Discover early influencers and legendary icons in music, architecture, and fashion in northwest Alabama
You’ll find an unbelievably rich musical legacy and a host of cultural treasures
Illustrated map by Steve Stankiewicz
Set along a shallow stretch of the Tennessee River in the northwestern corner of Alabama, the communities of Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia are known collectively as the Shoals. Early American Indian inhabitants referred to the Tennessee as the “singing river,” which would prove fitting. Alongside it, centuries later, a rich musical culture would emerge, as two studios, FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound, drew the greatest musicians of the sixties and seventies and established the area as the “Hit Recording Capital of the World.”
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Alabama
United-states
Falling-water
Tennessee
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Tuscumbia
Memphis
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America
American
Billy-reid