE]
a.. none
Buy Now
Candi Staton hugs Rick Hall after he introduced her at the 2014 Alabama Music
Hall of Fame induction banquet at the Shoals Marriott and Conference Center.
[MATT MCKEAN/TIMESDAILY]
a.. Matt McKean
Buy Now
Muscle Shoals music icons Rick Hall and Jimmy Johnson talk at a conference in
the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2014. [JIM HANNON/TIMESDAILY]
a.. Jim Hannon
Buy Now
From top left, Rick Hall, Felton Jarvis, Tommy Roe, Ray Stevens, David
Briggs,
Norbert Putnam and Jerry Carrigan during the early days of FAME. [COURTESY
PHOTO]
prev
next
a..
MUSCLE SHOALS — Rick Hall, founder of FAME Recording Studios, hit record
producer and the architect of the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound, died Tuesday
at
his home.
He was 85.
Born Roe Erister Hall in the Freedom Hills community in Franklin County, Hall
rose from abject poverty to become a major player in the recording industry in
the 1960s. He continued to evolve with the times and changes in musical tastes.
Hall recorded almost every form of American music from soul to rock to pop
and
country, and had hits in each genre. His publishing company has been highly
successful.
While others in the Shoals moved on to Memphis and Nashville, in Tennessee,
to
pursue their dreams of working in the music business, Hall was determined to
become a success in the Shoals.
"The thing about Rick was that he built his business and his dream from the
ground up," author and American music historian Peter Guralnick said. "He was
somebody who was driven by a vision of something he believed he could be. He
was
as determined a person as I have met."
Professional recording was virtually unknown in Alabama at that time. That it
should take root in a small, isolated town like Muscle Shoals is nothing short
of remarkable.
Just as remarkable was FAME's recording almost exclusively black artists in
the 1960s when the civil rights movement was underway. Most of Hall's session
players in those days were white, though black players from Memphis
occasionally
joined the sessions. By the 1970s, many of FAME's session musicians were black.
Hall started his career as a musician who played fiddle and mandolin in
country bands as a young man.
State Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, D-Red Bay, said his father, Grover Morrow,
taught Hall agriculture at Phil Campbell High School.
"My father actually gave Rick his first instrument, a mandolin," Morrow said.
"He didn't know anything about music, but he could encourage children."
Morrow said his father recognized Hall's talent and encouraged him to join
the
school's Future Farmers of America string band. One year, he said, they won the
state championship in Auburn.
A musician and songwriter, Hall joined a group of dreamers at City Drug Store
in Florence, where SPAR Studio was located. With friends Tom Stafford and Billy
Sherrill, Hall founded the music publishing company Florence Alabama Music
Enterprises. When the partnership dissolved, Hall kept the name and opened FAME
Recording Studios in an old tobacco and candy warehouse on Wilson Dam Road in
1960.
He assembled a group of local musicians and Sheffield bellhop Arthur
Alexander, who had written a song called "You Better Move On." The song quickly
became a hit.
Using the proceeds from "You Better Move One," Hall moved to a new building
on
Avalon Avenue where the studio still operates. The first artist to record a hit
there was Leighton's Jimmy Hughes, who also wrote "Steal Away."
"I enjoyed working with him. I learned how to record from him," Hughes said.
"He wanted everything perfect."
Hall continued to work with rhythm and blues, and soul artists, and recorded
hits for Aretha Franklin, Etta James, the Staples Singers, Clarence Carter,
Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Candi Staton.
"The genesis of Muscle Shoals was three great men — Sam Phillips, Tom
Stafford
and then came Rick Hall," said Norbert Putnam, one of the teenagers hanging out
at SPAR and the bassist on early FAME recordings. "If (Florence native) Sam
Phillips had not gone to Memphis to find Elvis, that first rhythm section might
not have come into existence. We, at 15, were playing Elvis's music.
"We met Tom Stafford (at SPAR) and started playing R&B music, James Brown and
Ray Charles," Putnam said. "A year or so later, a young man named Rick Hall
came
up the stairs for publishing and recording."
Putnam, who moved to Nashville with the other rhythm section members — Jerry
Carrigan and David Briggs — said Hall was the entrepreneur of the group who
raised money for professional recording equipment after the original
partnership
with Stafford split.
"Rick Hall was the man we needed," he said. "As the years went by, we went
our
separate ways, but Rick went on to become one of the world's greatest
producers."
In the 1970s, Hall moved into mainstream pop music and had a string of hits
with the Osmonds, Paul Anka, Tom Jones and Donny Osmond. In 1971, Hall was
named
Billboard Producer of the Year, a year after being nominated for a Grammy Award
in the same category.
