Podcast Transcript
Buzz Knight:
I’m Buzz Knight, the host of Taking a Walk-Music History on Foot. Follow us on Apple Podcast, Spotify. Tune- in, iHeart, CastBox, or wherever you get your podcast. And when you follow us, you’re guaranteed to never miss an episode. And feel free to share this with a friend, couple of friends, pass the word about Taking a Walk. We appreciate it. Today, our episode is music history. Now, in a previous episode, which I’d love for you to check out, we walked through music history with Paul Kingsbury at the Country Hall of Fame. Had a blast with that.
We’ll walk through the hallowed halls today, on this episode of Taking a Walk, of Nashville music history in the studios. First, we’re going to be with Aaron Bowlin. He is the Director VP of studio operations and A and R administration for the great Curb Music, which has an amazing studio with tons of history. And then on the second part of this, we’re going to meet up with Mike Porter. He’s the facilities manager of 34 Music Square East, which, among other cool things, includes the legendary Quonset Hut Studios in Nashville. First, let’s meet up with Aaron on Taking a Walk. Well, Aaron, it’s so nice to be taking a walk with you inside Curb Studios. Thank you for having me.
Aaron:
Thank you for being here, Buzz.
Buzz Knight:
This is a amazing place, I feel like it’s one of many studios that’s sort of the hallowed halls, if you will. Right?
Aaron:
We are very blessed to have a lot of history here. A lot of great music has come out of this studio.
Buzz Knight:
So take us around here. Let’s show us the scene.
Aaron:
All right, let’s, I guess first and foremost, I’d love to take you into the tracking room first. This studio was originally built in 1982 by Wayne Hodge and Bill Warndick. It was originally called Stargem Studios, and basically it was an independent studio and record label here in town. Wayne Hodge, I believe, used to actually do the Indie Music Road charts back in the day. But they rented out of here and it was called Stargem Records. And ironically, Curb being an independent studio and also an independent record label. It’s kind of ironic that we are now carrying on that tradition.
We’re a little bit larger record label than Stargem was back in the day. But Bill and Wayne ran that for quite a while. And then when that folded, this became a commercial studio called Sessions Music, which you may have heard of. And during that time, a lot of people cut here, Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Cash cut, Boom Chicka Boom right there in that ISO booth, that vocal booth.
Buzz Knight:
Oh my God.
Aaron:
Randy Travis cut Forever and Ever, Amen here. Since I’ve been here over the past 25 years, we’ve had Dolly Parton, we’ve had George Jones, we’ve had Hank Williams, Jr., The Judds, Wynonna, Tim McGraw’s been here, LeAnn Rimes, Rodney Atkins, Lee Bryce.
Actually, I don’t know if you guys remember a band called Air Supply.
Buzz Knight:
Sure.
Aaron:
But one half of Air Supply, Russell Hitchcock cut a double album here called Nashville. And Don McLean actually cut here years ago at, not Byebye Miss American Pie, but he did cut here as well. So this studio is rich in history and we are very blessed. One of my favorites though, is Dolly Parton. When she was here, my office used to be right outside the tracking room door. And when clients are here, especially artists of her caliber, you just keep your head down and do your work and let her do hers.
But this is a story, I hope she doesn’t get mad at me for telling. But I was in there working and she was about to walk into the control room door, and she looked over at me and she said, “Well, how are you doing?” And I said, “Wonderful, how are you doing?” And we started talking. She started asking me questions. And then right before she went in, she said, “Well, are you going to give me a hug or not?” And of course, me being a southern gentleman, I said, “Yes, ma’am, I certainly am.” So I got to hug Dolly Parton, and that was definitely one of my bucket lists.
Buzz Knight:
Oh my God.
Aaron:
So that was a wonderful day. My wife still loves to hear that story.
Buzz Knight:
I mean, is she a treasure that continues to be even a greater treasure?
Aaron:
You said it Buzz. It’s just amazing. It’s amazing all that she’s done, not only for music, but for Tennessee and for Nashville and for the community in and of itself. But it was really neat to watch her perform that day. She would come in, she is a true artist, she would come in, she sang the song down through once and sounded incredible. We thought, “Well, how could it be any better?” And then she would say, “Oh, I’m going to make it a little sadder this time.” And it would be a completely different performance that would bring tears to your eyes. And then she would say, “Eh, maybe that was a little too much.” And bring it back. So she is a true artist. She could deliver the song, she knew what the song needed, worked through it and blew us all away that day.
