Muscle Shoals, AL

Muscle Shoals is a north Alabama city on the Tennessee River, best known far beyond its size for music. The Muscle Shoals area drew artists to write and record, and the old Muscle Shoals Sound Studios location on Jackson Highway is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city also carries an industrial river history, including early federal dam plans during World War I. It feels like a small city with an outsized cultural name, tied to both the river and the recording studio story.