Benefit concert to help with local musician's cancer treatment

MUSCLE SHOALS - Friends of Dennis Clifton will gather Thursday for a concert to raise money to help the longtime Shoals musician offset the continuing cost of cancer treatment.

Clifton, a Muscle Shoals session musician and member of he band FCC, previously received cancer treatment, but was forced to undergo radical surgery earlier this year after the disease returned.

The cancer had moved to the front of Clifton's face, forcing surgeons to remove a portion of his jaw, his tongue and vocal chords. The surgery left Clifton without the ability to speak.

His longtime friend, Steve Baccus, said Clifton's spirits were high after the surgery and was hopeful that he could recover enough to play guitar and return to the recording studio.

Local music insider Dick Cooper said Clifton's cancer has returned.

As they have done in the past, Shoals musicians will gather for a performance to raise money for their friend.

"Dennis has been battling against this deadly foe for many months," Cooper said.

The benefit concert will feature a variety of local pop, rock and country music artists, including Mac McAnally, the 2007 Nashville Star winner Angela Hacker and her brother and first runner-up, Zac Hacker, Gary Nichols, Chad Bradford, Johnny Holland and Wayne Chaney.

Other artists are expected to attend.

Bradford said he remembers watching Clifton perform when he was a child. The pair later collaborated on several songs, two of which appear on Bradford's new album.

"He's an outstanding musician and most of all, an outstanding guy," Bradford said.

Clifton grew up in Decatur and began working as a touring musician as a teenager, playing jazz clubs in New Orleans. He played with various bands before forming FCC, which was well known in the Shoals and the southeast in the 1970s.

Clifton was the principal songwriter, guitarist and singer for FCC, which released two albums for RCA Records.

Most recently he was operating Baccus' Desert Rose Studio in Tuscumbia.

In 2006, Clifton released "Blues Highway," which Baccus called "the best blues album to come out of the Shoals in years."

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@timesdaily.com.