The Shoals, Alabama (Muscle Shoals; Florence; Tuscumbia)

I left Nashville and dipped south towards Alabama, to spend a few days in the Shoals. I first became aware of this part of the US from a documentary I saw at Sydney Film Festival a couple of years ago called Muscle Shoals. I hadn't realised just how many amazing musicians had come from this part of the world, and how many classic songs were recorded in the FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) studios. I decided that I should make a pilgrimage here as part of my trip, and booked a couple of nights in an empty wooden shack in the middle of the forest in Tuscumbia (its Airbnb owner is currently working as an actress in New York). What I hadn't counted on was catching a nasty virus on my last day in Nashville, which left me with major sickness and diarrhoea for the 4-hour drive south! You may think this is too much information, but remember, this is not just the 'rosy' account of my travels. Yes, I had to make several unscheduled stops at roadside McDonald’s along the way to make use of their facilities, and I was decidedly green and nauseous the entire way* (see also footnote below). At one stage I pulled into the car park of a Dollar General bargain store and just burst into tears, head in my hands as I leant on the steering wheel, not sure if I had the strength to make it to Alabama. I even crept into the back seat, longing to simply lay down and let someone else do the driving while I slept it off. In fact, it wasn't the sickness or stomach cramps that most scared me about this drive, it was the incredible fatigue I felt, as though I would fall asleep at the wheel any moment. Truly terrifying. But I had no co-driver, so sucked it up and drove on, tense for the entire journey. Of course this was when my GPS also decided to pack in, and stop speaking to me, so I was having to navigate as well as drive. The robotic voice of the lady guiding me from my Google Maps route, with whom I had formerly been so irritated (her uncaring, patronising tones!) was now sorely missed, as I frantically studied my phone at every red traffic light for the next part of the route.

My cabin in The Shoals

I finally made it to Tuscumbia in one piece, and a lovely old lady called Doris from across the road came to give me the key to the cabin. She was so adorable, with her slow Southern drawl and tight white curls. Despite the early hour I was exhausted and collapsed onto the bed for a fitful, fever-induced 14 hours of 'sleep'. I hadn't been able to keep anything down all day and had desperately tried to keep my fluids up but had very little energy. As I endured sweat-soaked shallow sleep I had wild dreams, including the overwhelming feeling that I was situated at the intersection of three energy fields which were all clashing in the centre of the very room in which I lay, causing negative, angry energy to shoot all around the room. I don't even know what energy fields are, nor if I even believe in them, but this thought became fact as I blearily opened my eyes at 9am the next morning. How strange and powerful this feeling was! Doris gingerly knocked on my door at 9.30am to check if I was okay – she had been perturbed to see that no movement had come from the house in 14 hours. Bless her socks, it was so lovely in my sick state to feel that someone local was looking out for me!

The sickness persisted so I only saw some of the places I wanted to see in this part of the States, and spent time in the house reading, resting and sleeping. The charming Doris, who really did seem to be most concerned about me, also managed to squeeze in much of her life story, as septuagenarians are wont to do. It turns out she was originally from Germany, and when she was applying for a visa to come and live in the US, she heard about Helen Keller, and decided she wanted to live in the town Helen Keller was from, as she was such an inspirational woman. So it turns out Ms Keller was from Tuscumbia, Alabama, the very town we were in, and her house was available to visit. Doris urged me to go, so although it hadn't even been on my radar (and I was actually woefully ignorant of who Helen Keller actually was) I thought I'd pop along.

Ivy Green

For those of you equally ignorant (apologies to those who've seen the Jodie Foster movie), Helen Keller was a child born in 1880 in a house here in Tuscumbia called Ivy Green, which her grandfather had built in 1820. When she was 19 months old an illness left her blind and deaf, and she stumbled on through a solitary and slightly wild life until she was 7 years old. A teacher who had been sent to work with her, Anne Sullivan, made a breakthrough. As she pumped water over Helen's hand in the garden she repeatedly spelt 'WATER' on Helen's other hand using sign language, and finally a ray of sunlight came into the little girl's life, as she realised she could communicate. Helen went on to be a brilliant scholar and speaker for the rights of deaf and blind people all over the world. Her story is astonishing, and the house features many original pieces of furniture and clothing, quilts and photographs. The quilt on her bed was made over 100 years ago by her aunt. Her original braille typewriters are there, lots of letters written to her from people all over the world, books she wrote, items donated to her. Walking round the house and reading her correspondence was very moving. It was also fascinating to see things like the cook's quarters, the locked chest which contained the twice-yearly sugar deliveries and the underground shed built to house ice.

Australian tea set gifted to Helen

Ms Keller eventually learnt to write

Some of her frocks

Homemade quilt

Stunning piano

THE pump!

The kitchen (separate from the house)

The kitchen and cook's quarters

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart." Helen Keller

Another good knock on effect of this visit was that I stopped feeling sorry for myself in my sick state. I just have a virus and will be better in a few days -- it's not like I have a major disability or a life-threatening illness, crikey! As Nick would say, 'suck it up, princess'.

