“I guess (The Roxy show) was an informal audition as Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett had recommended us,” says Withers, who resides in Liverpool with his wife Linda. “They had recently co-produced Dire Straits’ second album ‘Communique,’ and our involvement stemmed directly from that.” In 2000, Wexler told Marshall that Dylan had called him and asked him to produce the album that became “Slow Train Coming.” It’s likely Dylan was very aware of the strong music and commercial success of many previous Muscle Shoals-recorded releases, such as Staple Singers soul hit “I’ll Take You There” and The Rolling Stones rocker “Brown Sugar.”

“Slow Train” was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound. But not the studio’s iconic 3614 Jackson Highway address in Sheffield, at the lesser known 1000 Alabama Ave. location, a former Naval Reserve Building along the Tennessee River.

Gregg Hamm was recording engineer for “Slow Train Coming” and follow-up LP “Saved.” He recorded Dylan and his musicians through a Neve console onto two-inch 24-track analog tape. Dylan cut his vocals (probably singing into a Neumann U87 mic) inside the center isolation booth, directly across from the control room, where Hamm, Wexler and Beckett would work.

Dylan wore a “little toboggan” hat for much of the sessions, Hamm recalls. The singer cut his vocals live with the band, recording his guitars (possibly including a black and white Strat) at the same time. “He wanted things to be more in the moment type situations,” Hamm says, “which was just the way he did things and I totally agree with that. You get what’s real and real-time and it just made a lot of sense.” Hamm recalls Dylan having a notebook with him during the “Slow Train Coming” sessions but doesn’t know for sure if its contents were lyrics, session notes, grocery list or whatever.

In 2000, Beckett told Marshall once he heard Dylan run through new song “Gotta Serve Somebody” for the first time at Muscle Shoals Sound, he was relieved: “When I heard those lyrics I said, ‘Oh my goodness this is great.’ And it wasn’t your typical corny Christian related music – you know, having to do with ‘Jesus loves me, this I know,’ all that stuff. It had depth.” “Gotta Serve Somebody” – musically sinewy, lyrically bold and deceptively danceable – quickly stood out to Hamm during the sessions. “It just had a feel to it that was sort of infectious. I thought it was pretty special.” That tune would not only become the album’s opening track, it would win Dylan his first ever Grammy, in 1980 for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male.