BuffettNews.com

HsvParrothead wrote:ODD... I live an hour and half from Muscle Shoals.... Nothing on the local news... but come on here and someones already on it

This may be why you haven't seen anything on the local news recently....

Article wrote:recorded its last sessions in December and shuttered on January 14th

Its been closed over a month.

land_shark3 wrote:

HsvParrothead wrote:ODD... I live an hour and half from Muscle Shoals.... Nothing on the local news... but come on here and someones already on it

This may be why you haven't seen anything on the local news recently....

Article wrote:recorded its last sessions in December and shuttered on January 14th

Its been closed over a month.

You say that as if to imply I actually READ the article... Puhlease...

A sad day in Rock'n'Roll and Blues history (last month)

st.somewhere wrote:So how's that going for you anyway?

OK, I guess, but it could be much better.

New ownership
Cypress Moon Productions in process of buying Muscle Shoals Sound Studios

By Terry Pace
Entertainment Editor

One of the Muscle Shoals music industry's historic hit factories may start playing a broader role in the world of entertainment.

Cypress Moon Productions -- a local company that produced an award-winning short film called "The Mirror" -- is in the process of purchasing Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, a 30,000-square-foot facility overlooking the Tennessee River at the east entrance to Riverfront Park.

"Cypress Moon has signed a contract, and we hope to close the sale by the middle of next month," said Tommy Couch, president of Malaco Music Group, the Jackson, Miss.-based record label and publishing company that has owned the studio since 1985.

"We're letting them move their things in on a temporary sort of basis, pending the closing," added Couch, a Tuscumbia native. "We hate to let the place go, but the era of the big commercial recording studios is just about over. Every year that's passed by, we've seemed to use it a little less."

Cypress Moon plans to modify the studio to accommodate a wide array of movie and music projects, says Shoals filmmaker Tonya Holly, the company's president and founder. Malaco has sold its 24-track recording consoles to a separate buyer, but Cypress Moon intends to install state-of-the-art film, video and audio technology.

"We're going to call it Cypress Moon Studios at Muscle Shoals Sound -- we want to keep that identity with the history that's been made there," Holly explained from Selma, where her company is shooting location footage for its first feature film, "When I Find the Ocean."

"Our focus will be on film and video production," she noted, "but we'll be equipped for audio recording -- you could still cut an album down there."

Holly wrote the script for "When I Find the Ocean," which she plans to produce and direct. The family drama, set during the civil-rights era in Alabama, will star Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. ("An Officer and a Gentleman"), country singer Naomi Judd, character actress Natalie Canerday ("Sling Blade") and soap-opera favorite David "Shark" Fralick ("The Young and the Restless").

"We have partial financing for that film, and we're ready to begin," Holly added. "We hope to start shooting here in the Shoals on March 15."

Muscle Shoals Sound was originally formed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section -- guitarist Jimmy Johnson, keyboardist Barry Beckett, drummer Roger Hawkins and bassist David Hood -- when it left FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals in 1969 and opened its own recording facility at 3614 Jackson Highway.

Nine years later, the group moved to the current Muscle Shoals Sound site, a facility formerly used by the Sheffield Utilities Department and the Naval Reserve. In its heyday, the Alabama Avenue studio hosted sessions by Bob Dylan ("Slow Train Coming"), Bob Seger ("Against the Wind"), Dire Straits ("Communique"), Jimmy Buffett ("Coconut Telegraph") and Delbert McClinton ("Givin' It Up for Your Love").

"There's a lot of history there, that's for sure -- and nobody likes to see it come to an end," Couch said. "We're not sure at this point what we're going to do with all the gold and platinum records and all the other memorabilia down there. That's still up in the air."

Malaco purchased the studio in 1985, recording a roster of blues, soul and gospel artists that included Bobby "Blue" Bland, Z.Z. Hill, Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle, Little Milton and the Mississippi Mass Choir. The studio also hosted outside sessions by Etta James, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Glenn Frey, Sawyer Brown, Melissa Etheridge, John Hiatt, Shenandoah, Tony Joe White and Widespread Panic.

"We still have our studio in Jackson, and we're doing a lot of location recording for live albums -- so we just don't need it like we did when we bought it," Couch said. "We've tried to sell it as a recording studio for more than a year and a half, but we never could get anybody interested."

Couch believes the Muscle Shoals Sound facility should be readily adaptable for film and video productions.

"There's a lot of room in there, and we only used about half of it," he said. "I think it's ideal for use as a movie sound stage -- that's probably the next best use for it."