
Fiddleworms Turned it Up to 11
- Monica Emerson Collier
- Mar 21
- 3 min read
Here’s how “Muscle Shoals Meets the 80s” went down, Part 7: Fiddleworms turned it up to 11
The March 2025 edition of “Muscle Shoals Meets the 80s” at Decatur’s Princess Theatre was a night where every single performance was at 11. You know what I mean? There was a positive momentum to the night that felt as if each artist — one right after the other — rose to the occasion and gave their all. Those worms and friends, y’all — I swear they’re all superhuman. I’m looking at you Mitch Mann, Scott Todd, Steve Vickery, Michael Curington and Clint Bailey. Next time y’all are performing in your capes, right?
Now, let’s get down to business and talk about Gary Baker doing right by Bryan Adams with his version of “Run to You.” Something you should know about me: I was raised on radio (thank you, WQLT) and Bryan Adams is super important to me. To hear THE Gary Baker proclaim Bryan Adams as one of his favorite artists felt so very validating. “Run to You” is one of my constant companions and has been since I was 13 years old. Gary singing, “I’m gonna run to you,” gave me my biggest Fangirl Moment of the night.
Kelvin Holly’s mind-blowing performance of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” takes the prize for Most Iconic Moment of the night. Oh my goodness, my 80s friends, talk about the power of a song to transport us to another place and time. Just seeing the Eliminator Ford Coupe projected behind Kelvin as he played took me right back to the mid-1980s — thank you, Corey Hannah. Having 1980s era ZZ Top as part of our raising makes us all a little cooler, friends. Witnessing Kelvin make a cool song by a cool band even cooler was cool turned up to 11. Once the king of cool brought it on home, here’s what I wrote in my notebook, “Hell, yeah!” Indeed.
What happened next still has me reeling. In the heat of the moment, when it all went down, I dubbed this the Most Ethereal Moment of the night and it was, but now that almost two weeks have passed, I have the luxury of perspective. Michael Ledbetter’s rendition of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” was absolutely the Most Heartfelt Moment of the entire night. Scott Campbell joined Mikey on guitar and we were all in our feels from the very first note of this timeless 80s classic. With his big voice and his big heart, Mikey led us in a group sing for the ages, y’all. It was so nice to be reminded that we’re all in this together, friends.
Gary Nichols took the stage for his second number of the “Muscle Shoals Meets the 80s” show and asked the audience this oh so 80s question, “What’s up party people?” What’s up was we were all having a rocking good Saturday night. Gary’s cover of “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins takes the prize for Most Haunting Moment of the night. There’s no two ways about it, this is just a very very very emotionally heavy song. Gary was a man with a microphone living inside this song and singing his soul right there in front of us. Those drums, y’all! Holy smokes at Michael giving us that iconic heartbeat of this song. And, oh my goodness, those Shoals Sisters — Marie and Cindy — were absolutely stunning. It was so beautiful. Thank you.
Stay tuned — one more to come tomorrow.
(Photo credit: Dennis Keim)

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