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Tommy Pettus in Denver just before a Jason Isbell concert at Red Rocks on August 1, 2001.
Mickey Buckins and Jerry McGee on stage at Fizz in Sheffield.
Barbara Mandrell and Gordon Terry celebrating Gordon’s 50th wedding anniversary. Gordon often referred to Mandrell as his third daughter.
Muscle Music partners, Larry Smith, Chris Bain and Tommy Pettus, during the late ‘90s.
Tommy Pettus in Denver just before a Jason Isbell concert at Red Rocks on August 1, 2001.
Mickey Buckins and Jerry McGee on stage at Fizz in Sheffield.
Barbara Mandrell and Gordon Terry celebrating Gordon’s 50th wedding anniversary. Gordon often referred to Mandrell as his third daughter.
Muscle Music partners, Larry Smith, Chris Bain and Tommy Pettus, during the late ‘90s.
When Tommy Pettus graduated from LCHS in 1968 his musical interest was limited to WVOK and Joe Rumore, but in college at Auburn he was introduced to Otis Redding, R&B, Ferlin Husky and true country music. When he heard friends Larry Smith and Spencer Hill writing songs he got hooked into the creativity of songwriting.
“I started informally working with multifaciticed musician Larry Smith; we brought Hank Williams, Jr. to the coliseum in Moulton on July 1, 1978. The LCHS String Band and Larry’s band, Kinfolk, opened for Hank,” Pettus recalled.
In 1982, after finishing law school and passing the bar, Pettus started Muscle Music, Inc. and produced a bluegrass album for the band Katys Mill, with long time friend Spencer Hill playing bass. Billboard Magazine reviewed the album, calling it, “mellow traditional bluegrass - some original, some familiar, all superb - from Muscle Shoals of all places!”, then declared the single, “Too Long Without You” as “nifty” and went on to add “the picking was exemplary!”. Muscle Music also produced an album and a couple of singles on Birmingham’s Glenn Tolbert who was a tremendous flat top and mandolin player.
After going musically dormant for a while, Pettus married, got a Masters Degree in Sports Management and worked as the collection manager for UAB Hospital. Then in the early 1990s, Pettus joined forces with Larry Smith and Chris Bain in a new version of Muscle Music. Together they started a studio in Moulton, bought a state of the art digital video camera and began working with local bands.
This business is famous for being fickle and having its ups and downs, reluctantly the three had to give up their dream. “Eventually, when we dissolved the business, I got custody of the camera because it was on my credit card,” Tommy laughed, “So I started looking for opportunities to video.”
The Muscle Shoals Songwriters Showcase, hosted by Mickey Buckins and Jerry McGee, had just started at FIZZ in the Holiday Inn in Sheffield when Pettus approached them about videoing. They welcomed him to the Thursday night happening. “What a wonderful gig!” exclaimed Tommy recently. “Virtually everyone connected to Muscle Shoals music took the stage, from former Grateful Dead member Donna Jean Godchaux MacKay and icon Spooner Oldham to youngsters Jason Isbell and John Paul White.”
“Shortly after starting to work with Mickey and Jerry, I met technology guru, Tim Erwin, at a CLE class and talked him into putting the showcase live on the Internet, making it one of the first music shows to be live on the net.”
In 2002, when Mickey and Jerry decided to retire the showcase, Pettus didn’t stay idle long. KIX 96 owner Jerry Phillips (son of Sam Phillips) started Muscle Shoals to Music Row – LIVE, and employed Pettus to film it live and transfer it to the internet. Also during this time Pettus convinced AL.COM to start a “Band of the Week” segment from tapes that Pettus was shooting of bands all over the state.
After wearing the camera out in 2004, Pettus had accumulated well over 200 tapes (in excess of 200 hours of footage) of the MSSS, Muscle Shoals to Music Row-LIVE, the Band of the Week and various other events which he packed in boxes and stored in the attic, the closet and under the bed.
Two decades later Pettus dusted off the boxes, had the vintage videos digitalized, learned to edit them and started a YouTube Channel so he could share these one-of-a-kind videos. As a result, he began to receive feedback and continues to receive great reviews from fans all over the world.
