(Cleopatra Records) Veteran country entertainer Sammy Kershaw releases the first single from his much-anticipated new album Muscle Shoals - a timeless reinterpretation of the Clarence Carter classic "Slip Away."
It's a fitting choice. The song has the renowned Alabama city running through its blood - Carter's own version, in 1968, was recorded at the FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, with a young Duane Allman on guitar.
Recorded at Muscle Shoals Wishbone Recording Studios, and produced by Sammy alongside Billy Lawson, Kershaw's Muscle Shoals album is very much a tribute to a city whose own legend is writ large across the story of modern music.
The birthplace of albums by artists ranging from The Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd to Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, and many many others, Muscle Shoals Sound possesses an atmosphere like no other, one which so permeates Muscle Shoals that it could almost be described as an additional musician.
Both on record and its nostalgia-laden video "Slip Away" alone oozes Muscle Shoals passion, but the remainder of the album, too, bathes in its aura, as Kershaw brings his interpretive talents to Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally," Etta James's "I'd Rather Go Blind," Bob Seger's "Mainstreet" and Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night" and more... all of them past Muscle Shoals Sound Studio triumphs; all of them, too, with a story to tell.
The album closes with the Beatles' "Hey Jude," Wicked Pickett style. Duane Allman sessioned on that recording too, and Eric Clapton later described his performance as "the best. To this day, I've never heard better rock guitar playing on an R&B record." He was so blown away, in fact, that he had to call producer Tom Dowd to demand, "Who's that guitar player?"
That's the standard Muscle Shoals demands. And "Slip Away" proves that Sammy Kershaw can match it.
"I love this song and the whole album!," says Sammy. "It turned out really great and I can't wait for you folks to hear it!"
Track listing
1. Mustang Sally
2. Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me
3. I'd Rather Go Blind
4. Mainstreet
5. Gotta Serve Somebody
6. When A Man Loves A Woman
7. I'm Your Puppet
8. Slip Away
9. Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)
10. You Better Move On
11. Patches
12. Hey Jude
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