The Muscle Shoals area had become the recording mecca for soul, rythm & blues by the close of the '60s. As the 60's turned into the '70's, more studios would begin to open and the music recorded in the area would broaden to include pop, rock, and country. A diverse group of musicians, singers, and songwriters would be drawn to this rural country of North Alabama. One of these would soon become revered as one of the all-time guitar greats, Duane Allman.

Duane Allman recorded in Muscle Shoals as a studio musician from November of 1968 through March of 1969, when he returned to Jacksonville, FL to start the Allman Brothers Band. He would return frequently to The Shoals to lay down guitar tracks on several recording sessions, right up until just a couple months before the tragic motorcycle accident that would claim his life. Muscle Shoals would be the place Duane would catch the ear of some the industry's most powerful men, including Rick Hall at FAME, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, record producer and executive Tom Dowd. He'd play on records for Wilson Pickett, Athur Conley, Clarence Carter, Otis Rush and many more. Duane would get the opportunity to travel to New York with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section to record with Aretha Franklin. It would be right here in this sleepy little corner of North West Alabama that the formation of the Allman Brothers Band would have its roots.

Duane and brother Gregg's first connection to Muscle Shoals actually dates back to 1966 when they were playing in a band called the Allman Joys. Florence native Buddy Killen had moved to Nashville before the boom of the Muscle Shoals music industry. Buddy would become a giant in the Nashville record industry. In 1966 he was working with Dial Records. He caught the Allman Joys playing at one of the southern teen clubs and they would eventually record several songs for Killen's label in Nashville. Only one single was released. A cover of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" backed with "You Deserve Each Other". Apparantly Killen wasn't impressed. After hearing the single and the rest of the material the Allmans had recorded, he advised the band "to go look for a day job".

The two brothers would persevere in the Allman Joys for several more months until the band imploded while playing in St. Louis. Once again North Alabamians would play a pivotal role in the Allman story. Duane and Gregg would join forces with drummer Johnny Sandlin and keyboard player Paul Hornsby from the group "The Five Minutes" out of Huntsville. Their bass player at the time according to Gregg was some "cat called Wolf". The new band played Nashville and made a return to St. Louis where the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band stopped in to catch their gig. The Dirt Band's manager convinced the band they could make it nationally if they would move out to California. So the newly christened "Hour Glass" relocates to L.A. in the spring of 1967. The situation only went from bad to worse as the band felt they were misled by their record company, Liberty Records. Liberty was calling all the shots and picking the material for the band, which turned out to be a terrible blend of psychedelic and soul. The self titled debut "The Hour Glass" is released in October of 1967. Their second album "Power of Love" is released March of '68. Neither record sold and the band was in debt to Liberty. Once again, Muscle Shoals enters the Allman history. The problem with the Hour Glass albums was it just wasn't the Allman's music. The band determined to develop their own sound, head east to Muscle Shoals to record some demos at Rick Hall's FAME studios with Jimmy Johnson as the recording engineer in April of '68. By this time "Wolf" was out of the band and Florida native and soon to be legendary Muscle Shoals Sound session guitar player Pete Carr is in the band. Liberty Records though had absolutely no interest in the Muscle Shoals demos. Matter of fact, by this time Liberty makes it clear they were only interested in promoting Gregg as a solo act. In May of '68 fed up the band leaves L.A. But they are deeply in debt to the record company and after being threatened to be sued, Gregg goes back to L.A. to record a solo album. As expected Liberty calls all the shots.