Buzz Knight:
I mean, the sense when you walk into the studio is, there really is this sense of calm when you walk in, which I’m sure is intentional.
Aaron:
Yes. It’s great that you pick up on that. And that was one thing when Mike Curb, when we told him, “Hey, we want to redo the studio,” because we took it right before COVID hit. And during the time of COVID, we took it down to the studs and redid a lot of it. But the one thing he said was, in the tracking room, “Can we keep the wood? Can we keep the feel? Because there’s so much history in this wood.”
Buzz Knight:
Well, and the vibe is consistent because when I look over here, I see a Jack Daniels whiskey bottle. Well, is or is it filled with something?
Aaron:
It’s filled as a shaker, which is, obviously, it’s a musical instrument, but somebody had to empty that to get it, to make it useful.
Buzz Knight:
My God. Well, I’m going to, after the tour come back in, I’ll take some pictures that’ll go on the Taking a Walk Podcast Instagram site so people can get a sense of this. But what a beautiful room here. This is hallowed halls.
Aaron:
We are very blessed.
Buzz Knight:
Well, and can we just, just for the sake of the Johnny Cash piece, is this where you said…
Aaron:
This is where Boom Chicka Boom, he sang vocals for the song, Boom Chicka Boom. And you can…
Buzz Knight:
Right in here?
Aaron:
Right in here. Come on in.
Buzz Knight:
Holy mackerel.
Aaron:
You can feel… Can you feel it? Almost the vibe. And you can actually feel the presence of the room, how it’s been treated as well on your ears.
Buzz Knight:
Wow.
Aaron:
But yes, this is where…
Buzz Knight:
I’m loving it.
Aaron:
That magic was captured. And like I say it’s, I can still feel the history here and hopefully we keep capturing that.
Buzz Knight:
That’s amazing. Oh my God. What a thrill. I have to ask you, as we’re walking, so we’re here at Curb Studios. Tell me what an experience is working with the great Mike Curb.
Aaron:
Well, that is one thing that I am very proud to… It’s great to have a job that you enjoy and that can help you pay your bills and hopefully put your kids through college. But it’s even more fun when you can work for a gentleman who appreciates the history of all these wonderful buildings and the music that came out of these facilities and is willing to save it because change is inevitable. And we know that real estate here is going for a premium right now, and I’m thankful that he sees fit to preserve these, not only for the history that was created here, but also for my generation and future generations to come here to feel it, to be a part of it, and to create new music and new history here.
Buzz Knight:
He truly embraces this. And that’s part of his legacy, right?
Aaron:
Absolutely. Absolutely. He also, obviously gives to about 13 different colleges, 13 or 14 different colleges all over the country. But the fact that he appreciates music row, he’s from California. He was out there, Lieutenant Governor for many years, but when he moved the Curb Records operations, which was right across the street at 47 Music Square East, this facility, after Sessions closed, became available. That was around 1995. And that’s when Mike Curb bought this facility. And originally, it only had those two ISO booths, the middle ISO booth and the left ISO booth. When Mike purchased it, he put the right ISO booth in there. And then a lot of the Curb artists started recording here. Leann Rimes being one of them at that time. And then over the years, so many other of our artists and just outside clients have come through. Blake Shelton has recorded here, Joe Nichols, Tammy Wynette has been here. I’ve got an actual list, I would probably have to look at it just to tell you, because there’s really, we’ve been very blessed, it’s got quite a bit of a history here.
Buzz Knight:
And Mike, I understand, is still apparently involved in his company.
Aaron:
Most definitely. Most definitely. Mike is an amazing individual. He also does a lot with auto racing as well. We do NASCAR and Indy racing and truck racing and all of that. And he’s done that for many years. But his true passion is music. It’s great working for a head of a label. I mean, that was part of my job for many years, was to make music and CDs at real time to send to him over the weekend so he could just listen to music of the artists, new music that are coming out that would be coming out or deciding on what the new music was that was coming out. He’s a voracious appetite for music.
Buzz Knight:
Love it.
Aaron:
And as far as history, he could definitely give you a good history of music as well.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, I would think so. So set the stage where we are right now in this room.
Aaron:
All right. We are in the control room, and we have just redone the control room. If you look at the studio out there, the control room and the tracking room, there is a wall that’s about four feet outside of the interior wall. And those blocks are filled with sand, and there’s an airspace in between there to isolate us being that we are in Nashville and there is so much construction going on, you need that isolation, that separation. This board is an API board. It’s the legacy series board. It’s a new board that we put in. And then the speakers here are Augspurger speakers.