Muscle Shoals is thus called because the river in this area used to be a shallow place where mussels gathered (long since gone as dams have been built to create large, deep reservoirs). It was a sacred Indian site where it was believed the river sang important songs and people gathered to listen. But 'Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson', the controversial US president (who I know all about from a fab musical the Squabbalogic guys staged) forcibly removed the Cherokee Indians from this area to Oklahoma, using the river to transport them. Well the musical magic of the area certainly lived on after European settlers took over. It's incredible the number of great musicians who lived and worked in this area, across many different genres.

Local history

Advert encouraging people to move here

'A second Chicago'

'The dawn of a new prosperity'

Even Mr Ford was encouraging...

W. C. Handy, long credited as 'father of the blues', was born in Florence here in the Shoals area and I drove past the little wooden house in which he spent his early childhood. Rick Hall founded FAME recording studios here in Muscle Shoals in the 1950s, where such luminaries as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding recorded. Duane Allman, later of the Allman brothers, camped out in the parking lot to be near the studios. On a lunch break he taught Wilson Pickett the Beatles song 'Hey Jude', which Pickett later recorded (a great version IMHO).

FAME recording studios

The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, later founded by The Swampers

Part of the reason why the 'Muscle Shoals Sound' was so unique and brilliant was thanks to the in-house studio band, the 'Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section', more commonly known as 'The Swampers', immortalised in Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama':

“Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers

And they've been known to pick a song or two

Lord they get me off so much

They pick me up when I'm feeling blue”

In fact, this band were so amazing that when Paul Simon heard them play on a Mavis Staples song he insisted on going to Muscle Shoals to record with them. When he was introduced to this bunch of white guys he was polite but quickly asked to be introduced to the band. He had assumed they would be black! Paul Simon went on to record several songs with The Swampers here, as did Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, George Michael and many other greats.

So you can kind of see why I wanted to visit! I popped along to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, where I learnt more about the state's natives and their contribution to music history. Not only has Alabama spawned such musical luminaries as Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, W.C. Handy, Nat King Cole, The Temptations and Lionel Richie, but it was also the home of Sam Philips, who founded Sun Studios and signed an unknown artist called Elvis Presley. Elvis' original recording contract was on display in the museum. Pretty cool!

Original recording desk

Lionel Ritchie memorabilia

I want to play the Uke

Tammy

Emmylou

Inside a tour bus

W C Handy original recordings

W C Handy memorabilia

Percy Sledge memorabilia

Awesome shirt

The Lynyrd Skynyrd homage

Signed Muscle Shoals poster

My first Blues Trail marker: first of many!

Alabama Music Hall of Fame

I wasn't expecting there to be a FrankLloyd-Wright house in the middle of unassuming Florence, Alabama, but the lovely lady at the welcome center recommended I go and check it out. The only example of his architecture in the whole state, it was tucked away on an ordinary Florence street lined with trees and bushes, its exterior not revealing the gems within. Built in 1939 for newlyweds Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum, Wright returned in 1948 to add extra rooms after the couple had increased their number to include four sons. The family lived there until 1999 when the City of Florence purchased the house and turned it into a museum. How lovely of them!

Unassuming exterior

From the side

Lovely light inside

Living room

Study

Living room

All in all, my time in Alabama has certainly been coloured by my sickness, which extended to four days in total. I still wasn't quite right for the drive to Memphis and only really had my first full meal on my second day in the city of the blues (more on that later). But I'm glad I detoured here and got a feel for the place. I know there are heaps of places I'd like to visit if I ever come back.

Flag from fallen soldier, in City Hall

A local brought back a piece of the World Trade Center for City Hall

City of Sheffield, Alabama

Alabama house

We keep the shoals rollin'

(* As an amusing side note, I thought I'd succumb to a Great American Tradition while road tripping (plus take advantage of the fact that I wasn't keeping any food down during my sickness) and go to a drive-thru McDonald's. I'd never driven through a drive-thru before (the times with Nick as a passenger on Australian East Coast road trips don't count in this scenario) so I was unsure what to do. Nevertheless, I successfully ordered, paid, drove forward to collect my burger and then parked in the car park as I had no idea how to navigate driving and eating at the same time. Lucky I did, because they'd FORGOTTEN TO INCLUDE THE BURGER IN MY BURGER! WTF?!?! There was the bun, the lettuce, the tomato, the cheese but NO BURGER! I went back and they were bemused and reluctantly provided me with another one. It tasted, of course, disgusting and I threw most of it away, but I made two observations. One: no wonder so many North Americans are obese and in poor health -- it's cheaper to eat shit from McDonald's than it is to eat healthily and Two: I am dumbfounded as to what kind of numpty makes a burger WITHOUT THE BURGER! Needless to say that was my first and last visit to a Maccas drive-thru, but interesting story!)