Hear Where the Muscle Shoals Sound Was Born

In the 1960s and 70s, a small stretch of the Tennessee River valley produced an outsized share of American music. Aretha Franklin found her sound at FAME Studios. Wilson Pickett, Etta James, and Duane Allman recorded there. Then the house rhythm section — the Swampers, name-checked in “Sweet Home Alabama” — split off to open Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 3614 Jackson Highway, where the Rolling Stones cut “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses.” Both studios still stand, both give tours, and both are shockingly humble little buildings for what came out of them.