Take Me Back

In the story of southern soul the studios of Memphis and Alabama‰۪s Muscle Shoals region loom large, effectively overshadowing other musical scenes in the South, including that of Birmingham, Alabama. A leading force in the soul movement there was Neal Hemphill, who set up his Sound of Birmingham production studio in the basement of his plumbing shop in the mid-‰Û÷60s and continued recording until a decade later, when health problems led him to sell the operation. Hemphill achieved his greatest success in 1972 when Birmingham native Frederick Knight‰۪s ‰ÛÏI‰۪ve Been Lonely So Long‰۝ climbed high in the R&B charts after Hemphill leased it to Stax. The production company, chronicled in great detail by John Ciba on Rabbit Factory‰۪s two-part ‰ÛÏBirmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill,‰۝ also captured righteous sides by soul heavyweights Ralph ‰ÛÏSoul‰۝ Jackson, Roscoe Robinson, and Sam Dees. Another regular at the studio was Sam Frazier, Jr., whose power as a southern soul vocal