Donnie Fritts

Donnie Fritts helped shape the celebrated Muscle Shoals Sound while maintaining a long-running creative partnership with Kris Kristofferson. Born in Florence, Alabama, he played drums as a teenager in local groups such as the Satellites and Hollis Dixon. By the end of the 1950s he was writing and performing alongside Arthur Alexander, Dan Penn, and Spooner Oldham, the group collectively developing the singular mix of Southern soul, pop, country, and R&B that became known as the Muscle Shoals Sound. His earliest compositions were cut by an eclectic roster of artists that included Percy Sledge, Dusty Springfield, the Box Tops, and Tommy Roe.

In the late 1960s Fritts worked as a staff songwriter in Nashville, frequently teaming with the rising Kristofferson. Beginning in 1970 he served as Kristofferson’s keyboardist on the road, and the two also shared the screen in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and A Star Is Born. Fritts issued his first solo album, Prone to Lean, in 1974, yet more than two decades passed before he released another, Everybody’s Got a Song, in 1997; the record featured updated versions of his signature tunes “We Had It All” and “A Damn Good Country Song” with guest appearances by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, and Delbert McClinton.

Throughout the early 2000s Fritts concentrated on session and touring work. He appeared on Robert Plant’s Sixty Six to Timbuktu in 2003 and the Resentments’ Roselight in 2009, though new recordings under his own name remained scarce. His catalog sustained him financially, surfacing on countless compilations and receiving fresh interpretations by artists such as Shelby Lynne, who chose his “Breakfast in Bed” as the title track of her 2008 tribute to Dusty Springfield.

Another six years elapsed before Fritts recorded again as a solo artist. He had formed a friendship with producer, label owner, and studio proprietor John Paul White, formerly of the Civil Wars, who invited him to perform at the premiere of the Muscle Shoals documentary. During a casual visit White overheard Fritts playing favorite songs—some his own, some not—on a well-worn Wurlitzer. White persuaded him to make an album of such material on that instrument. With help from the Alabama Shakes’ Ben Tanner, White assembled a supporting cast that included Brittany Howard, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, John Prine, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Spooner Oldham, and the Secret Sisters. Issued by White’s Single Lock Records, Oh My Goodness appeared in October 2015.