“Most of this record was written before seven o’clock in the morning,” Mike Farris tells me over the phone on a recent Monday. In the old days when Farris lived hard, making music at that hour likely involved still being up from the night before.

Sober for years now though, he gets up around 4 a.m., before anyone else in the Nashville-area home. “I sit down with my coffee and immediately start creating,” Farris says.

Those songs took final form later inside Alabama’s storied FAME Studios, where artists like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Etta James cut eternal tracks.

Farris named the resulting album “The Sound of Muscle Shoals.” It’s an apt title. The album’s 11 songs, including the single “Heavy On The Humble,” channel classic Shoals energy without aping it.

As Farris puts it, “I couldn’t have made this record anywhere else. “Muscle Shoals, it reconnects you to the purity and the essence of what we do.”

Farris’ career got rolling in 1993 as the singer for Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, a Nashville hard-rock band whose self-titled Atlantic Records debut album featured rock-radio hit “Shakin’ the Blues.”

Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies’ colorful name was inspired by a caption from a Gary Larson “The Far Side” cartoon. The band drew Atlantic’s interest after their weekly shows at Nashville blues bar The Grapevine Cafe became a local sensation.

Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies were signed by Jason Flom, the same A&R legend who’d signed Stone Temple Pilots and later Lourde and Greta Van Fleet. They went on to tour with legends like the Allman Brothers, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Just a few years removed from never having been in a band or written a song, Farris was in the office of Ahmet Ertegun, the famous Atlantic Records exec who’d signed Led Zeppelin.

“That was a whirlwind thing,” Farris says. “I was 23 years old when I wrote that record, which is crazy to me.”

Along with Birmingham band Brother Cane and North Carolina’s Cry Of Love, whose guitarist Audley Freed later joined The Black Crowes, Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies were part of what some in the music press dubbed the new generation of Southern rock.

But Farris says, “We all kind of laughed at that because we were in agreement that Southern rock was a season. I mean, that’s my favorite stuff I grew up with. But to us it was kind of absurd. We’re not really Southern rock. We’re something else.”

In the aughts, Farris established an Americana Music Awards-winning solo career with rootsier albums like “Salvation in Lights” and “Shout! Live.” After cleaning up, he won a 2015 Grammy Award for his gospel album “Shine for All the People.”

“The Sound of Muscle Shoals” album is one of Farris’ best. As heard on tracks like gospel-soul tunes like “Ease On” and rock-tinged cuts like “I’ll Come Running,” his limber, emotive voice has gained depth from life’s ups and downs.

“I’ve dedicated more time to my craft than I did back in the ’90s,” Farris says. “You know, I was under the throes of addiction pretty bad. And who would have thought? That stopping smoking and doing all the drugs you could ingest would help your voice get better. But it’s really a blessing, man, because my voice has gotten stronger as I go.”

Farris says his wife Julie has been crucial in his career resurgence and personal redemption.

“She changed everything. Through her, I realized you can’t just get clean, you’re going to have get down to the whys. Why are you so self-destructive? Why when things get going, do you have a tendency to burn everything down? “People go, ‘How does it feel to hit rock bottom?’ Rock bottom feels great. Dangling just inches above it for so long is what kills you.”

While recording his “Shine for All the People” gospel album, Farris had aimed for a Grammy-worthy recording. Still he was shocked when the album was later nominated and eventually won a Grammy Award.

“It was an incredible moment,” he recalls. “You get to go up on the mountain sometimes and take a look at the view. But eventually then it spins right back down in the valley to getting to work on all the stuff that allows you to be up there for just a moment. But it’s all worth it.”

For his Muscle Shoals album, Farris drew songwriting inspiration from what he calls “the human condition.” The lyrics to the swaying closing track “Sunset Road” are about the futility of worry. Putting together rustic power-ballad “Learning To Love” was especially emotional for him.

The music of Van Morrison, which Farris fell under the spell of while growing up in rural Tennessee, echoes throughout “The Sound of Muscle Shoals.”