The other thing that helps with this studio is we have some amazing outboard gear from the ’40s and ’50s, some vintage stuff, good tube stuff. We have some wonderful microphones, and we even have old 24 track machine here, . And believe it or not, this still gets used on occasion. As a matter of fact, I think White Stripes, their album, Icky Thump, I think some of that was actually recorded behind us at Starstruck Studios, and they borrowed our 16 track head stack to run the drums through for that analog sound. And then still, they were using Pro Tools as their tape machine, but were capturing the drums through that analog warmth.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, wow.
Aaron:
So yeah, we have that. And then the two track tape machine here as well.
Buzz Knight:
That’s fascinating. Want to take a walk further?
Aaron:
I would love that. Back here, when Mike actually first purchased all of this, this would be the headquarters of Stargem. As a matter of fact, you could drive down Music Row and there was a star right here in the front door that everybody saw whenever they would drive by. So it always reminded everybody of Stargem Studios. And then that was still here when I first started at Curb 25 years ago. But since we’ve done a refurb on it, we’ve taken these offices and turned them into useful rooms. The cool thing about it is, this room, this is what we call our Studio B and Studio C are actually tied into Studio A. So when we have a large session, we can put a fiddle player back here, a steel player back in the other, and capture their sound in these rooms and still track it in the control room.
One funny story, if you can look out the window there, there’s a place where we put, there’s guitars out there, obviously, but for the tourists to come by. But there’s also basically a little wall there. That wall got put up because, too many times, people would be coming down through here, somebody would pull out from that from South Street, and they ran into this front of the building.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, that’s nice.
Aaron:
Yeah, quite a few times.
Buzz Knight:
I was wondering why that was there.
Aaron:
So the facade was put up for protection more than anything.
Buzz Knight:
Oh my God.
Aaron:
Yeah. You got to love Nashville drivers, and I’m one of them, so I can get away with saying that. But yeah, this is our B Room. It would also be great if you and I were together and we wrote a song, Buzz, we could come in here, we could put a guitar vocal down, and then we could take it to an artist and hope that they would cut it and make us songwriters.
Buzz Knight:
Wow. This, see, this could be the future.
Aaron:
This. This is it. Yeah. This is what you’re…
Buzz Knight:
My goodness. I know I’ve been struggling as an artist all these years, but, Aaron, I think you’ve helped me find my direction.
Aaron:
I think that’s all we have to do is…
Buzz Knight:
I wish. Don’t I wish.
Aaron:
Tap your inner creative child and we can capture that, Buzz.
Buzz Knight:
Please. I would love that. Well, maybe someday, maybe next trip.
Aaron:
There you go. I look forward to it.
Buzz Knight:
So, Aaron, where are we walking to right now?
Aaron:
Well, I was just wanting to kind of go around the block here and just point out a couple of wonderful places. This right here, directly behind Curb Studio is Starstruck, which was originally built by Reba McIntyre years ago. And it’s still a functioning studio. They have quite a few rooms in there, not only audio studios, but video capture as well. And it’s a phenomenal facility. They have an atmos room in there, catty corner from that is RFD-TV, which is right there in that building. And then down there to your right is RCA Studio A, which used to be Javelina Studios, but has been, just had a great history of wonderful recordings that have come out of there. And then RCA Studio B is directly beside it, which is kind of interesting because RCA Studio B was built before RCA Studio A. Hey, we’re here in the south. Alphabet can be your own little playground, I guess.
Buzz Knight:
Your own creation.
Aaron:
Your only, yeah, your own creation. And right here was 47 Music Square East, which was where Mike moved Curb Records when he initially moved from California.
Buzz Knight:
But yeah, you do have a sense that this was a hub of creativity just by the nature of all these buildings and just this activity.
Aaron:
Well, I think that’s exactly what was so unique about this is it was a place where everybody got together, that used to be a ball. And that’s where all the songwriters would get together throughout the day and tell stories, swap lies, and make up songs. And it’s interesting that a lot of that is still here. And here’s RCA Studio B that was going to be torn down and turned into a condo. And thank goodness Mike Curb saved that.
Buzz Knight:
This is one of the best positioning statements I’ve ever heard in my life. RCA Studio B established November 1957, donated to the Country Music Foundation and then the positioning statement, birthplace of a thousand hits. Nothing better. Some of the hits in here.
