The Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as the Swampers, is a group of American studio musicians playing soul, R&B, rock and roll and country, based in the city of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. They have appeared on more than 500 recordings, including 75 gold and platinum hits. Originally the house band at Rick Hall's FAME Studios, the group went on to found their own competing business, the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. The group was inducted into the Nashville-based Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995, "as four of the finest studio musicians in the world", also receiving the Lifework Award in 2008.

The nickname "The Swampers" was given to the group by the music producer Denny Cordell during recording sessions for Leon Russell because of their "funky, soulful Southern “swamp” sound". They are referred to as "The Swampers" in the lyrics of "Sweet Home Alabama" (1974) by Lynyrd Skynyrd and appear on the cover of Cher's 1969 album 3614 Jackson Highway.

Affectionately called The Swampers, but usually known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, this group was one of the best-known session musicians. Along with Rick Hall, the founder of FAME Studios they are recognized as having crafted the "Muscle Shoals sound".

The four members of the rhythm section were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995 with a "Lifework Award for Non-Performing Achievement" and into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008 (the performers inducted into the latter were the four founding members of the Swampers—Barry Beckett (keyboards), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass), and Jimmy Johnson (guitar)—plus Pete Carr (guitar), Spooner Oldham (organ and piano), Albert S. Lowe Jr., Clayton Ivey, Randy McCormick, and Will McFarlane.

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