Ice Cream, Coffee, and Community in Alabama: A Gravy Road Trip (Gravy Ep. 19)
Gravy takes a road trip to the Shoals in northwest Alabama and visits two favorite hangouts in the small city of Florence. What do these places—one a century-old landmark, one a relative newcomer—tell us about public space and community-building?
Gravy · Southern Foodways Alliance
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (podtrac.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
The Shoals is a community in Northwest Alabama made up of four towns: Muscle Shoals, Florence, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. Tucked in the foothills of the Tennessee River Valley, the Shoals is an hour from any interstate, and at least a two-hour drive from the nearest big cities—Nashville to the north and Birmingham to the south.
The Shoals is one of the most documented places in the world of music. The Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett, the Allman Brothers, Bobbie Gentry, even the Osmond Brothers -- all made pilgrimages to record at legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, with locals like Percy Sledge and the Swampers, FAME’s in-house rhythm section.
But music is only part of the cultural story here. There’s a rich food culture, too. On this Gravy Road trip, we take a look at two sides of that story, one a local icon and the other, a newer kid in town.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices