Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising
Muscle Shoals, Ala., Sept. 30, 2025 – A major exhibit Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising, featuring the music of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and its lasting impact opens Nov. 14 at The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, for a nearly three-year run.
The more than 5,000-square-foot exhibit will survey the emergence of Muscle Shoals as a recording epicenter in the 1960s and 1970s and spotlight its enduring cultural impact.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and for our friends and colleagues at FAME Recording Studios, as well as all of the artists, producers, engineers and employees who are part of our story. Having the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum dedicate their largest exhibit space to our music, history and iconic artists is beyond our dreams. We are excited and so grateful.
— Debbie Wilson, Executive Director, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Included in the Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising exhibit will be iconic archives from the studio's history including Swamper David Hood's bass guitar, a vintage satin Muscle Shoals Sound Studio jacket that belongs to David, and multiple in-depth video interviews with David. He is the last remaining original Swamper, who, along with fellow musicians Jimmy Johnson - rhythm guitar, Roger Hawkins – drummer, and Barry Beckett – keys, opened Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in 1969. The first release from MSS was Cher's 1969 debut solo album "3614 Jackson Highway." The Swampers laid the rhythm tracks, aka helped create the music, of Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Bob Dylan and the Staples Singers.
In Muscle Shoals, American music crossed lines that weren't supposed to be breached. The Tennessee River flowed through this place, and instead of drawing a boundary, somehow forces came together. Black and white sounds, R&B, blues, soul and country met between the banks.
— Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Sound in Color.
Our Quarterly Merch Drop was designed by our Summer intern Gavin Pine. Order yours now!
Support the Studio.
Join us this November for a special dinner and concert with Mac McAnally as we celebrate and fundraise for Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Your sponsorship helps preserve the legacy of this historic studio.
New Podcast Episode!
Some of the biggest hits in music history came from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Terrell Benton brings you into the incredible history of the Muscle Shoals sound. Edited by Chase Brandon. Artwork by Katlyn Lott.
