“I love music. For me, music is morning coffee. It’s mood medicine. It’s pure magic. A good song is like a good meal-I just want to inhale it and then share a bite with someone else.”
― Hoda Kotb
For those who know me, they know that I truly love music. I cannot play any instrument and I can’t sing but if I am sad, I put the earphones in, turn the volume up and forget about the world for awhile. As someone once said, “music is what feelings sound like.” I believe that.
Recently, I had the privilege to go with my church band to the iconic Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record tracks or I should say, lay down some tracks for a CD (does anybody listen to cd’s anymore?) or album or to be played on Spotify.
We went to Muscle Shoals last year with friends of ours on what we called the Blues Tour. Nashville, Memphis, Muscle Shoals and the Mississippi Delta. One of my favorite vacations ever. During that trip we toured FAME Studios as well as the other iconic studio in Muscle Shoals, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and as we were doing the tour of the studios, my friend Cecil and I were talking about how great it would be to have our church band to record at one of these studios. Cecil took it to heart and BOOM….. it happened. Cecil is kind of like that.
Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Otis Redding, The Allman Brothers, Paul Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker, Alicia Keys, Steven Tyler, Grace Potter and The Rolling Stones all recorded in the two recording studios in Muscle Shoals. Our little ole band from Venture Church was recording in royalty. Were the musicians at our church anywhere near the talent that has walked through those doors? Of course not but what an experience it was for them and honestly for me too. The band recorded 9 songs in 2 days which was very hard work but at the end when Lauren Butterfield sang the cover of the old Bob Dylan song, Pressing On, the Alicia Keys version, sitting in the control room and listening to the finished song, I found myself tearing up…. it was magical. As Rick Hall, The owner of FAME once said ” We cut them from the heart not from the charts”. Bravo, Lauren that was from the heart. You killed it and I am glad I got to witness it.
Reflections Of A Gasbag 