Soul Crackers

Didn’t you just love that great “black” sound behind the breakthrough hits for Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and others. Well, I’ve got news for you. That dynamite rhythm section was actually a bunch of white, country boys in their early 20’s from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Here’s 10 years of Soul music hits recorded not in Detroit’s Motown or at Stax in Memphis but in the heart of a bigoted, racist South. Alabama was ruled by Gov. George Wallace who took his oath of office pledging to his constituents “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” while standing on the gold star marking the very spot where a century earlier Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America.

Known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (or The Swampers), the group consisted of Barry Beckett (keyboards), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), plus Pete Carr (guitar) and Spooner Oldham (organist).