Photos / Shervin Lainez
Story / Samuel Aponte
By this point in time, one might say that the lineage of American soul music is a sacred one, and on her defining new full-length record, “Forever Muscle Shoals,” acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chrissi Poland steps directly into the hallowed rooms of FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to recapture and pay homage to the transcendent magic that defined the late 1960s and early 1970s, channeling the living presence of Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett through her own formidable voice.
The record is inextricably linked to FAME Studios, and its very inception stems from a moment of sudden divine intervention. Stopping in Florence, Alabama, while on tour, Poland entered the studio and felt the heavy, palpable vibrations of the room where Spooner Oldham first laid down the opening Wurlitzer riff to “I Never Loved a Man.” That visceral reaction dictated the album’s entire ethos, leading Poland to embrace the sound, history, and atmosphere of the studio itself. Produced by Jay Tooke and backed by a band including Muscle Shoals veteran Kelvin Holly and bassist Jimbo Hart, the production shows that somehow, magic is real in that place.
The record jumps out at you right away with a high-energy hitter, Etta James’ “Watch Dog.” Chrissi’s rendition of this track feels like it belongs in The Blues Brothers. This is followed by something only minimally more subdued, the swaggalicious “The Best Thing You Ever Had” by Candi Staton, and then the blue-eyed soul classic “Cry Like A Baby” by The Box Tops.
With that strong three-piece outing, the rest of the album flourishes and develops in all sorts of interesting ways, such as the unexpectedly acoustic take on Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’.” But some pretty straightforward homages will blow your mind, like how much Chrissi’s voice channels Aretha Franklin’s in “Good Times,” or the tender and soulful reimagining of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” with James Otto.
By the time the final track fades out, this whole project stands fully on its own two feet as a living, roaring testament to what happens when genuine reverence meets honed talent and enormous amounts of love for one of the most emotionally generous musical styles of the 20th century. Capturing lightning straight out of Muscle Shoals is one thing, but channeling it into something so virtuous and urgent that you can practically feel the heat radiating right off the speaker is where Poland and producer Jay Took, along with an extensive list of collaborators, really managed to impress us. So whether you are a long-time fan of blues and blues-adjacent music or if you’ve never even so much as touched one record, you’d be doing yourself a huge favor by streaming “Forever Muscle Shoals.”
“Forever Muscle Shoals” succeeds because Chrissi Poland is full of reverence for the sacred space she stepped into, but she also steps into it full of confidence. By matching technical mastery with genuine, fiery love for the genre, she brings these timeless compositions directly into the present tense, demonstrating that the legendary Shoals sound remains a living, breathing being.
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