Southern Soul

Southern soul music originated from a combination of different styles, which includes blues, western, country, early forms of rock and roll, and a very strong influence from gospel that emanated from the sounds that originated from the churches of Southern African America. The main focus of the music wasn’t on the lyrics, but it was on the groove or feel.

History of Southern Soul:
James Brown and Ray Charles, Georgia natives, were labeled as the groundbreaking pioneers of this musical genre, their work influenced just about all of the popular music. Some of the other early artists that were influential include Little Willie John from the fame of “Fever”, Rufus Thomas a Memphis DJ, Bobby Bland, and a former vaudevillian.

The southern soul music genre reached its peak popularity within the sixties, which was when a strand of the music genre that is now referred to as the Memphis Soul was developed. Stax Records was a significant contributor to this music genre and Booker T & the MG’s, their house band was referred to as the tightest and greatest backing band of all time by the Rolling Stone magazine. The most successful sixties Stax label’s artist was Otis Redding, which was influenced by  Little Richard a fellow native of Georgia and Sam Cooke’s cosmopolitan sounds, however he just like Charles and Brown had created his very own unique and genuine style. Later, Al Green was referred to as the last greatest soul singer that had recorded for Hi Records in Memphis.

Southern Soul is the Sound of Alabama:
Just as equally influential as the Memphis soul was the well known and popular Muscle Shoals Sound, this originated from within Muscle Shoals which is in Alabama. The rhythm section of the Muscle Shoals Sound was mostly played on the recordings that feature Aretha Franklin as well as several Stax artists of the latter day during the latter part of the sixties throughout the middle of the seventies. There were several classic recordings of southern soul which had their genesis at the studios of Muscle Shoals.

While the slicker means of sound from Chicago Soul, Philadelphia soul, and Detroit’s Motown Sound were all created exclusively by the African Americans, there are is also a rather significant number of contributors that were major of Deep Soul and Southern Soul that have been Caucasian. A matter of fact, the songwriting team of southern soul that is most acclaimed is Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, both of which were white, just as many of the Stax musicians were.