Muscle Shoals, Ala., became a soul-music mecca in the '60s on the strength of its famed recording studio and crack crew of mostly white but unfailingly soulful sidemen. Fame Records was associated with the Muscle Shoals sound and one of its top artists, Jimmy Hughes, is honored with a CD reissue of some of his best material from the era. Hughes was an expressive and insistent black R&B singer armed with a batch of irresistible songs performed by tough yet supple rhythm sections with a touch of brass and some soul-deep grooves. Although less remembered nowadays than Otis Redding or Sam and Dave, he was no second-stringer when it came to making great records.
