The Last Ride of Jesse James--Muscle Shoals, Alabama

no one like this was hanging out on a shoal or anywhere else

 When I think about the name Muscle Shoals, I envision guys in muscle T's lifting weights on a board walk, spitting tobacco in-between sets listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd singing Sweet Home Alabama. Or a guy taking his python for a walk along the shoal. As if Venice Beach was transplanted to Northern Alabama. (I had no idea what a shoal was--google says it is similar to a sandbar).

Although I didn't see any muscle guys or muscle cars or pythons or even a shoal for that matter, Muscle Shoals was a highlight of the week-long road trip. I stopped and took a tour of the famous Muscle Shoals Music Studio, where so many gold records were recorded, including Lynryd Skynryd's Muscle Shoals Album. Sweet Home Alabama isn't on it, but the original Freebird is. One of the session musicians was there when I visited. He hijacked our tour and told lots of stories about the musicians, making history come alive. A documentary about the studio came out in 2013, putting Muscle Shoals back on the map. The film is available on Netflix and you can watch the trailer here

Cher and the crew outside of the studio. Her 3614 Jackson Highway
album released in 1969 was a commercial failure. She sings
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

The Rolling Stones recording at the studio. Brown Sugar
was one of the songs from their session

After all the musical excitement, the Jesse James site was a bit underwhelming, but the weather cooperated--giving me ominous storm clouds for my photos.

Ruins of a Bible Church across from the Jesse James robbery site.
Storm clouds added to the apocalyptic atmosphere.

Site of the robbery is now a bank

site of the robbery--front of the bank

Jesse James' final robbery occurred on March 11, 1881. "It was a rainy, windy Friday when Alexander Smith from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers returned from Florence, Alabama with $5240.18. The money was payroll for laborers in the blue Water Camp on the nearby Tennessee River." (I appreciate the precision of the monetary amount).  "When Smith stopped between Shoal Creek and the camp to open a gate, Jesse James, Wood Hite and Whiskey Head Ryan brandished their weapons and quickly unarmed Smith. They took the payroll out of the inner pocket of his coat, and the goal and silver coins in a bag hanging from the pommel of his saddle. The gang forced Smith to ride nearly 20 miles in a rainstorm before releasing him and generously allowed him to keep his horse, his own money and his gold watch." The dispatched posse lost the James' gang tracks because of torrential downpours.

How serendipitous that Divine Providence produced storm clouds and torrential downpours for my evening in Muscle Shoals.

No surprise that "Whiskey Head" was the one who got caught after eating a dozen oysters and drinking a bottle of extremely potent Tennessee Whiskey. A drunken brawl led to the local lawman discovering the large amount of gold he carried and Whiskey Head was arrested. I question Jesse's judgment in hiring anyone with the name Whiskey Head, but as usual Jesse escaped, leaving Nashville with his family and traveling to Missouri.

my lock of hair--
buried next to the tree at the former robbery site