At first glance, Dan Penn, a self-professed hillbilly from Alabama, may seem like an unlikely candidate for one of soul music’s greatest creative forces. Nevertheless, when considering the vital role he played in the development of soul music in both Muscle Shoals and Memphis, no other distinction is possible. During a career spanning over six decades, Penn has left an indelible mark on popular music as an iconic songwriter, a fearless producer, and a criminally underrated singer, merging the worlds of black R&B and white country music with a rarified expertise.

He was born Dewey Lindon Oldham, Jr. on June 14, 1943 in Sheffield, Alabama, and grew up in the unincorporated community of Center Star in Alabama’s northern Lauderdale County. Spooner Oldham came from a musical family. His father, Dewey Lindon Oldham Sr., formed a string band with Spooner and his brothers, taught Spooner chords on the mandolin (that Spooner transposed to guitar) and created an original Southern gospel style. Spooner’s early influences included singing in church and listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. Oldham Sr.’s band recorded a record at WJOI in Florence, AL and auditioned for the Grand Ole Opry in the early 1940s. Oldham, Sr. might have turned professional were it not for his father’s World War II-related disability. Spooner was given a piano as a youth, and his mother, Marie, a hair stylist, and his two sisters, Judy and Donna, also sang. Donna had a brief stint in a rock band.