Aaron:
Well, this is where Elvis recorded the majority of his hits.
Buzz Knight:
This is it.
Aaron:
Everly Brothers recorded here. I think it would be a wonderful, wonderful podcast, a Buzz Knight podcast, taking a walk to take a walk through this studio the next time you have an opportunity.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, I love it. Thank you.
Aaron:
I think that is something we definitely need to make happen.
Buzz Knight:
I love it. Isn’t it fair to say that with all the development that certainly is going on in Nashville and all in this area, that the greatness is still preserved?
Aaron:
Yes. Yes. And I think things like your podcast, and taking time to share this, makes people aware of the legacy and the history that we have here that we need to preserve. What good is Music Row if there’s no studios down here, if there’s no publishing houses, if there’s no record labels? Again, I understand growth, I’m just glad that they’re still some of these places hanging on because Music Row is what brings a lot of the tourists to town. And we need to preserve that, not only for the tourists, but for future musicians and producers and songwriters, record label employees. And…
Buzz Knight:
Well, Aaron, I can’t thank you enough for taking me around here and showing us the sights, the sounds, the stories of this whole area, this amazing area. Just in closing, so, as a songwriter, and as somebody working in the role that you work at Curb and being around the studio, it’s just, can you really explain to the audience how important music is?
Aaron:
Well, for me, music is important on so many different levels. It’s an expression of yourself, it’s healing, and it brings people together. It truly is the international language. I mean, you may not be able to speak someone’s language, but if you have a rhythm or something you can tap your toe to, we can all identify with that. So, again, I’m just one of the few lucky people who get to work in this industry every day. And I’m thankful for it, and I love sharing it with others.
Buzz Knight:
Well, I appreciate you sharing your time and your stories and carrying the torch here on this, taking a walk here in Nashville. Thank you so much, Aaron.
Aaron:
Thank you Buzz for what you’re doing as well. Preserving this.
Buzz Knight:
Now part two of this, taking a walk. Let’s meet up with Mike Porter, the facilities manager of 34 Music Square East. Well, Mike, I really appreciate you taking a walk with me through the hallowed halls here at the studio.
Mike Porter:
We’re always allowed to do that. I tell people that every person that comes in is another breath of life into the place, another heartbeat into it. So.
Buzz Knight:
Well, we want the story. Tell then, you know the stories.
Mike Porter:
Yes. Okay. Well, we’re walking down the hall from what was new construction, that was the Columbia label offices, into the area where the original house stood. It’s long gone, it was torn down in 1962, but this is the area of the duplex. This was the basement of the house that the Bradley’s bought in 1955. They had a reason for building this here because Paul Cohen was going to take his business to Dallas because he didn’t, for, Paul was head of A and R for Decca, and he didn’t think there were any studios in Nashville that had the modern equipment, which modern equipment was microphones and EMT echo chambers. And Owen had been working with Paul for quite a while with this. And he said, “Well, if I build you the studio that you want, can I get a hundred sessions a year from you?” And he said, “Absolutely.”
So that’s what led to this place getting built. So this was a two-story duplex with a full basement in it. And that’s what later became Music Row. So this was where Music Row started, was right here.
Buzz Knight:
That’s awesome.
Mike Porter:
And the studio that was here at the time, Gene Vincent cut Be Bop a Lula, and it was done here. Is it Bobby Vinton, Blue Velvet, all things was done in here. And, or course, Patsy Cline did the first album she did with Owen after she got out of the 4 Star contract. This was kind of her rebirth, so to speak, in my opinion. On that one, on that album is Walking After Midnight, and it was cut in here. And this story came to me from Lou Bradley, who was an engineer here for 14 years. And he knew the engineers that were here at that time on that session.
And the day they were doing that session, Patsy was 45 minutes late. Owen’s got a room full of musicians here, he’s getting a little hot under the collar, and she finally comes in. And if you know anything about Patsy, she was a force to be reckoned with. And the two of them locked horns, and there was quite a verbal match going on. And she finally said, “I’ve had enough of this. I’m not recording for you, sons of bitches today, I’m going home.” So she starts to walk out the door, and so I’m forgetting the engineer’s name, Mort Thomasson said, “You can’t go home yet.” She said, “Well, why can’t I go home yet?” And he said, “Because you haven’t given me a hug and give me any sugar today.” So she went over and hugged his neck, pecked him on the cheek, and he said, “Before you go, would you do a favor for me?”