Duane stayed in Jacksonville, FL hanging out with bands 31st Of February and The Second Coming which included future Allman's Butch Trucks, Berry Oakley, and Dickey Betts. Back in Muscle Shoals in November of "68, Rick Hall at FAME studios was preparing for an important Wilson Pickett session. Remembering Duane's work with the Hour Glass, he sent a telegram to Jacksonville. Duane jumped at the chance at a paying gig and headed to Muscle Shoals. November 27, 1968 the recording session begins with Wilson Pickett. While the other musicians and studio crew went out to lunch, Duane persuades Wilson to record the Beatles "Hey Jude" with Duane on lead guitar. Rick Hall gives Atlantic Records Jerry Wexler a call and plays "Hey Jude" over the phone for him. Jerry is impressed with the song and the young guitarist and decides to release it as a single. The "Hey Jude" single would eventually sell millions and Duane was invited to stay in Muscle Shoals. Jimmy Johnson of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section said of Duane's work on that song, "In my estimation, that guitar solo that Duane played on the vamp at the end of 'Hey Jude' was the beginning of Southern rock music." Through the end of '68 Duane would add his distinctive guitar work to Clarence Carter, Athur Conley along with Wilson Pickett. December of '68 would also mark the first time Duane would work with producer Tom Dowd. Dowd would work extensively with the future Allman Brothers Band. Also during this period the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was doing outside work for Atlantic Records, recording with Aretha Franklin in New York. In Janurary of '69 Duane traveled to New York with the rhythm section to work with Aretha and once again Tom Dowd.

A pivotal point in rock n' roll history takes place in Muscle Shoals early in 1969. The Allman Brothers Band will come together in the spring of '69. In a short two years they will reach the pinnacle of commercial success, be lauded by critics nation wide, and usher in a new musical genre called "Southern Rock". But in February of '69 Duane is in Muscle Shoals with no band. Brother Gregg is still out west in California miserable and lonely working off the Hour Glass debt to Liberty records. Rick Hall though is so impressed with Duane that he signed him to a recording contract and encourged Duane to do a solo album. According to Allman Brother Dickey Betts, "See, Rick Hall wanted him to do a Hendrix power-trio thing. But Duane was too warm and personal for that. He needed a lot of other guys to get that full sound he wanted." So Duane called on his friend Berry Oakley (bass), former Hour Glass members Paul Hornsby (piano) and Johnny Sandlin (drums) for the recording sessions in late January through February of '69 at FAME. The solo recordings would go unreleased until after his death. The tracks would eventually be released on the "Duane Allman Anthology" and the Allman Brothers Box set "Dreams". Duane also met up with future Allman Brother drummer/percussionist Jaimoe Johnson at a King Curtis recording session at FAME.

The recording contract that Duane signed with Rick Hall was soon purchased by Atlantic VP Jerry Wexler and sold to Phil Walden. Walden was putting together a roster for his Atlantic custom label, Capricorn Records. In search of those musicians "to get that full sound he wanted" and with the contract in hand, Duane and Jaimoe moved back to Jacksonville, FL. Soon Gregg would join them and the Allman Brothers Band was solidified. One could make the connection that this was all put into motion because Rick Hall sent a telegram to a young unknown guitarist that was in an unknown failing band that passed through his studios several months before.

The Allman Brothers Band began recording and playing shows in the spring of '69, but Duane would often return to Muscle Shoals to lend his guitar work on several recording sessions. He'd work with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section at their new Muscle Shoals Sound Studio on Jackson Highway. He'd lay down tracks for Cher on the first album recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound. On Boz Scaggs debut, Lulu, Ronnie Hawkins, John Hammond, and many more. Duane also continued to work with the Muscle Shoals Rhytm Section and Aretha Franklin in New York and Criteria Studios in Miami. At Criteria not only did the Allmans record there, but Duane would get the chance to work with Eric Clapton on Derek And The Dominos.

The last Muscle Shoals session for Duane would come just two months before his death. He layed down guitar on a song called "Please Be With Me" for the band Cowboy in September of 1971 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.

The song written by Cowboy member Scott Boyer. Boyer, a former member of the Butch Trucks band 31st of February, now a current resident of the Shoals and member of The Decoys. Sadly, two months later on October 29, Duane Allman died after a motorcycle accident at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, GA at the age of twenty-four.