Muscle Shoals

In a small Alabama town on the Tennessee River, Rick Hall founded FAME Studios. The rhythm section that worked there, later known as the Swampers, was made up entirely of white local musicians. Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge and many others came to record. What came out were some of the best-known soul records of 1960s America. Greg Camalier's documentary places that coincidence in the hardest years of segregation. In a state whose governor was defending segregation, black and white musicians were working together in the studio. While celebrating this, the film also tells Hall's own story: poverty, loss, and taking refuge in music. Bono, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Cliff and Alicia Keys speak, with Wilson Pickett and Etta James appearing in archive. It premiered at Sundance on 26 January 2013. Who it's for: Anyone interested in the history of soul and rhythm and blues, session musicianship, and the American South. Who it's not for: The telling is celebratory and puts race into too optimistic a frame. The musical analysis also stays on the surface.