FLORENCE – “It’s funny… People sometimes forget just how deeply the W.C. Handy Music Festival is woven into the music of Muscle Shoals,” remarked Dick Cooper, who has been, it seems, in synchronous time with the music history of our little corner of the world. Dick, Handy Festival Chair, Tori Bailey and Music Preservation Society Board President, Judge Gil Self were over at the corporate offices of Marty Abroms in Downtown Florence to announce the discovery of some special artifacts that were recently found. The are nineteen Handy Festival posters, some of which were believed lost forever, from the earliest years of the nationally recognized event. The Music Preservation Society, which sponsors the Festival, found the posters as they were packing up to move to their new offices.
Abroms, a couple of years ago, acquired the Sun Trust Bank building on Court Street. Muscle Shoals music lovers, and Bill Lyons have transformed much of the first floor of the building into the “Gold Record Room”. The venue celebrates the remarkable history of our area’s music. The posters will join a beautiful and sundried collection of other artwork featuring Handy Fest and other music and artist posters that adorn the walls inside Abroms’ corporate offices and the first floor of the building.
