If you go
› What: Russell Gulley with Tomcat & the Torpedo Band, Jack Endelouz and Silver Tongued Devilz.› When: 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26.› Where: Music Box at Ziggy’s, 607 Cherokee Blvd.› Admission: $10.› Phone: 423-265-8711.
Russell Gulley was not one of the famed Swampers that provided the Muscle Shoals sound for legendary recordings by everyone from the Staple Singers to Wilson Pickett to the Rolling Stones, but he was there to see and be a part of much of the magic.
For purists, the Swampers were Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Jimmy Johnson. Pete Carr, Spooner Oldham, Albert S. Lowe Jr., Clayton Ivey, Randy McCormick and Will McFarlane were also part of the sessions players, but the original four are the ones who started as the house band at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala.
Producer Denny Cordell gave them the nickname during a recording session for Leon Russell. The four eventually left FAME and started the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios at 3614 Jackson Highway.
Gulley started there as a songwriter/musician in 1973 and stayed until 1982. It was while there that he founded the Jackson Highway Band, a group that got a boost from some airplay in the Chattanooga area in the late ’70s.