Country Got Soul

The first Country Got Soul CD (never available on vinyl) was released in 2003 on the London Casual Records label. The second volume a year later. Also in 2004, the Country Soul Revue CD was released, which presented new studio recordings by the artists who were still active at the time. The story of Country Got Soul began in the late 1960s in Muscle Shoals, a small town in Alabama, where a certain Rick Hall founded Fame Studio, where black and white musicians recorded hits together. Which wasn't easy in Alabama at the time because of racial segregation. Rick Hall's studio band, four seasoned men called the Swampers, struck out on their own in 1969 and founded Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. And that was kind of the birthplace of this kind of music, where white musicians were making black music. “Our skin is white, but our soul is black!” Some artists represented here belonged to the studio's inner circle such as Dan Penn, Travis Wammack, Donnie Fritts and George Soule. Others at least recorded their records in Muscle Shoals, and a few didn't have much to do with Alabama (like Jim Ford) but fit the mold perfectly.