Shoals Chamber Presents Norbert Putnam

Legends live among us here in the Shoals. Please join us Friday evening at the Shoals Gold Record Room from 6:00 until 8:00 PM and meet Norbert Putnam. Norbert has worked with greats such as Dan Fogelberg, Dave Loggins, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Elvis, The Beatles and Jimmy Buffett (Putnam produced his immortal “Margaritaville”). Read more highlights of his impressive career below or purchase his book, "Norbert Putnam, Vol. 1, Music Lessons - A Musical Memoir".

Shoals Chamber Presents is a casual come and go event. Stay for the entire show or stay while you can. We look forward to having you with us!

FREE ADMISSION -- FAMILY FRIENDLY
Questions? Contact:
Hope Frederick, Director of Web & Digital Media
e: hfrederick@shoalschamber.com p: 256.764.4661

------

...The Alabama native, Norbert Putnam, started out in 1957 as an Elvis-inspired rockabilly bassist, modeling his style on the slapping attack of Bill Black, before segueing into R&B and soul with some likeminded lads that included another future studio mainstay, pianist David Briggs. For a while, Dan Penn was the band’s lead singer; they were then known as the Pallbearers and
drove to gigs in a 1953 Cadillac hearse. When Rick Hall
assembled his first house band at his fledgling FAME Studio
in Muscle Shoals, Putnam and Briggs constituted half of it,
along with drummer Jerry Carrigan and ill-fated guitarist
Terry Thompson. The band played on groundbreaking
early-’60s R&B hits by Arthur Alexander, the Tams, and
Jimmy Hughes, and on rocker Tommy Roe’s smash
“Everybody,” before Putnam, Briggs, and Carrigan chafed at
Hall’s authoritarian ways and moved as a unit to Nashville in
1965. There they found plenty of work in the bustling studios
of Music Row. Unlike the informal atmosphere at FAME,
where nailing down a hit could take all day and night,
Nashville sessions were unionized and strictly run by the book
– which also meant a distinct bump upwards in Putnam’s
earnings.


After laying down supple bass lines on countless country
sessions, Putnam moved into a producer’s role at the dawn of
the ’70s. He and Briggs launched their own recording studio
and enjoyed plenty of success, Putnam helming Joan Baez’s
1971 hit “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” His
adventures behind the board at various locations with Dan
Fogelberg, Dave Loggins, the New Riders of the Purple Sage,
and Jimmy Buffett (Putnam produced his immortal
“Margaritaville”) are covered in-depth. Putnam had pretty
much hung up his bass by then, with one very notable
exception: he was Elvis Presley’s first-call studio bassist for
most of the 1970s, so there’s plenty here about his extremely
cordial relationship with the King. Ray Charles, George
Harrison, Al Hirt, Mickey Newbury, Dolly Parton, Henry
Mancini, Kris Kristofferson, and a host of additional instantly
recognizable names sail through the breezy narrative,
Putnam relating intriguing stories about each of them like
he’s sitting across a table from you over a glass of high quality
wine (another of Putnam’s passions). Written in short,
easily digestible chapters, the book is perfect for dipping into
whenever you have a spare few minutes and want to learn
something new and previously untold about the musical
greats that Putnam has accompanied or produced during his
amazing and still very active career." - "Music Lessons" Review by Bill Dahl

*This event made possible in part by a grant from the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area.