Muscle Shoals Has Two Famous Recording Studios You Can Tour. Here’s What Each Visit Covers

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Muscle Shoals, Alabama, is a small city on the Tennessee River, but it holds a large place in American music. Two studios here, FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, produced hit records for soul, rock, and country artists from the 1960s onward. Both are still standing, and both welcome visitors. Muscle Shoals studio tours are the main reason many music fans make the trip to northwest Alabama.

Here is what each visit covers. FAME Studios, at 603 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, is still a working studio, and its guided tours, priced around $20, walk through the rooms where Rick Hall produced records, including Aretha Franklin’s breakthrough 1967 session. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, at 3614 Jackson Highway in nearby Sheffield, offers tours priced around $25 of the small building the session players known as the Swampers opened in 1969. That is where the Rolling Stones recorded Brown Sugar and Wild Horses in December 1969. Prices can change, so check each studio’s website before you go.

What Each Studio Tour Covers

The two tours tell connected but different stories. FAME is the older studio and the place where the Muscle Shoals sound first took shape. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was founded by musicians who had played at FAME and then struck out on their own.

FAME Studios

FAME stands for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, a name that dates to the studio’s earliest days in nearby Florence. Rick Hall built the studio on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals in the early 1960s, and it has operated there ever since. Unlike many historic studios, FAME still records music, so the tour takes you through a working space.

A typical FAME tour covers:

• Studio A and Studio B, the recording rooms where sessions took place.
• The control room, where Hall and his engineers captured the sound.
• Photos, gold records, and memorabilia on the walls.
• Stories about artists who recorded at FAME, including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, and Percy Sledge, whose When a Man Loves a Woman is tied to the Muscle Shoals scene.
• The story of Rick Hall, a producer known for his intense work ethic, and the house bands that played on hundreds of records.

Aretha Franklin’s 1967 session at FAME is one of the studio’s most famous chapters. She recorded I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) there, a song that helped launch her career as the Queen of Soul. Tour guides often share how that session came together and what happened next.

Because FAME is a working studio, tour times can change around recording sessions. Call ahead or book online.

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

In 1969, four FAME session players opened their own studio in a small block building at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield. They were keyboardist Barry Beckett, drummer Roger Hawkins, bassist David Hood, and guitarist Jimmy Johnson. Known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, they were nicknamed the Swampers, a name later immortalized in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama.

The studio drew a remarkable list of artists. The Rolling Stones recorded Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, and You Gotta Move there in December 1969. Other artists who recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound include Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Cher, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, and the Staple Singers.

The studio later moved to a larger building, and the Jackson Highway site went through several uses over the years. The Muscle Shoals Music Foundation restored the original building, and it reopened to visitors in January 2017.

A typical Muscle Shoals Sound Studio tour covers:

• The main recording room, restored to look as it did in the 1970s.
• The control room and vintage equipment.
• The famous bathroom, where some vocalists recorded because of its acoustics, according to studio lore.
• Stories about the Swampers and the artists they worked with.
• Photos and memorabilia from sessions.

The studio’s small size surprises many visitors. Standing in the room where the Stones recorded, you get a sense of how much music came out of such a simple space.

Why Muscle Shoals Became a Music Center

Muscle Shoals is not a large city. So how did it become one of the most important recording centers in America?

Part of the answer is the musicians. The session players at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound were skilled, versatile, and able to play soul, rock, and country with equal feel. Many artists were surprised to learn that the groove they heard on records came from a group of white Southern musicians, at a time when segregation shaped much of life in Alabama.

Part of it was the producers. Rick Hall pushed his musicians hard and had a keen ear for hits. Later, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records brought artists such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett to Muscle Shoals, helping spread the area’s reputation.

Part of it was the setting. Artists often describe a relaxed atmosphere far from the pressures of big-city studios. The 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals tells this story and brought new attention to both studios.

How to Plan Muscle Shoals Studio Tours

The Shoals region includes four cities: Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, and Florence. FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio are a short drive apart, so you can visit both in a single day.

A few planning tips:

• Book ahead. Tours can fill up, especially on weekends.
• Check hours. Both studios set their own schedules, and FAME’s tours depend on recording activity.
• Allow time for each tour. Plan for about an hour at each studio.
• Bring cash or a card for gift shops, which sell T-shirts, records, and souvenirs.
• Photos are usually allowed, but ask your guide.

Other Music Stops in the Shoals

The area has more music history worth seeing.

• W.C. Handy Birthplace, Museum and Library in Florence honors the composer often called the Father of the Blues. His log cabin birthplace and a museum of memorabilia are open to visitors.
• Florence is also the hometown of Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records in Memphis, who recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and others. The University of North Alabama in Florence and local music tours often point out his connection to the city.
• The Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia has exhibits on musicians from the state, though its operations have been uncertain in recent years. Check its status before visiting.
• Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, the birthplace of Helen Keller, is a short drive away and is not music related, but it is one of the region’s most visited sites.

Getting There

Muscle Shoals is in the northwest corner of Alabama, about 70 miles west of Huntsville and about two and a half hours from Nashville. Birmingham is about two hours away. Northwest Alabama Regional Airport, in Muscle Shoals, offers limited commercial service, while Huntsville International Airport and Nashville International Airport have more flights.

Where to Stay and Eat

The Shoals has a range of hotels, including chain properties along the main highways and a few boutique options. The GunRunner Hotel in Florence is one boutique hotel in a historic building. Downtown Florence has restaurants, coffee shops, and bars, and it is a pleasant place to stroll after a day of tours.

Southern food is easy to find, from barbecue to meat-and-three plates. Florence is also known for fashion: designer Billy Reid’s flagship store is downtown, and the city hosts events tied to his brand.

Visiting Both Studios in One Day

The two studios sit only a few miles apart, so a single day covers both comfortably. A simple plan is to start at FAME in the morning, since it is the older studio and sets up the story, then cross into Sheffield for Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in the afternoon. That order follows the history: the Swampers learned their craft at FAME before opening their own room on Jackson Highway.

Leave time between tours for lunch and a drive across the Tennessee River into Florence. The O’Neal Bridge and the Renaissance Tower area give good views of the river that gave the region its name. The original shoals, a stretch of shallow rapids on the Tennessee River, were largely submerged after dams were built in the 20th century, including Wilson Dam, which stands between Muscle Shoals and Florence.

Who These Tours Suit Best

Both tours are aimed at music fans, but you do not need to be an expert to enjoy them. Guides explain the background as they go, and many visitors recognize more songs than they expected once they hear the list. Families with older children who like music usually do well. Younger children may find an hour of studio stories long, so plan breaks.

Musicians often get the most out of the visits. Seeing the actual size of the rooms, the placement of the instruments, and the vintage gear helps explain the sound on the records. Some visitors bring a list of favorite songs and ask guides which room or session they came from.

Making the Most of Your Visit

The best way to experience Muscle Shoals is to listen before you go. Make a playlist of songs recorded at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound, such as Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man, Wilson Pickett’s Mustang Sally, Etta James’s Tell Mama, and the Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar. Then stand in the rooms where those songs were made.

Watching the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals before your trip also helps. It introduces the people and stories you will hear about on the tours.

For music fans, these two studios offer a rare chance to stand in the spaces where American music history was recorded. They are small, unassuming buildings in a small Alabama city, and that is exactly what makes them so memorable.