Right person, right place, right time. The formula that has proven successful and iconic over the years in entertainment, sports, business and for writers. This formula worked for Paul Hornsby as well as he started his journey in life choosing to be a musician and producer.
Paul was born in Elba, Alabama and grew up nearby in New Brockton. His early musical influence was watching and hearing his father play fiddle at square dances. Paul learned from his father as well as picking out guitar licks while listening to recordings of performers such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and The Ventures recordings. He also played the keyboards being influenced by Jimmy Smith, Ray Charles and Dr. John who he called one of the greatest piano players in the world.
Playing in different R&R bands while living in Tuscaloosa, Paul, playing both guitar and keyboards would team up with guitarist Eddie Hinton and drummer Johnny Sandlin to form The Five Minutes later changing the name to The Men-Its. It was while with this band Paul would do his first professional recording when they went to Muscle Shoals.
The right time and right place for Paul was coming together. The Men-Its began touring in the southeast and mid west and would eventually meet and become friends with Duane and Gregg Allman. The Allman’s were at the time in the band called The Allman Joys. When Eddie Hinton decided to become a session player in Muscle Shoals, Paul and Johnny Sandlin joined with Duane, Gregg and Mabron McKenny and started playing gigs in the St. Louis area. The band was well received and was and would be asked to go to Los Angeles and record. In the late 1960’s They signed with Liberty Records as The Hour Glass. They played in such places as The Fillmore and Whiskey-A-Go-Go. The band would be opening for artists like The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Animals and Buffalo Springfield. Two LP’s later and with not much success the band went back to Muscle Shoals and recorded and did gigs there. Still nothing was happening, so they called it quits.
Hooking back up with Duane Allman, Paul met Phil Walden and after discussing possibilities of forming another band he declined but accepted a position at Capricorn Sound Studio in Macon, Georgia as studio staff musician. Doing session work on recordings with Eddie Floyd and Arthur Conley, Paul would soon become studio manager at Capricorn. Producing was now part of Paul’s resume and he proved his worth. A band from South Carolina was signed and brought in for Paul to produce. The Marshall Tucker Band was placed with the right person in the right place at the right time. History was about to be made.
After two months of long days in the studio the debut LP, ‘The Marshall Tucker Band’ was ready for the music world. Paul had captured a sound that would become known as Southern Rock. It was probably being with Hour Glass and Duane and Gregg that Paul knew what he wanted. With songs like ‘Take The Highway’ and ‘Can’t You See’, the LP would be called by one magazine a ‘Southern Rock classic’. Paul was not only the producer of the LP, he played keyboards. Paul would go on a produce MTB’s next five LP’s as well as LP’s by Wet Willie and Charlie Daniels, including songs like ‘The South’s Gonna Do It (Again)’ and ‘Long Haired Country Boy’.
Right person, right place, right time. Paul Hornsby was a driving force behind the genre we now call Southern Rock and that legacy began in Elba, Alabama then criss-crossing the country, along the way being a member of the band Hour Glass which can arguably be called the first Southern Rock band and then ending in Macon, Georgia producing some of the best music then and it is still being played today on classic rock radio. What Paul Hornsby did to give Southern Rock its place in music history can be compared to what Sam Phillips did to give Rock & Roll a place in music history.
