Fame Records - new deal with EMI may mean fresh rare output

MUSCLE SHOALS, Alabama The world-famous FAME Records- based in the fabled music mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama - has signed a distribution agreement with EMI Music Marketing in the United States.

Under the terms of the deal, EMI will distribute new FAME Records product along with rare and vintage Southern soul and rhythm-and-blues recordings from the treasured FAME vaults.

"This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the story of FAME and Muscle Shoals music," says legendary producer Rick Hall, founder of the historic, hit-generating FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals. "This new deal with EMI gives us an excellent opportunity to develop new acts here at FAME and possibly bring some established artists here to Muscle Shoals to record their projects. It's also an ideal time to dig into our catalog and

put out some classic hits and rare cuts that fans of Muscle Shoals soul have been waiting to hear."

"The timing couldn't be more perfect," says Hall. "This new deal with EMI follows on the heels of a recent resurgence in Muscle Shoals music. Acts based here or linked with this area - acts like the Drive-by Truckers (New West), Gary Nichols (Mercury), Bo Bice (BMG) and Heartland (Lofton Creek) - are having chart success in rock and country and keeping the Muscle Shoals

tradition alive and well in the 21st century. In addition, Muscle Shoals native John Paul White is slated to record his first record for EMI's Capitol Records at FAME Recording studios. This new distribution agreement with EMI enables us to prove once again that Muscle Shoals remains a major force in the music world."

In addition to providing an outlet for future FAME Records product, the EMI distribution deal will include the opportunity for the long awaited reissues of classic music from Fame's catalogue from the heyday of "Southern soul," a warm, funky brand of rhythm-and-blues that first popularized the unmistakable "Muscle Shoals sound." Additionally, the FAME-EMI relationship

includes the opportunity to distribute many of these records in compilations of masters by the likes of Candi Staton, Dan Penn, Jimmy Hughes, Arthur Alexander, Clarence Carter, Willie Hightower, Spencer Wiggins and James Govan as well as the FAME Gang, an all-star act made up of Hall's multi-talented studio musicians.

"Some of these old masters have never been released at all, and only a select few of them have ever been released on CD," added Rodney Hall, who has helped document and preserve the company's rich, one-of-a-kind musical archives. "It's really the last great soul catalog to come out on CD, and I know that there's definitely some intense interest among diehard fans of

Southern soul and R&B. They're eager to add these classic recordings to their collections."