Album Notes

Shoal Music: Muscle Shoals Demos 1985-1991

This isn’t a typical album project—where the artist walks into a studio, records a bunch of tunes, and six months later emerges with a finished product. These are demos Pat made from 1985 to 1991 while he was trying to eke out a living as a musician and pilot in and around Muscle Shoals, Alabama. This is a fine collection of songs which features some excellent songwriting by Pat combined with the stellar musicianship of veteran players and singers such as Roger Hawkins, David Hood, Robert Byrne, Steve Nathan, Bill Hinds, Ralph Ezell, Owen Hale, John Willis, Brandon Barnes, Ronnie Eades, Jimmy “Be Bop” Evans, Cindy Walker, Marie Lewey, Guy Higginbotham, James Roy, Chalmers Davis, Brian Owings, Rick Kurtz, Kelvin Holley, and Mary Mason. All of the tracks were recorded on either Akai MG1212, Fostex B16, or Fostex E16 multi-track machines and were engineered by Robert Byrne, Alan Schulman, Lenny Leblanc, and Lee Daley, respectively.

It would have been a shame to let the tapes waste away in a closet somewhere. As a matter of fact, they had almost reached the point of no return when recording engineer Jimmy Nutt began the recovery and restoration process in 2007. We salute him for a job well done.