She said, “I’ll do anything if you need Mort, not these other SOB’s What do you want?” He said, “Would you do one take for me?” She said, “I’ll do anything for you, Mort. I’ll do that.” And she did the one take of Walking After Midnight and walked out the door, boom. And that was it. That was the line.
Buzz Knight:
God, that’s outstanding.
Mike Porter:
So, this was actually the third spot for Owen and Harold Bradley, the two brothers. They had had a recording facility after the Castle recording, which was in the Tulane Hotel shut down. They moved into a building, Battle Lodge, which was like an Elks Hall over at 2nd and Lesley. And they rented that ballroom, they leased that ballroom from the owner, and they were renting that for $25 a month at the time. And they did some improvements to it. And their landlord liked it so much, he raised their rent to $75 a month.
So that didn’t sit well with them. So they moved down to a little cinder block building in Hillsborough Village, which is just about a mile from here. When he and I were here, when he grew up here, that was Acme School Supply, little cinder block building, non-descript. Pat Boone did his first recordings in there, and Kitty Wells did recordings in there as well. They got to looking around, it wasn’t condu… Had low ceiling, wasn’t conducive to recording. So they got looking around in this area of town, was kind of run down and had just been zoned, mixed use, residential, commercial.
So that’s when they bought the house and started things here.
Buzz Knight:
Geez. Little foreshadowing of what was going to come, right?
Mike Porter:
Yeah. And Owen, well, back in the days when radio stations had their own bands, Owen was the leader for the WSM Radio band. Of course, the sister station was WSM television, and he wanted to be in film and TV work. So they bought a World War II surplus army Quonset Hut and bolted it to the back of the house. And that was film and TV production. So it was Bradley Recording studios and film work here.
Buzz Knight:
Got it.
Mike Porter:
So this little odd set of stairs, the Quonset Hut has not moved since it went in. And this was the basement of the house. So we got this little odd elevation change here.
Buzz Knight:
If these walls could talk, right?
Mike Porter:
Well, I’ve been in there with Luke Bradley, when it’s quiet and you can kind of hear it, you can, yeah, yeah. Of course, for your podcast that doesn’t work, that was the house that’s here, and you can kind of see the Quonset Hut bolted the back. And there was an apartment building on the corner. So the house is right here. So this is a three-story apartment building, and it’s the only case I know of where they tore down an apartment building to build a studio not the other way around. So there’s a period piece of recording equipment right there. That’s from about 1953. So this is the Quonset Hut.
Buzz Knight:
Holy smokes.
Mike Porter:
A lot of people think it’s been torn down because the front of building says historic site of the Quonset Hut. But it is indeed still here. Just everything’s been built around it. There’s a little spot out in the back parking lot you can look up and still see a little bit of exposed corrugated steel on it.
Buzz Knight:
Wow. This is sacred.
Mike Porter:
Yeah, it’s a neat place. So in here, of course, Patsy Cline recorded in here, George and Tammy Wynette, John and June Carter Cash, all that stuff, Roger Miller, all these big hits came out of this room. Three of the top five Christmas singles of people know were done in here. Really, it’s Holly Jolly Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, man.
Mike Porter:
All done in here. And then another little bit of history is that Fuzz-Tone recording was an accident that happened in here, which led to the development of the Fuzz-Tone guitar pedal. And that was on a session, Grady Martin was one of the 18 prolific guitar players. The way they used to record electric guitar direct is they just put alligator clips on the back of the speaker, ran it through a transformer right into the console, which is kind of sticking your tongue in a light socket. It’s a pretty hot signal. And that particular day, the engineer, as he hooked him up, he told Grady, he said, “Don’t play anything until I get in there and turn the gain down, it’s set way too high.” And, of course, just as he walked in there, Grady played something and it blew up that, it was a tube console, so it wrecked, didn’t completely break it.
And he came, he said, “Man, I told you don’t do that. And I got to replace this preamp in here.” And Grady recognized there was something musical at that point. He said, “No, leave it alone, we’re going to do it.” So if you go back and listen to, Don’t Worry, by Marty Robbins…
Buzz Knight:
Marty Robbins, ah.
Mike Porter:
Sorry. You’ll hear the really distorted guitar solo that became to be known as Fuzz-Tone.
Buzz Knight:
Wow.
