Fifteen Montgomery County Community College students recorded original music at FAME Recording Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during a four-day trip to Alabama in August.

The students, all enrolled in the Sound Recording and Music Technology (SRT) program at MCCC's Blue Bell campus, completed the college's inaugural Muscle Shoals Recording Residency from Aug. 17-20. They worked in Sheffield, Alabama, at studios that have hosted artists from The Rolling Stones to Aretha Franklin, as reported by the Times Herald.

The group recorded two original songs written by members of the student cohort. They set up equipment, developed arrangements and evaluated performances alongside veteran Muscle Shoals session musicians Spooner Oldham, Will McFarlane, Clayton Ivey and Justin Holder.

Oldham, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, played keyboards on Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)." Ivey worked with Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and the Commodores at Motown, according to the NAMM Foundation's oral history archive. McFarlane spent more than 20 years as a studio musician at Muscle Shoals Sound and toured with Bonnie Raitt in the 1970s.

SRT Director David Ivory, a Grammy-nominated producer and engineer who organized the residency, said the point was participation, not tourism.

"We didn't want our students standing behind a rope looking at where records were made," Ivory told the Times Herald. "We wanted them on the other side of the glass, making records themselves."

Before joining MCCC, Ivory founded Iris Sound Studios in Philadelphia and spent a decade at Sigma Sound Studios, where he earned a Grammy nomination for his work on "Things Fall Apart" by The Roots.

For SRT student Shaun Brown, the residency collapsed the distance between classroom study and professional practice. Brown had studied Stax Records and the Memphis Sound in MCCC's SRT 159 course. Months later, he heard musicians connected to that tradition play on his own composition at FAME Studios. Oldham and Ivey both performed on his song.

Fellow student Zach Wheitsel described watching Oldham sit down at the Wurlitzer piano, the same instrument used on Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man," and play on Brown's original track. That was the moment he said he would remember most.

Student Jakob Seeds, who worked as an engineer during the sessions, said the experience gave him confidence communicating with seasoned professionals.

The SRT program, based at MCCC's Blue Bell campus at 340 DeKalb Pike, offers an Associate of Applied Science degree. Its facilities include a mixing suite with a Solid State Logic SSL 9000K console and a Dolby Atmos system, according to Mix Magazine. All instructors are working industry professionals, according to the college.

The MCCC Legacy Fund helped cover travel, lodging, studio time and musician fees. Ivory said planning is already underway for a second residency and expanded hands-on programs within SRT.