Near the end of the 1970s, he began producing country artists like Mac Davis,
Bobbie Gentry, Jerry Reed, the Gatlin Brothers, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara
Mandrell,
Alabama, Earl Thomas Conley, John Michael Montgomery, Jerry Reed, Shenandoah
and
Tim McGraw.
He was named Billboard magazine's Producer of the Year in 1971.
Hall's story became the centerpiece of the 2013 music documentary "Muscle
Shoals," which reignited a curiosity and interest in the Muscle Shoals music
legacy. Music fans began traveling to the Shoals to visit the studios after
watching the documentary.
Hall is also an inductee in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
In 2014, the Recording Academy awarded Hall with a Grammy Trustee Award,
recognizing him for 60 years of success in the music business. In 2015, Hall
was
honored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The following year, Heritage
Builders Publishing released "The Man From Muscle Shoals: Rick Hall, My Journey
from Shame To Fame," the story of Hall's life.
In 2015, the Business Council of Alabama awarded Hall and the Swampers Rhythm
Section its Chairman’s Award.
BCA President and CEO William J. Canary extended condolences to Hall’s
family.
“There is a great loss today in Alabama of a dynamic leader who forever will
leave his mark on the music industry,” Canary said.
“His book convinced me that there are mystical waters spreading musical
threads through Muscle Shoals, its music, and its people for the benefit of the
world,” Canary said. “His memory will live on forever in his music, as will the
‘Magic Wall’ which came to life with the release of the documentary film
‘Muscle
Shoals.’”
Hall had a reputation for ruthless pursuit of the music he heard in his head,
and that could make for some rough recording sessions.
"I know I would have had no career in music at all without Rick," said David
Hood, bassist with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which got its start at
FAME. "He was an encourager, a great influence. Sometimes his threats were
encouragement enough.
"Overall, he had a very positive influence on me and the industry here," Hood
said. "I always thought, even when I wasn't working with him, 'What would Rick
think?' I always wanted him to be proud of us."
Drummer Roger Hawkins said he was probably in his early 20s when he started
working for Hall with his friends Hood, guitarist Jimmy Johnson and keyboardist
Barry Beckett, later dubbed The Swampers.
"Rick was a hard teacher, but a good teacher," Hawkins said. "He taught me
everything I thought I already knew."
Mickey Buckins, who worked at FAME as an artist, songwriter and engineer,
said
Hall had the best ears in the music business.
"The main thing I learned from Rick was to listen, really listen," Buckins
said. "He would drive himself crazy, and the rest of us, until he got what he
wanted on tape. That was his way.
"It was a mind-blowing experience at that age," he said. "I loved the man,
the
whole Hall family."
Guralnick said Hall was not one to make lots of friends, but those he had he
valued deeply.
"Rick valued so highly his friendship with Jerry Wexler and Sam Phillips. He
especially idolized Sam Phillips," he said. "He had a sense of gratitude that
he
was accepted in that company. But the contributions he made to music of all
sorts is incomparable."
Wexler's son, Paul Wexler, said his father had the utmost respect for Hall as
a producer and a man who could recognize talented artists. His father kept up
with trends in local markets and began sending artists to FAME to record with
Hall.
"Times were changing and Rick was at the front of a wave of change in the way
people were recording," Wexler said. "My father gave him a lot of credit for
that."
Singer, songwriter and producer Walt Aldridge said he worked with Hall for 17
years, starting out as a runner and eventually becoming a business partner.
"I got to look at every aspect of the music business with Rick and received
an
invaluable education," Aldridge said. "Rick managed to be relevant for a lot of
years. He was able to evolve and reinvent himself."
Aldridge doubts the Muscle Shoals Sound would have existed without Rick Hall.
"The music world changed today with Rick's passing," said singer, songwriter
and producer Mac McAnally, who worked as a session musician at FAME. "I don't
know now who will be the most dedicated, relentless advocate for music being as
strong as it can be, but I know who it was up until today. I am blessed to have
learned at his feet, and happy we have so much work to remember him by."
Aldridge said the special thing about the Shoals is not that hit records were
being cut here because they were being cut in Memphis, Detroit, Michigan, Los
Angeles, California, and many other places.
"There was a lot of hit making going on because it was a young industry
then,"
Aldridge said. "What's amazing to me is that Muscle Shoals survived."
Hall's son, Rodney Hall, said FAME Recording Studios will remain open per his
father's wishes.