Mike Porter:
And that song was a hit. Grady did another solo album. And on it was a song called The Fuzz, where he used that broken module. And it was a real odd mesh up with distorted guitar and orchestra. So that was a hit. And then people got to talking about, “What’s this Fuzz-Tone we’re hearing about?” So Owen realized at that point that he had something that was marketable. So they didn’t repair that module. They kept it. And if you wanted Fuzz-Tone on your record, you booked Bradley Studio B. And they brought out a real plugin, really neat piece of equipment, plugged it in. And you used that.
Buzz Knight:
Interesting.
Mike Porter:
Um…
Buzz Knight:
I mean, it’s amazing. I don’t know when you just sort of take this in here. I don’t know. The vibe is pretty unique here.
Mike Porter:
It’s pretty intense. I have a lot of fun showing people, particularly, this space. And since my office faces right out in the row, I see a lot of people. I can usually tell a Patsy Cline fan or a Bob Dylan fan. And sometimes I’ll go out and meet them and ask them if they want a tour, which is pretty neat. And I had a couple of ladies that had gotten separated from their formal tour one day and brought them in and just kind of steered them in right here. And I was talking to them, I had a lady standing where you’re standing. And I said, “Oh, by the way, that’s where Patsy stood.” And she immediately dispersed into tears. It’s a very powerful spot for some people in here.
Buzz Knight:
And so Dylan did a number of sessions.
Mike Porter:
He did Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline up in Columbia A.
Buzz Knight:
Okay.
Mike Porter:
Now you’ll see references on the internet to him having done Self Portrait in the Quonset Hut. And there’s some element of truth to that. He had already laid down the basic vocal and rhythm guitar tracks, and they brought that into Quonset Hut and over dubbed everything else. So Lou Bradley, the engineer I mentioned before, actually did those. But Dylan may have dropped his head in here, but he did not do any recording, per se, in this room.
Buzz Knight:
Got it.
Mike Porter:
All the other stuff was upstairs.
Buzz Knight:
But Patsy…
Mike Porter:
Yep.
Buzz Knight:
A force of nature.
Mike Porter:
Absolutely. And it’s just a nondescript building. I mean, it shouldn’t work. In theory, it should not work.
Buzz Knight:
Right.
Mike Porter:
‘Cause you’ve got this half circle building, but they treated, this as not the treatment that was done back then, but it worked.
Buzz Knight:
And what’s interesting is how, we were talking about this with Aaron earlier, how the science of sonics and engineering has so evolved from this. From this beginning or certainly other beginnings.
Mike Porter:
Yeah. They did what they had to do to make it work. There’s no science behind it. It involved all your ears and a quick fix. What can you do to make that work?
Buzz Knight:
So how often does a newer artist or musician want to come here and take this in, just for a sense of appreciating history?
Mike Porter:
Well, anytime we can share it as part of a tour or just a visit, if I can fit it in between classes, I’ll certainly do that because it’s important to keep that history going. We don’t do any commercial sessions here anymore. We could, but one, we don’t want to compete with our neighbors. ‘Cause as a recording school, we could undercut anybody, but we don’t do that. Number two, I have been around long enough and have worked in, as with a major manufacturer, I’ve been able to service other parts of the country and I have seen for-profit schools attempt to do that where they have opened themselves up to booking commercial sessions and it doesn’t end well for anybody. The talent is not, hasn’t been developed yet for that. And people, the customer has to go pay again to have it fixed. So we just don’t cross that bridge.
We’re here to train and educate. And it’s not a profit center. We don’t, it’s education. The Bradley’s ran this facility from ’55 until 1962. And in ’62 is when Columbia wanted a presence, a physical presence in Nashville. So, they offered to buy the house and the Quonset Hut from the Bradley’s, and then the property next door where the apartment building stood. And they were going to bulldoze all three structures. But Owen Bradley and Don Law, who was the A and R guy for Decca, convinced him to leave it alone. So that’s why this building is still here.
Buzz Knight:
So just the way things go full circle. So I’m from Boston, from Connecticut originally, but I live outside of Boston. And the Live Nation president of record around that area is Don Law Jr.
Mike Porter:
Okay.
Buzz Knight:
So I had always heard about Don Law’s father.
Mike Porter:
Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
So you just clarified that piece of the story.
Mike Porter:
That’s interesting. Want to walk upstairs?
Buzz Knight:
Sure.
