ALBERT "JUNIOR" LOWE

f Junior Lowe isn't a household name among the general public, he certainly is known in the inner circles of the music world. If you've ever listened to Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" or Wilson Pickett's "Land of 1000 Dances," then you've heard Lowe's bass guitar work. Those hits are only two of the countless recordings that Junior Lowe played guitar or bass on during his 11-year stint as a staff musician at legendary Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals.

His first guitar was a little Gene Autry model his folks bought for him when he was about 6 years old. His fingers were so small they almost wouldn't reach around the neck but Lowe persisted and learned the chords. By the time he was 12, Lowe had progressed to the point at which he and some friends put a group together.

As Lowe continued to pick his guitar in the area and soak up the sounds of white country music and black gospel music, another event occurred that would shape his life. Rick Hall opened Fame Studio and recorded the first hit record to come out of the Shoals, Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On." Rick had been working on the road with a group called the Fairlanes which included Billy Sherrill and Terry Thompson. Rick had to quit the group to devote more of his time to the studio and the business that resulted from the Alexander hit. He asked Lowe to take his place in the band and later asked him to play bass in the studio, working demo sessions. Over the next 11 years, Lowe played with many of the top names in the music industry.

By 1971, Lowe had had his fill of the pressures of studio work and decided to call it quits. He began to write songs and had a tune recorded by Hank Williams, Jr. Eventually he went on the road with Williams as a guitarist. He returned to the Shoals later and began playing in local clubs again and doing some more writing. His songs have been recorded by Little Richard, Tom Jones, Ike and Tina Turner and Percy Sledge.

In the early 1990s Little Richard, the self-proclaimed "King of Rock 'n' Roll" asked Lowe to join his band as guitarist for a tour of the United States followed by another in Europe.

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