Muscle Shoals Meets the 70s rewind

Part 10: Friday night and the lights were low

Two weeks ago, toward the end of the first set of night one of Muscle Shoals Meets the 70s, the incomparable Shoals Sisters, Marie Lewey and Cindy Walker, met mega pop pioneers, Abba. It was a beautiful dance — a vocal dance worthy of two bonafide singing queens like Marie and Cindy. Absolutely awestruck.

From the second I saw these words — "the ladies" — written next to "Dancing Queen" on the night one Muscle Shoals Meets the 70s setlist, I couldn't stop thinking about our beloved Shoals Sisters owning this Europop anthem. I'm sure y'all know, I'm a huge Shoals Sisters fan (aren't we all?) but you may not know this: I'm also a huge — unironic, unapologetic — Abba fan. Yep. You know, Abba's brand of escapism disco/pop rock is good for what ails ya. Don't fight me on this, just trust me. Abba = cool beans.

My OMG level was through the roof when Marie and Cindy stepped into the spotlight for this 10th performance of night one. With the world-famous Fiddleworms, Shoals Strings, Carla Russell, and Lucie Tiger as support, the Shoals Sisters radiated star power as per usual and it was so nice seeing them center stage. It's just what they do, friends — Marie and Cindy are stars — and we were all having the time of our lives at their masterful hands/voices. There is nothing like the Shoals Sisters in the whole wide world — not past present or future. I bow down to these consummate vocal queens.

The Shoals Sisters' " Dancing Queen" was the first girls up front performance of the two-night MSM the 70s stand. This go around, we saw eight high-quality performances featuring females on the main mic(s). I’m not much on math so I won’t attempt to do any sort of percentage breakdown — my head would likely explode — but it felt like a decent representation of female talent in the Shoals. I’m so greedy, though, I needed more … way more. I needed an entire set of my Shoals Sisters at the helm giving me goddess goodness. Now that would be an interesting twist for a future MSM concert. A girl can dream, right?

Thank you, Shoals Sisters, for doing what you do so well and for doing it with joy and passion. And holy wow at their unwavering STAMINA — they put in a lot of time behind those mics, friends. Shoals Sisters make everything better, y’all. Truth.

More to come ... stay tuned.

Dig worms, y'all.

Photo credit: Angel DeAnn Pilati