"He planted the seed and we'd like to see that tree grow for generations,"
Rodney Hall said.
Hall said his father lived in what he considers the golden age of the
recording industry.
"He lived during the age when it was a really sexy, fun, cool thing to be
able
to go in and make a record and go to a radio station and they'd play it," he
said. "You'd have a hit record just by having good music, sheer, hard work and
determination. That's not necessarily the case today."
Hall said his father's legacy will live on through the music he helped create.
"It's a very sad milestone," said Patterson Hood, Shoals native and
co-founder
of the Drive-By Truckers. "All of my interactions with him were positive, and
there's no denying what a true force of nature he was. He literally made the
impossible happen by pure force of will, and I'll always respect that."
In 2017, Rick Hall was the recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from the
University of North Alabama.
“Rick was a friend of mine and a friend of the University of North Alabama
and
I am glad we were able to celebrate his life accomplishments with the honorary
degree in 2017," UNA President Ken Kitts said. "Rick’s work brought great
visibility to the Shoals, and helped establish UNA’s reputation as a national
leader in the field of entertainment industry. He will be sorely missed.”
Keyboardist Spooner Oldham, who used to write and work on songs after hours
at
FAME with writing partner Dan Penn, said Hall was a tenacious worker who
surrounded himself with the best people he could, whether they were singers,
musicians or office workers.
"He was my friend and we rode around together when we'd go to radio stations
when we had a new record," Oldham said. "They'd put in on the air, and we'd go
out in the car and listen to it. I love his family and I wish them well."
Shoals singer, songwriter and keyboardists Donnie Fritts said Hall earned his
spot in history.
"Rick worked so hard to produce those records," Fritts said. "I'm sure he
will
be missed. He helped a lot of people get started here. Nobody ever outworked
Rick."
Soul singer Candi Staton said she heard about Hall's death as she was
returning home from Amsterdam.
"I lost it right there on the plane," Staton said. "Rick and I have been such
good friends for so many years. He saw something in me nobody else saw. He
reached out and grabbed it and pulled it out of me. If it hadn't been for Rick
Hall, there wouldn't have been a Candi Staton."
Staton was introduced to Hall by Clarence Carter and laid down three tracks
at
FAME the first night they met.
"He introduced me to the music business," she said. "I watched him and
learned
how to produce through watching him and making sure everything was correct. He
will always be on my mind for the rest of my life."
Hall's visitation is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. Friday at Highland Park
Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. His funeral will be at 2 p.m. at the church.
Morrison Funeral Home of Tuscumbia is handling the arrangements.
*****
Wikipedia Article on Rick Hall:
r moves
a.. 5 Later life
a.. 6 References
Early life[edit]
Hall was born into a family of sharecroppers in Forest Grove, Tishomingo
County, Mississippi to Herman Hall,[2] a sawmill worker and sharecropper[5] and
his wife, Dolly. After his mother left home when young Hall was aged 4,[2] he,
along with his siblings was raised in rural poverty[5] by his father and
grandparents in Franklin County, Alabama.[2][6] He moved to Rockford, Illinois,
as a teenager, working as an apprentice toolmaker, and began playing in local
bar bands.[7] When he was drafted for the Korean War, he declared himself a
conscientious objector, joined the honor guard of the Fourth United States
Army,
and played in a band which also included Faron Young and the fiddler Gordon
Terry.[7]
Early career as musician and songwriter[edit]
When Hall returned to Alabama he resumed factory life, working for Reynolds
Aluminum in Florence.[7] When both his new bride and his father died within a
two-week period, he lost interest in regular work and began moving around the
area playing guitar, mandolin, and fiddle with a local group, Carmol Taylor and
the Country Pals.[7] The group appeared on a weekly regional radio show at WERH
in Hamilton.[7] Subsequently, Hall formed a new R&B group, the Fairlanes, with
the saxophonist Billy Sherrill fronted by the singer Dan Penn, with Hall
playing
bass.[7] He also began writing songs at that time.[8][7]
Hall left the Fairlanes to concentrate on becoming a songwriter and record
producer.[9] He had his first songwriting successes in the late 1950s, when
George Jones recorded his song "Achin', Breakin' Heart", Brenda Lee recorded
"She'll Never Know", and Roy Orbison recorded "Sweet and Innocent".[6]
Success with FAME Studios[edit]
In 1959, Hall and Sherrill accepted an offer from Tom Stafford, the owner of
a
recording studio, to help set up a new music publishing company in the town of
Florence, to be known as Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, or FAME.[10]
However, in 1960, Sherrill and Stafford dissolved the partnership, leaving Hall
