Latest news with #MuscleShoals
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Crocheting Queen' turns 105 years old, her secret to triple digits
MUSCLE SHOALS, AL. (WHNT) — Miss Mamie Lansdell turned 105 years old on Wednesday, July 9. Mamie was born on July 9, 1920, and is the oldest woman and resident at Cypress Cove Center nursing home in Muscle Shoals. Florence Police adding extra officers downtown after public safety meeting Cypress Cove staff, Mamie's friends and family threw her a big birthday party filled with cake, snacks, and of course, all of Mamie's favorite people. A special guest, a Cousin Minnie Pearl impersonator, showed up and got the party going and laughing. Mamie has a very active social life at Cypress Cove and loves to socialize and participate in events and activities such as bingo, sewing, reading her Bible, and bidding in our auctions. News 19 attended the birthday party, and we asked Miss Mamie what her secret is to make it to 105. 'I eat good, and these people take good care of me,' Mamie said. Mamie also wants to mention that it was a great birthday spent with her family, friends and her best friend named Chris, who is also a resident at Cypress Cove. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Herald Scotland
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Her voice is our gift to world' - 10 best gigs in July in Scotland
Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, July 17 Lulu's career has always been a weird mismatch of hipster moments - the glory of her 1967 hit To Sir With Love, her time recording at Muscle Shoals, teaming up with Bowie - and long stretches of light entertainment-flavoured misfortune; the wavering accent, her Eurovision entry Boom Bang a-Bang and having to welcome the likes of Vince Hill and Roy Castle onto her 1970s TV show It's Lulu (though to be fair she also got to introduce Bill Withers, Roberta Flack and Aretha Franklin too). Her reputation is probably just one well-curated retrospective away from being positively reframed. (If in any doubt take a listen to Where's Eddie on her 1970 album New Routes; the best thing she's ever done?) You can decide between yourselves if her contribution to Take That's Relight My Fire makes the cut. Anyway, at 76, Lulu is currently in the midst of a long farewell tour that sees her turn up in Dunfermline this month. It's a chance to remind ourselves that her voice remains one of Glasgow's great gifts to the world. We should celebrate it more. Read more: Scotland's 10 best summer festivals that are not the Edinburgh Festival Sophie B Hawkins King Tut's, Glasgow, July 2 You couldn't want for a more intimate venue for the American singer-songwriter now celebrating the 30th anniversary of her second album Whaler (actually released in 1994). Hawkins carries the mistaken label of one-hit wonder for the success of her 1992 single Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover, but Whaler was home to Right Beside You which was also a top 20 hit in the UK. I suspect she'll play both on this visit to Glasgow. Alanis Morissette OVO Hydro, Glasgow, July 5 It's not always remarked upon, but while British pop (or to be more specific Britpop) was going all 'we're going to live forever,' in 1995, its North American equivalent was an angrier affair. Grunge hadn't disappeared and the Riot Grrrl movement was still a force, after all. And then Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette announced herself to the world in 1995 with the exhilaratingly ferocious You Oughta Know, the lead single from her multi-million-selling Jagged Little Pill album and one of the great, snarky revenge songs against straying boyfriends. ('And every time I scratch my nails/Down someone else's back, I hope you feel it.') Thankfully, Morissette's life has moved on a bit in the interim, but she comes to Glasgow fresh from Glastonbury with Liz Phair in support. A chance to relive some righteous 1990s feminist anger perhaps. Billie Eilish OVO Hydro, Glasgow, July 7 & July 8 And two days later in the same venue… Eilish is still only 23, but she already has a decade of music-making, three albums and a raft of awards (including a couple of Oscars and nine Grammys) behind her. For someone who has been described as the 'ultimate bedroom artist', concocting her music in the comfy familiarity of her own home, she has proved more than capable of translating the results for an arena audience (in 2022 she became the youngest ever headliner at Glastonbury). This is pop music a quarter of the way through the 21st century. Kendrick Lamar and SZA Hampden Park, Glasgow, July 8 You might say the same of the recordings of Kenrick Lamar, of course. The rapper is taking a break from his ongoing beef with Drake to team up with singer-songwriter SZA - fresh from their Super Bowl appearance together - for a world tour. If you want to get a sense of where black America is right now… Summer Classics: The Scottish Chamber Orchestra The Town House, Hamilton, July 17; Castle Douglas Town Hall, July 18; Ayr Town Hall, July 19 The SCO is on manoeuvres in the west of Scotland in July with performances in Hamilton, Castle Douglas and Ayr. The programme includes Haydn's Symphony No 80 in D Minor, Beethoven's Symphony No 4 in B-Flat and the world premiere of Rewired, a concerto for soprano saxophone and chamber orchestra composed by Jay Capperauld, recent cover star of this very magazine. Lewis Banks is the solo saxophonist for these evenings and the orchestra will be conducted by Jonathan Bloxham. Read more: Death never takes a holiday but you do: 10 best crime novels to pack for summer Colin Steele's STRAMASH Queen's Hall, July 18 Part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Colin Steele's supergroup STRAMASH promise a fusion of jazz, folk and classical music in this Edinburgh gig. Steele, who cut his teeth playing with Hue & Cry back in the 1980s, has been one of Scottish jazz's most reliable pleasures; a trumpet player who has explored the music of Miles Davis and