Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Weekend Travels

It's field trip day. We're on our way to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL.

On our way we decide to stop by the Coon Dog Cemetery. This is a cemetery where hunting (coon dogs) are laid to rest. You have to be a certified hunting dog to be buried here. Pictures will tell the rest of the story.



The Alabama Music Hall of Fame honors AL singers, songwriters and publishers of music. Great singers like Nat King Cole, Tammy Wynette, Lionel Ritchie, the band Alabama, Sam Phillips, and Hank Williams to name a few, are honored here.



Pictures are of the "Golden Country Car" that has more than 500 silver dollars in it and guns for handles. That's a replica of Hank Williams in the bottom photo.

On to the FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. FAME stands for Florence Alabama Music Emporium. The owners didn't realize what the acronym was when they first named it that.
This studio was founded by Rick Hall, nationally recognized as a pioneer in launching the Muscle Shoals music industry. The studio is in it's original location; they are working on getting it placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Various artists have recorded there-Aretha Franklin, Mac Davis, Lou Rawls, Wilson Pickett, Paul Anka, Etta James, the Osmonds, Bobbie Gentry, Andy Williams and more. After touring it, we watched the Muscle Shoals documentary (available on Netflix) which goes into the history much more. Our tour guide was one of the engineers who works there. He had a lot of great stories to tell. We cam away with a greater appreciation of the music and a few new T-shirts!




A stop for lunch at Rosie's Mexican Cantina in Florence-some of the best Mexican food we have had!

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