Celebrate Muscle Shoals Music Day

WHEREAS, in 1959, a recording industry was born when Rick Hall created FAME Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals and recorded the hit “You Better Move On” with Arthur Alexander, a bellhop at a local hotel; and

WHEREAS, when Rick Hall recorded Aretha Franklin singing “I Never Loved a Man the Way That I Love You” and “(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman,” Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” Clarence Carter’s “Patches” and other soul artists, the Muscle Shoals Sound was born; and

WHEREAS, Sheffield disc jockey Quin Ivy set up a studio in 1965 and recorded Percy Sledge, an orderly at Colbert County Hospital, singing “When A Man Loves A Woman,” the Shoals captured its first gold single; and

WHEREAS, for almost three decades, the high caliber of session players attracted a number of major artists to as many as eight studios, earning the nickname “Hit Recording Capital of the World;” and

WHEREAS, four of Hall’s session musicians broke away in 1969 and formed the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield; David Hood, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Beckett became known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (nicknamed the “Swampers” by Lynyrd Skynyrd on “Sweet Home Alabama”) and attracted a spectacular range of artists to their studio through 1978; those artists include Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, the Staple Singers and Bob Segar; and

WHEREAS, Magnolia Pictures has released a documentary entitled simply “Muscle Shoals” opening tomorrow in Florence, Birmingham and several other cities across the nation, that features Aretha Franklin, Bono, Alicia Keys, Etta James, Steve Winwood, Gregg Allman, Clarence Carter, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Cliff, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett and others who praise the talents of North Alabama musicians; and

WHEREAS, today, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame officially reopens to showcase Alabama talents as diverse as the band ALABAMA, Hank Locklin, Nat (King) Cole, Tammy Wynette, Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Hank Williams, the Alabama Shakes, Jason Isbell and Drive-By Truckers:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert Bentley, Governor of Alabama, do hereby proclaim October 17, 2013, as

Celebrate Muscle Shoals Music Day

in the state of the Alabama.