the songbooks of Joni Mitchell and Scotland's own Pearlfishers. This should be a good reminder of his musical adventurousness. C Duncan Tolbooth, Stirling, July 19 This special one-off show in Stirling celebrates the 10th anniversary of Architect ('classical meets dreampop,' according to the Guardian in 2015), the Mercury-nominated debut album of the classically trained Glaswegian multi-instrumentalist C Duncan. Any excuse to take in his hazy romanticism should always be seized. Public Image Ltd Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, July 29 Now, it would seem, permanently estranged from his fellow Sex Pistols (who replaced him with singer Frank Carter on their own recent trip to Glasgow), John Lydon is still touring the world with his other band PiL and still playing the role of the world's most willful contrarian. Lydon has had a rough couple of years, losing his wife Nora and his manager and best friend John 'Rambo Stevens'. But he remains committed to playing live, and onstage he remains the blustering, bolshy presence he's always been. Take that as a threat or a promise. He's right about one thing, though. PiL were always a better band than the Pistols. Teenage Fanclub Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, July 31 Two nights later (with Anastacia sandwiched in between), it's the turn of Bellshill's favourite sons to play the Bandstand. Teenage Fanclub remain what they have always been: a guitar band with an ear for a hook and an ability to make music that can make you feel happy and sad at the same time. They are soaringly melancholic, if you like. This seems as good a way as any to see out July.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dates to remember for Muscle Shoals municipal elections
MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) — Municipal elections are coming up this fall in many North Alabama municipalities, including Muscle Shoals. News 19 is Your Local Election Headquarters, and we are compiling a list of important dates so you don't get left behind on election day. First off, the big one: Election Day for Muscle Shoals is August 26, 2025, and polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. But there are other dates you need to remember. For candidates, qualifying began on June 10 and ended on June 24. Here are the other dates to remember, both if you're running and if you're voting in the election: July 27 – Last day to establish residency to vote August 11 – Last day to register to vote August 21 – Last day to hand-deliver an application for an absentee ballot August 25 – Last day to deliver a non-emergency absentee ballot and apply for an emergency absentee ballot August 26 – Election Day In Alabama, residents can apply for an emergency absentee ballot if they cannot vote at a polling place due to work commitments that keep them from voting during the regular time frame, are the caregiver of a person needing emergency treatment within five days of the election or have an immediate family member who died within five days of the election. In the event of a runoff, Sept. 8 will be the last day to register to vote in the runoff, which will then be held on Sept. 23. The city said newly elected officials take office on Nov. 3, 2025. For more information or to check your voter information, you can visit the city's website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Swamp Dogg, outsider artist who found his sound in Alabama, at center of new documentary playing in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — In 1969, Jerry Williams Jr. was working with a group called C & The Shells, writing a song for them called 'You are the Circus.' Williams, who had been singing and writing music professionally since he was 12 years old, had been a producer at Atlantic Records for several years at that point and had gone back and forth through Muscle Shoals to work with different artists, from Doris Duke to Duane Allman and many others. With C & The Shells, 'You are the Circus' became a hit pretty quickly, selling 30,000 copies in Chicago in its first week. That's when a local DJ called the record label about an issue with one of the original lyrics: 'You don't seem to give a damn about me at all.' 'Somebody in Chicago started complaining, saying they didn't like that word,' Williams said from his home in Los Angeles. 'They didn't like damn. Atlantic called me back.' Williams said the disc jockey, whom he didn't name but said pulled a lot of weight in the music business, got his way, with Atlantic telling Williams to take 'damn' out of the lyrics. Williams then tweaked it to 'You don't seem to care about me at all.' 'We didn't sell 30,000 more,' he said. For Williams, that moment was one of several where he felt burnt out by the music business, constantly trying to compromise himself. The way he describes it, he had had enough. Before long, Williams decided he needed a change. Taking what he learned from Muscle Shoals, he took on a new name, Swamp Dogg, and set out to make the music he wanted, no matter how raunchy or noncommercial it seemed. Williams is the focus of a new documentary, 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,' which will premiere at the Sidewalk Film Center this Friday and play through the weekend. The documentary tells the story of Williams, his career, and how he found an audience through his uncompromising music. For Williams, his time in Muscle Shoals informed his sense of self to the point that many critics would later describe his sound, as heard on his debut album 'Total Destruction of Your Mind,' as a 'post-apocalyptic take on the Muscle Shoals' sound.' 'That's where I got my Phd for soul and country music,' he said. 'I learned more about what I was doing and started understanding where I was going and had visions of how I would get there.' As Swamp Dogg, Williams' muse often orbits around the subjects of sex and scatological humor, with a litany of racial epithets and swear words peppered through. At 82, Williams said there were times in his career where he questioned whether or not he was doing the right thing, whether he was putting himself out of work by not doing what others were. So far, it seems to be paying off. 