By: Brad Gallagher
Have you ever heard of the Swampers? You probably have and don’t even know it. If you have ever listened to the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Sweet Home Alabama”, you have definitely heard of the Swampers. In the last verse of the song, Ronnie Van Zant sings “Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers, they’ve been known to pick a song or two.” Sounds familiar doesn’t it? But who are they, and what is Muscle Shoals?
As the story goes:
Keyboard player Barry Beckett, drummer Roger Hawkins, guitarist Jimmy Johnson, and bass player David Hood spent years playing back up music at the iconic “Fame Studios” in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The owner of Fame Studios, Rick Hall, referred to their style of music as the “Muscle Shoals Sound”. Thus they were known as the “Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section”. But years later, during a recording session for Leon Russell, a producer by the name of Denny Cordell dubbed them “The Swampers” due to their, and I quote, “funky, soulful Southern “swamp” sound”.(1)
In 1969, the four members of the Swampers, along with financier Jerry Wexler, broke away from Fame Studios and started the “Muscle Shoals Sound Studio” in Sheffield, Alabama. Their studio was located at 3614 Jackson Highway. The address which also became the title of a 1969 album by Cher. They were the first group of musicians to ever own their own recording studio.
Later that year they recorded their first hit in their new studio. It was song performed by R. B. Greaves entitled “Take A Letter Maria”. And by the end of that year, the Rolling Stones were recording at Muscle Shoals Sound. The Swampers not only ran the recording studio, but also played backup for many of the artists who recorded there. Over the years many famous musicians recorded there, such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Traffic, Elton John, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Glenn Frey, George Michael, and of coarse Lynard Skynyrd. Because, “Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers, they’ve been known to pick a song or two.”
So go ahead and download a copy of Sweet Home Alabama and listen to it at high volume. And when they get to the third verse, don’t be shy, just sing along as loud as you can, because now you know why.
Come back and see me real soon on As The Story Goes.
1 “Alabama Music Hall of Fame: Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section”. http://www.alamhof.org. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
AS THE STORY GOES 