The Blue Room hosted the Shoals Music Makers–Single Lock Takeover on Friday of AmericanaFest. The event gave a glimpse into the past and present of the Shoals music scene just two hours down the road from Music City. Hailing from Natchitoches and now living in Florence, Alabama, Caleb Elliott opened, followed by Thad Saajid and his band, and Billy Allen and the Pollies. While these acts showcased the variety of music coming out of Muscle Shoals now, iconic songwriters Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham closed the event with a reminder of the roots of the Muscle Shoals Sound.
Penn and Oldham performed some of their best known hits–“I’m Your Puppet” and “Cry Like a Baby,” sharing the story of how the second big BoxTops hit almost didn’t get written. Under pressure to come up with a nothing single to complete the recording session and to live up to their earlier success, they had gone to a nearby diner, so discouraged, they reported, that Oldham said, “I could cry like a baby.” They left without eating their food, returned to the studio, where they wrote the song and recorded the demo in time for the 10:00 recording session they had booked for the BoxTops.
Penn and Oldham also performed “It Tears Me Up,” recorded by Percy Sledge after his first major FAME hit, “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
They also played “You Left the Water Running,” which Penn co-wrote with Rick Hall of FAME Studio after a tip from a local man who just loved music. They shared stories of the Aretha Franklin session, set to record “Do Right Woman,” that folded up in Muscle Shoals and moved to New York City.
With Penn’s storytelling and Oldham’s running commentary, the pair shared the rich vein of songwriting they wrote together and with such co-writers as Chips Moman. They closed with what Penn called the one they came to hear, “The Dark End of the Street.”
Not content to rest on their laurels, when they left, Oldham headed to the airport to join Neil Young on his current tour.
“The past isn’t dead,” William Faulkner wrote. “It isn’t even the past.” The Single Lock artists gave a taste of the unbroken connection between the past, present, and future of Shoals music.