with rights to the studio name. Hall then set up FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals,
Alabama, where one of his first recordings was Arthur Alexander's "You Better
Move On".[6] The commercial success of the record gave Hall the financial
resources to establish a new, larger FAME recording studio.[6][7][11]
Though Hall grew up in a culture dominated by country music, he had a love of
R&B music and, in the highly segregated state of Alabama, regularly flaunted
local policies and recorded many black musicians.[2] Hall wrote: "Black music
helped broaden my musical horizons and open my eyes and ears to the widespread
appeal of the so-called ‘race’ music that later became known as ‘rhythm and
blues".[2] Hall's successes continued after the Atlanta-based agent Bill Lowery
brought him acts to record, and the studio produced hits for Tommy Roe, Joe
Tex,
the Tams, and Jimmy Hughes.[7] However, in 1964, Hall's regular session
group—David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, Jerry Carrigan, Earl "Peanut" Montgomery,
and Donnie Fritts—became frustrated at being paid minimum union-scale wages by
Hall, and left Muscle Shoals to set up a studio of their own in Nashville.[7]
Hall then pulled together a new studio band, including Spooner Oldham, Jimmy
Johnson, David Hood, and Roger Hawkins, and continued to produce hit records.[7]
In 1966, he helped license Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman",
produced
by Quin Ivy, to Atlantic Records, which then led to a regular arrangement under
which Atlantic would send musicians to Hall's Muscle Shoals studio to
record.[12] The studio produced further hit records for Wilson Pickett, James &
Bobby Purify, Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Otis Redding, and Arthur
Conley,
enhancing Hall's reputation as a white Southern producer who could produce and
engineer hits for black Southern soul singers.[6][7] He produced many sessions
using guitarist Duane Allman.[9] He also produced recordings for other artists,
including Etta James, whom he persuaded to record Clarence Carter's song "Tell
Mama".[2] However, his fiery temperament led to the end of the relationship
with
Atlantic after he got into a fistfight with Aretha Franklin's husband, Ted
White, in late 1967.[7]
In 1969, FAME Records, with artists including Candi Staton, Clarence Carter
and Arthur Conley, established a distribution deal with Capitol Records.[11]
Hall then turned his attention away from soul music towards mainstream pop,
producing hits for the Osmonds, Paul Anka, Tom Jones, and Donny Osmond.[6] Also
in 1969, another FAME Studio house band, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section,
affectionately called The Swampers, consisting of Barry Beckett (keyboards),
Roger Hawkins (drums), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), and David Hood (bass), left the
FAME studio to found the competing Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 3614 Jackson
Highway in Sheffield, with start-up funding from Jerry Wexler.[13][14][15]
Subsequently, Hall hired the Fame Gang as the new studio band.[16]
Recognition and later career moves[edit]
Hall's FAME studio prospered through the 1970s.[16] In 1971, Hall was named
Producer of the Year by Billboard magazine,[7] a year after having been
nominated for a Grammy in the same category.[17] Later in the decade, Hall
moved
back towards country music, producing hits for Mac Davis, Bobbie Gentry, Jerry
Reed, and the Gatlin Brothers.[7] He also worked with the songwriter and
producer Robert Byrne to help a local bar band, Shenandoah, top the national
Hot
Country Songs chart several times in the 1980s and 1990s.[6] Hall's publishing
staff of in-house songwriters wrote some of the biggest country hits in those
decades. His publishing catalog included "I Swear" written by Frank Myers and
Gary Baker.[6][11] In 1985 he was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame,
his citation referring to him as the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music."[6]
In 2007, Hall reactivated the FAME Records label through a distribution deal
with EMI.[18]
Later life[edit]
Hall's life and career are profiled in the 2013 documentary film Muscle
Shoals.[19] During an interview before the release of the movie, Hall told a
journalist that in 2009, he had donated his home to a charity for abused and
neglected children. The hits he had recorded over the years, and the sale of
two
of his six publishing catalogs had made him wealthy. In spite of that, at the
age of 81, he was still trying to make recording deals.[16]
In 2014, Hall was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his significant
contribution to the field of recording.[20][21]
Hall published his memoirs in a book titled The Man from Muscle Shoals: My
Journey from Shame to Fame in 2015.[8][9] On December 17, 2016, Hall was
awarded
an honorary doctorate by the University of North Alabama in Florence.[22]
He died on January 2, 2018, aged 85, at his home in Muscle Shoals, resulting
from cancer, after returning from a stay in a local nursing home shortly before
Christmas.[19][23]