Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham sit down in the Museum’s Ford Theater for a Songwriter Session celebrating the exhibition Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising, supported by OneLouder. The program, made possible in part by PEDIGREE® and PEDIGREE Foundation, was recorded on November 15, 2025.

During the program, Penn and Oldham share memories associated with recording at FAME Recording Studios and perform together, with Penn on acoustic guitar and Oldham on keys. Among the many songs they play are several they wrote together, including “I’m Your Puppet,” “Sweet Inspiration,” “Cry Like a Baby” and “It Tears Me Up.” They also told the stories behind the songs.

Both Penn and Oldham were regulars at the informal recording studio and hangout space the visionary Tom Stafford organized in Florence, Alabama, above a downtown drug store. They have been writing and playing songs together ever since. Together, Penn and Oldham have written songs for James & Bobby Purify, Percy Sledge, the Sweet Inspirations, and others. Additionally, Penn wrote Conway Twitty’s 1960 hit “Is a Bluebird Blue?” and such classics as “Cry Like a Baby” (the Box Tops), “Dark End of the Street” (James Carr), and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (Aretha Franklin). Oldham played on “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)” (Aretha Franklin), “Mustang Sally” (Wilson Pickett), and “You Better Move On” (Arthur Alexander) and is Neil Young’s longtime keyboardist.

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