Farris says, “I wasn’t raised in the church, but I’ve always had this connection to this higher power. And what I was getting from Van was, there was something deeply spiritual in his stuff without being spiritual [music, per se]. And then when music came into my life, I was like, that’s what I want to do. I want to talk about life, I want to talk about hope, and I want to talk about God without talking about God.”

“The Sound of Muscle Shoals” was cut with a backing band of local ringers. Those include Clayton Ivey, whose bona fides include production work with Motown legends like Marvin Gaye and The Supremes. Ivey’s also played keyboards on hits by artists ranging from Clarence Carter to Toby Keith. Ivey’s sultry electric piano is showcased on Farris tracks like “Ease On” and “Bird In The Rain.”

Farris says Ivey is, “one of the most gifted genius musicians I’ve ever played with. And the thing about it is Clayton is as country as cornbread — you would never know how deep and rich his musical palette is. It’s unbelievable. I’m talking world class musician.”

The album also boasts guitarists Will McFarlane, who toured with Bonnie Raitt for years, Kelvin Holly, a longtime member of Little Richard’s band, and studio ace Wes Sheffield. Drummer Justin Holder has worked with artists ranging from Kris Kristofferson to Sammy Hagar to Riley Green.

FAME Studios general manager Rodney Hall — who learned well from his dad Rick Hall, the originator of Muscle Shoals’ country-funk sound — curated musicians for the sessions.

Farris knew all of them previously. Except for one, bassist Jimbo Hart, formerly of Jason Isbell’s longtime backing band, The 400 Unit.

Bass guitar is foundational to the kind of heartbeat music Farris makes, and he admits he was initially “a little apprehensive.” But, Farris adds, “I just trusted Rodney on it, and of course Jimbo came in and absolutely killed it.”

Hall says, “Jimbo was a huge part of this record. He’s got a groove and feel that just moves it, you know? I don’t really think Jimbo knows how good he is.”

Farris’ album is being released on FAME Records, the label Rick Hall started back in the day. The imprint featured hits like the Jimmy Hughes hit “Steal Away” and numerous releases by Candi Staton, Rick Hall’s all-time favorite singer.

Farris is part of a FAME Records reboot steered by Rodney Hall. Other upcoming releases include rising Texas country-music singer Kensie Coppin.

In the laptop era of music recording, a FAME-made album like Farris’ sounds especially vibrant.

Rodney Hall says, “You could make a record now on an iPhone or PlayStation or anything, but there’s not a lot of humanity to it. They’re usually just looping samples or whatever and not playing real instruments.

As time progresses, Hall says, “it occurs to me more and more that’s what our magic and niche is: Using real instruments, real players, real singers and real songs. That’s always going to be a thread that runs through what we do.”

Hall had been a fan of Harris’ for years. Likewise, Farris — who contributed to a 2018 Muscle Shoals tribute album also boasting artists like Steven Tyler, Chris Stapleton and Alison Krauss — had always wanted to record an album at FAME.

Farris says, “It seemed like it’s never going to happen at times, but it was always in the forefront. This time around some things fell into place. We’ve been having some [record] label troubles for a few years now, and so I reached out to Rodney. He didn’t even ask to hear the songs or anything. He was like, ‘Why don’t you come down here and record?’ I was like, this is refreshing.

Farris adds, “Their priorities are a different thing in Muscle Shoals. It’s just let’s follow the music and the energy, and let’s capture it now. Which is how it’s supposed to be.”

Some might perceive the Muscle Shoals sound as something encased in amber. Farris disagrees. “It’s still alive and growing. It’s still there, man.”

Mike Farris and a band featuring several musicians who played on “The Sound of Muscle Shoals” play an album release show 8 p.m. Friday at FloBama, address 311 N. Court St. in Florence. Tickets are $15 advance via eventbrite.com and $20 at the door. More info at mikefarrismusic.com.