Freddy Camalier: Crafting An American Masterpiece

That night, they did some research into all the music that had come out of Muscle Shoals, and they became more excited with each new discovery,” Camalier says. “The next morning, they set out to find the essence of the place and wound up on the banks of the Tennessee River. “This place just emanated music. Sam Phillips was born there, a pretty seminal figure in rock ‘n’ roll. W.C Handy was born there, a pretty seminal figure in the blues. But long before then, the Native Americans believed that a muse lived in the river, and their name for it meant ‘The Singing River.’ But before we even knew that, we were down by the river and feeling its energy, and that was part of what impacted us. Growing up, water and rivers played a big part in my life. So this place spoke to both of us.”

Black and white proved to be a key part of the story, as so often happens with stories set in the South. “As we dug into the story,” Camalier explains, “you couldn’t deny the interesting intersection between where in America we were, which was in Alabama during the height of the civil rights movement, and the fact that you had all this amazing music come from out of there, from both black and white artists. And at first when we started interviewing people and they said there was no racism in the studio, we were wary of that. We just wanted to hear from a lot of people to confirm that. But the more people we interviewed, it became clear that here you are in the belly of the beast during the civil rights movement, and these guys were making music together in a colorless way. It was a beautiful thing, and it was part of what made their music so magical and impactful.”

Still, they faced another struggle in portraying that part of the story. “Covering it in the film,” Camalier says, “I wanted to be really careful, because that subject has been covered a lot, in a lot of different documentaries. But it was cool to be able to show a different side of that story, another little perspective of that state in that time.“

At the time, though, not everyone understood the racial element of the Muscle Shoals scene. “Paul Simon heard the Staple Singers cuts out of there,” Camalier says with a wry grin, “as many other artists did, and a lot of people started wanting that sound. And he, like a lot of other people, just assumed there was no way that funky rhythm section was a bunch of white boys. He just assumed these were black musicians. So he called down to Al Bell at Stax, who had sent the Staples down there to cut those tracks, and he said, ‘For my next record, I want those same funky black musicians from the Staples cuts.’ And Al Bell said, ‘You can have them, but I hate to disappoint you, these guys are mighty pale.’

Stories like that are part of what makes the film work so well. But at the end of the day, documentarians have less than two hours (usually) to say their piece, and some great stories inevitably fall by the wayside. “There were so many amazing stories that you just knew had to be in the film, too many,” Camalier says. “One of the ones that didn’t make it into the film was about Aretha. Aretha cut ‘Call Me’ with The Swampers in New York. We cut this beautiful sequence, but it didn’t make the film. She was getting divorced, and the song is a love song, so as she was singing it, she began to cry. And as she cried, the teardrops were hitting the music stand and splattering, and refracting the light and making these beautiful rainbows. And everyone in the control room began crying too.”

And that’s one of the stories that didn’t make the film. Muscle Shoals is an unforgettable experience, and Freddy Camalier is here to stay.