Pettus is pleased to have documented a dozen of Lawrence County musicians which are available on the channel. One, Mack Vickery, is not that well known locally, but was well thought of throughout the music industry. Mack was born in Town Creek and grew up in Loosier until the family moved to Michigan, but he always called Lawrence County home. He is a member of the Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and was a member of Jerry Lee Lewis’ band for over 20 years. This video clip shows “The Father of Rock & Roll” Sam Phillips introducing Mack when his bronze star was revealed at the Hall of Fame.
Many know the name Gordon Terry, but don’t know his importance in country music and how he took Lawrence County values to Nashville. This clip, from Gordon and Virginia’s 50th wedding anniversary, shows the fabulous Barbara Mandrell telling her story of living with Gordon’s family before she was discovered.
The video of Town Creek’s Brad Crisler singing “Sweet Southern Comfort”, the hit for Buddy Jewel, is especially Lawrence County oriented, because he wrote the song about Town Creek. Hearing Judge Lee and Erwin Nichols depicted in a song paints an awesome picture of life here at home in Lawrence County.
Other Lawrence County musicians on the channel include: Frankie Lang and brothers Derix and Eric Gillespie in the band Dragonfly, The Thompson Brothers - Richard and David, The Alabama Blues Brothers - Jamey and Justin Crisler, Faron Weeks with the Whitehorse Singers, Steve Oliver singing his Grammy-nominated song, and locals written about before: Bill Terry, Spencer Hill, Mike Hill and Barry Hall and Larry Smith and Rod Wallace.
The YouTube channel includes many artists/songwriters who have passed away: Jerry McGee, Donnie Fritts, Scott Boyer, Roger Hawkins, Johnny Wyker, Buddy Killen, Topper Price, Glenn Tolbert, Pete Carr and others.
According to Pettus, you can find many long time contributors: Will McFarlane, Kelvin Holly, Spooner Oldham, Gary Baker, Mac McAnally, Larry Byrom, Dan Penn, Lenny LeBlanc, Max Russell, Travis Wammack, Wayne Perkins, and the Muscle Shoals Horns, among many others.
Pettus continued, “Perhaps more revealing of the direction Muscle Shoals music was taking during this time are the young songwriters who cut their teeth doing the showcase. Jason Isbell has been called the best songwriter this side of Bob Dylan, his high school mate, Chris Tompkins has written many hits starting with Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats”.
Pettus says that John Paul White may be the best singer he’s ever heard. “There were many others I was fortunate to video, including: Patterson Hood, Rob Malone, Barry Billings, Ben Tanner, Dave Anderson, Scott Boyer, III, Zac & Angela Hacker, Kirk Russell and many, many more.”
“So far, my two favorite videos on the channel are Bonnie Bramlett and Bobby Denton,” said Pettus. “The video with world renowned blues trendsetter Bonnie Bramlett takes place at a Scott Boyer/Dick Cooper party and includes a tremendous cast of players including the drummer for Elvis, Jerry Carrigan, blues harpist Topper Price, A Team recording guitarist and former member of Steppenwolf, Larry Byrom, keyboardist N.C. Thurman, guitarist Kirk Russell and Jimbo Hart who is now part of the 400 Unit on bass. With that house band, Bonnie Bramlett delivers a once in a lifetime performance.”
Also in Pettus’ collection is a Bobby Denton video which was shot by Dan Wright, a mulit-talented part of Muscle Music after they bought the camera. “Historically, Bobby Denton had the first hit from Muscle Shoals when “A Fallen Star” was released in 1958. Denton acquired the handle “The Singing Senator” when he was elected to the Alabama Senate where he was the driving force in the state creating The Alabama Music Hall of Fame.” This video has a remarkable story in that until Pettus digitized a VHS stored in a box for years and sent it to Mr. Denton, he had never seen it. “My God and I” is the name of one of Bobby’s books, one of his songs and now one of his videos.
When asked what he was going to do next, Pettus said, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I grow up, but until then I plan on posting more videos because I’ve just scratched the surface, then maybe start a marble racing channel or creating and selling NFTs on the Blockchain.”
With a smart phone you can scan the QR Code or use the url www.youtube.com/c/MuscleMusic7 “There is no cost to view or subscribe to the youtube channel,” Pettus explained. “I just want to share these treasures with everyone.”
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