Full Interview
Floyd Newman is among the most noted studio musicians from the early days of Stax Records in Memphis. As a saxophonist, Floyd became an integral part of the studio band at Stax Records known as the Mar-Keys. He was also a member of the famed Memphis Horns group, which was formed by Wayne Jackson...
James Alexander reformed his band, the Bar-Kays following the plane crash that took the lives of three members, and singer Otis Redding. The new band was created in tribute to those killed with the help of Ben Cauley, the only survivor of the crash (James was on a second plane) and singer Larry...
Archie “Hubby” Turner served in the US Army during the Vietnam War and always felt the experience taught him, among other things, to appreciate the opportunity you have to add beauty and music to the world. Archie has done just that as a session player in Memphis, including at Hi Records. His...
Bob Wray remembers the day he was sitting in the Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama when Clarence Carter outlined the next song he was ready to cut. Bob was to play guitar on the song, which was “Patches.” The song was the biggest in Mr. Carter’s career and Bob knew then and there that...
Larry Dodson Sr. was asked to become the first singer in the Bar-Kays back in 1970. The band started out as an instrumental group in the 1960s and gained world-wide fame as Otis Redding band. When Otis and four members of the band died in a 1967 plane crash, two surviving band members decided to...
Sam Mosley and his friend Bobby Johnson played music together as teenagers in and around their hometown in northern Mississippi. Together the team formed a successful band and songwriting team that earned them a place in blues history. They began recording for Sabo Records in the early 1970s and...
Jimmy Nutt is the recording engineer in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama who established The Nutt House Recording Studio. Jimmy began his playing career as a teenager and he was always the member of the band who took care of the PA and sound for the gigs. As he grew up and saw a need that fellow...
Donnie Fritts was born in Florence, Alabama, the right place at the right time to grow up to become a studio musician and songwriter. Just a little way down the road from where Donnie grew up was the epicenter of the Muscle Shoals Sound –and Donnie was there, front and center! In the mid-1960s,...
Rick Hall was born just down the country road from Sam Philips, the founder of Sun Records in Memphis. Perhaps there was something in the Florence River there near Muscle Shoals because Rick too went on to establish a famous recording studio, Fame! Rick entered the music publishing industry in...
David Briggs was a struggling musician in Nashville when he received a call to replace Floyd Cramer on a recording session. That session just happened to be for an album titled “How Great Thou Art” for Elvis Presley. That session took place in May of 1966, impressing Elvis and his band enough to...