Cypress Moon Studios

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  • <p>Bob Dylan at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Dick Cooper.)</p>
  • <p>Bob Dylan and Barry Beckett. (Photo courtesy of Dick Cooper.)</p>
  • <p>Bob Dylan, Tim Drummond and others. (Photo courtesy of Dick Cooper.)</p>
  • <p>Jerry Wexler, Bob Dylan and background singers. (Photo courtesy of Dick Cooper.)</p>
  • <p>Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Engineer Steve Melton in the Studio B control room. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>David Hood at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Jimmy Johnson at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Roger Hawkins at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Barry Beckett at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Pinball machine at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>
  • <p>Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 1000 Alabama Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jimmy Johnson.)</p>

1000 Alabama Avenue, Sheffield

Cypress Moon Studios was the second home of the Swampers, where they reconnected with their R&B roots and got reacquainted with old friends like Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, and B.B. King.

By 1978, the Swampers had outgrown the modest concrete building at 3614 Jackson Highway. “We stayed in Sheffield,” Jimmy Johnson remembers, “but we ended up moving to the old Naval Reserve building at 1000 Alabama Avenue, on the banks of the Tennessee River.”

“Our old fraternity bands, The Del-Rays and The Mystics, had played there back before we ever became studio musicians. There was already a great vibe in that building.”
—Jimmy Johnson

Following the move, the Swampers, like Rick Hall before them, signed a deal with Capitol Records, and established their own Muscle Shoals Sound imprint through the label.

During the 1980s, when other local studios began to specialize in country music, the Swampers returned to their R&B roots, cutting albums with Bobby “Blue” Bland, Z.Z. Hill, Little Milton, and other artists signed to the Mississippi-based Malaco Records label. Eventually, in 1985, Malaco (co-owned by Tuscumbia native Tommy Couch) bought the studio and hired the Swampers to run it. Other artists who have recorded here over the years include Bob Dylan, Julian Lennon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Isaac Hayes, the Oak Ridge Boys, Etta James, and Jimmy Buffett.

Today, the building houses Cypress Moon Studios, a film and music production company. Movies produced by the studio include When I Find the Ocean, recipient of five Dove Awards, and The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Plans in development include a “Moonwalk” Walk of Fame to honor artists, producers, musicians, publishers, writers, directors and actors who have worked at the studio over the years.