10/25/26
By Monica Collier
Mercy, dear Muscle Shoals Meets friends, the 90s done up all Fiddleworms and friends style was truly something to behold. Here we are roughly two months later and the memories we made during that fabulous 90s Mixtape Week are still fresh on my mind. Yeah. I'm struggling with turning this one loose, friends.
I sure do cherish the emotional experience we shared during the main concert, MSM fam. It was both sentimental and celebratory. It was all the feels, right? That Saturday night we spent back in the summer celebrating live music just a few yards from the Tennessee River will forever live in my heart. I know it'll live in your heart, too. Right?
Muscle Shoals Meets the 90s made me especially nostalgic for a pre-cellphone world, y'all, where the mall was still shopping mecca, radio still ruled the world, and CDs were still our physical media of choice. (BTW, how about we start a movement to bring back CD players in new vehicles?)
Listen, the 1990s were a time when we all grew up a little. 1980s latchkey kids became pseudo adults and so many of our beloved Shoals superstars were either making a name for themselves in the music business or they were (finally) coming into their own.
So, it's time ... let's talk about the Muscle Shoals Meets the 90s Saturday night finale. Let's relive that once-in-a-lifetime hometown celebration of our dear friend and neighbor, the ridiculously talented and genuinely nice -- Gary Baker.
Sure, I look at Gary and see the incredibly talented Grammy-winner who wrote one of the greatest love songs of all time but I also look at him and simply see one of our favorite Shoals neighbors. Gary is a staple of the Muscle Shoals Meets charitable concerts for a reason. He's a great performer, y'all, and is always a highlight of MSM concerts but his heart is his greatest gift. We love Gary so much. Don't we, MSM fam?
Yes, Gary's performances are always heartfelt and sincerely phenomenal but that Saturday night back in August, he was absolutely and literally divine. Gary's MSM 90s finale performance of his Grammy-winning chart-topping hit (times two), "I Swear," is a live music moment I still can't believe I experienced. Y'all! Gary's son, Shane, was there beside him playing guitar. The Shoals Sisters and Shoals Strings were there, too. Remember? Unbelievable. Somebody pinch me. Was it a dream?
"I Swear" is such a beautiful vow in the form of a song. It's a solemn promise no matter the vessel but that night, with its loving maker telling its precious story, "I Swear" was elevated in a way that had never happened before and will never happen again. You realize that, right? We witnessed ephemeral hometown beauty, dear MSM friends. We saw it all unfold through our shared tears and it was special beyond words.
Could there have been a more perfect way to close the Muscle Shoals Meets the 90s concert? I think not, MSM friends. I swear, it was the most perfect way to bid adieu to the wildly successful inaugural Mixtape Week. Thank you, Fiddleworms.
We get old, dear MSM fam, but rediscovering our magical musical hometown never gets old. I swear.
And, that was that, dear MSM fam. Russell Mefford took the microphone and simply said, "See you next year, man."
Dig Worms, y'all.
Photos by Devona Hawkins
