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big, wide world. The fact that our local com- munity does so much to encourage each other and help one another out creates a sort of synergy that is hard to find in many other places.


Why do you think that the Muscle Shoals music continues to generate such a devoted following? For me, it’s about the bar being set at a high level – when you come to this town, you real- ize very quickly that excellence is the stan- dard expectation. Ergo, anything new that is to continue to be branded as ‘Muscle Shoals Music’ has to meet that expectation as well. It only follows that the vast wealth of good music that has been exported from here has led devoted followers to feel confident that this tradition will continue.


What do you miss most nowadays from the music of past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of music? I miss real music – too many recording nowa- days are being over-produced and manipu- lated with computers. With the right software package and technical knowledge, one can lit- erally produce a commercial record on some- one with very little talent. I hope that the public at large will begin to gravitate back to- wards more organic, rootsy artists and bands that can actually reproduce the sounds on their records in a live setting.


What are the lines that connect the legacy of Blues with Soul and continue into Country and Southern Rock music? In both cases, I believe it’s about an honest genre of artists writing and singing about what they know and is true to them. The best music always comes from the heart.


How did you come up with the idea of a PR agency in Muscle Shoals? Would


you tell a little bit about that? There is an entire new wave of bands and artists in our local vicinity who are just now coming of age and starting to really hit their stride. However, as a fledgling artist, it is more difficult to make the inroads and con- nections that are a critical part of moving for- ward. Group this with my longtime desire to help and support our local acts, a network of business associates that I have spent twenty years developing, and a potential partner who is bringing a lot of positives to the table as well, it was an easy decision to make. We are still in the formative stages, but expect to be open for official business very soon and are excited about our prospects.


Which incident of Muscle Shoals his- tory would you like to see captured and illustrated in a painting? There is a famous story about Duane Allman allegedly taking charge of a recording session at FAME one day, and deciding to dump the song that was scheduled to be cut by Wilson Pickett that day while the rest of the record- ing crew were gone to lunch and to record a cover of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” in its place. This recording ended being arguably the gen- esis of Southern Rock, and includes a solo by Duane that has been hailed by many (includ- ing Eric Clapton) as one of the finest rock gui- tar solos in modern history. Somehow, that particular moment in time kind of helps to explain the magic that just tends to happen around here.


What has made you laugh lately and what has touched you emotionally from the music world? Anything involving Justin Bieber, and Gal- adrielle Allman’s decision to name her newly published book after my father’s song ‘Please


Be With Me’, respectively. • 25


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