'I'm not going to let anybody dictate what I have to say in my songs because that's what they are: my songs,' he said. With the gamble, Williams' work has received critical praise over the years, receiving glowing reviews in Rolling Stone and NPR. Many of his songs have been covered by mainstream artists, such as the Grateful Dead, Kid Rock, the Isley Brothers and Santana. Contemporary entertainers such as Johnny Knoxville of 'Jackass,' who is seen in the documentary, credit Williams as an influence as well. Williams' last album, 'Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St.,' is more of a country album, but has been received well in that community, too. 'As music changed, I changed with it, but on my own terms,' he said. 'I don't copy people.' So what keeps Williams going all these years later? 'My mortgage,' Williams jokes. All these damn bills.' Click here for showtimes 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' will be playing at Sidewalk. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' Review: A Free-Spirited Music Doc as Delightfully Weird as Its Subject
At one point in the free-wheeling music documentary 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,' the eccentric 82-year-old musician is asked to describe his philosophy on life. 'Just be cool, you know?,' Swamp Dogg says. 'And it's fun being yourself. That's fun like a motherfucker. But you gotta find yourself.' It's a fitting summary of a creative life lived exactly on his own terms. A cult figure in certain music circles, Jerry Williams Jr. rose to prominence in the '70s for his satirical Southern soul records that were equally likely to feature radical political messages or cover art of Williams inside a hot dog bun covered in ketchup and mustard. He adopted the Swamp Dogg moniker to separate his public persona from his previous career as a Muscle Shoals producer who churned out gold records for other artists, though he continued to be a force in the music industry as a record label founder and producer who backed Dr. Dre's first records. And he continues to innovate into his eighties, experimenting with autotune banjo music from his home studio and touring regularly. More from IndieWire Acting Is More Than Performance: The Stars of 'Sinners,' 'Nickel Boys,' and More Offer Guidance How Chilling Sound Design, POV Shots, and an Uncanny Creature Create a Cinema of Perception in 'April' But in Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson's new documentary, Swamp Dogg's life of achievements takes a backseat to a more pressing matter: getting his pool painted. In an unspecified location in the San Fernando Valley, Swamp Dogg lives in a suburban enclave of creativity. His house is filled with loving freeloaders, primarily musician friends like Guitar Shorty, who asked to crash with him at one point or another and ended up staying for decades. The house is a hotbed for jam sessions and barbecues, but Swamp Dogg thinks it's missing one thing. He wants a picture of himself riding a rodent painted on the bottom of his pool so that it can be seen from the sky. 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' begins with Swamp Dogg letting the pool painter into his backyard, but it quickly turns into a sprawling hang session featuring his housemates, neighbors like voice actor Tom Kenny, and his daughter. Swamp Dogg reminisces about his singular career, which eventually gives way to some obligatory archival footage, but the film is just as interested in celebrating the zest for life that the octogenarian currently enjoys. The result is a documentary that's as charmingly offbeat as its subject, whose greatest work of art might be the ridiculously fun existence he appears to be living out on a daily basis. Music documentaries have been almost irritatingly omnipresent in recent years, but 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' is a refreshing change of pace that should delight even the most genre-fatigued viewer. The film never takes itself too seriously, gleefully pausing mid-interview to show Swamp Dogg answering his phone and politely telling someone that he'll have to call them back because he's in the middle of shooting a documentary. It certainly benefits from the fact that its subject will be unknown to many viewers, which frees the filmmakers from the expectation of a hagiographic trip down memory lane and permits them to focus on whatever interests their subject at a given moment. Of course, the approach is only possible because the man getting his pool painted is so damn charismatic. At 82-years-old, Swamp Dogg doesn't look a day over 60, and he boasts a razor-sharp mind and an infectious appetite for all of life's weird pleasures. Watching him meander through his backyard, talking shit with his buddies, exploring new sounds, and dryly calling every inconvenience a 'motherfucker' is the kind of offbeat delight that I would have gladly watched for three more hours. Seeing his excitement that a manufacturer has revived the lost art of writing profane messages on socks or proudly show his daughter his sparkly new shoes is more interesting than anything in his recording career, and Gale and Olson wisely sit back and let the current Swamp Dogg absorb the spotlight. More than any individual song or album, the film seeks to encapsulate the Swamp Dogg vibe. Effortlessly cool, thrilled to be alive, and mildly entertained by just about everything, the man offers what appears to be the perfect blueprint to stay in 2025. We can't all be Swamp Dogg, but it's nice to know the world still contains heroes worth looking up to. I sure hope he enjoys his new pool. A Magnolia Pictures release, 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' opens in select theaters on Friday, May 2. 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