Mike Porter:
Okay. People ask us if we have any original equipment here. And the quick answer is no. That all got sold when the studio shut down. We were able to acquire the Bradley Microphone collection, which has vintage microphones that were used not only at this facility, but also at the Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet and also when they had RCA Studio A, which at that time was known as Music City Music Mill, I think. So that’s a very expensive collection of microphones. We don’t let freshman students get their hands on those because some of those are $30 grand a pop.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, let’s see.
Mike Porter:
And for some reason, students don’t seem to hold things in their hands very tightly. But another little tidbit about the Quonset Hut, Al Gannaway, who produced a lot of television, there’s a series, there was a series shot in the late ’50s, early ’60s called Country Style USA. And if you look on YouTube, you can find those. And anybody who was anybody in the country music industry at that time, you’ll find segments of them shot downstairs when that was a film….
Buzz Knight:
Oh really?
Mike Porter:
Film studio. And that would be, you name it, they’re in there. And it was a program that was sponsored by the US Army Recruiting Office.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, really?
Mike Porter:
So one week there is a sergeant introducing Ax. Another might be a colonel and a captain another week.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, how neat.
Mike Porter:
So it’s interesting to go back and watch some of those. Miking technique was stellar was, the audio is excellent. And you never see any microphones.
Buzz Knight:
Really.
Mike Porter:
They were hidden in hay bales and…
Buzz Knight:
Oh, really?
Mike Porter:
Other stuff.
Buzz Knight:
That’s a good trick. That’s a good trick. I’ll have to learn something on the mic technique.
Mike Porter:
Where we just entered, this was the new part built by Columbia in 1962. This room was built to Columbia specifications, they had their own engineering facilities for both designing studios and building equipment. So the consoles that were in here at the time were built by Columbia Labs. This room was built just like they built rooms in New York or LA. The floor actually floats on big springs to isolate it from the outside world, which in theory is great. In actual practice, it was horrible because this floor resonates at about 82 hertz. And that just sucks that 82 hertz out. So the engineers are always fighting that dip in the low end in here.
Buzz Knight:
That’s crazy.
Mike Porter:
And Lynn Anderson’s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden was cut in this room. And of course, 50 some odd years ago, Dylan came to town and changed Nashville’s history in this room. At that time, the brass at the other pop labels and stuff didn’t think that Nashville musicians could do anything other than country stuff.
Buzz Knight:
And you’re talking Nashville Skyline or Blonde…
Mike Porter:
Correct. Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Sky, and John Wesley Harding were all done in this room. And that changed, that’s when we are, Nashville already knew it, but that’s when the rest of the world woke up and said, “Nashville musicians are pretty darn good.”
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. It was interesting because people didn’t necessarily evaluate it with Blonde on Blonde, even though it was all in there with these great players like Charlie McCoy.
Mike Porter:
Yeah. Charlie was the bait to get Dylan down here. Is that right? And he will tell you that story that yeah, I was the bait to bring Dylan to town.
Buzz Knight:
But then when Nashville Skyline happened, that totally flipped everybody out because I don’t know if this is true, but we had heard he stopped smoking and that’s why his vocals sounded different.
Mike Porter:
There’s a lot of people that know a lot more about Dylan than I do. And I had another interesting story living there. I had just a surprise guest. This was about six weeks ago. Two guys showed up at the front door ’cause they wanted to see it. And I of course had time and found out that one of the guys was the pastor of the largest Christian Church in Jerusalem, who also happens to be a walking Dylan encyclopedia. And he was telling me stuff, I had no idea, but he had gotten a ride from Ridgecrest, North Carolina with a guy in Nashville to get back over to Nashville for something. And they were just driving down the street out here. And all of a sudden the guy’s going, “That’s the building. That’s the building, stop.” So he stopped in the middle of Music Square East and backed up and came in here. And we spent a really nice hour and a half talking history in here.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. Well, I mean, Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline, John Wesley Harding. I mean, those are…
Mike Porter:
Yeah. That really broke…
Buzz Knight:
Seminal.
Mike Porter:
That really broke Nashville open to the rest of the world.
Buzz Knight:
And then in typical fashion then, of course, Dylan moved on to something else. Highly recommend…
Mike Porter:
He does own a on a distillery here now.
Buzz Knight:
He does.
Mike Porter:
Yeah. He bought an old church just over just south of downtown. That’s his distillery.
Buzz Knight:
The book is great that he has the philosophy of modern, I was telling Aaron about of Modern Song, and he breaks it down. Many songs I knew and many I didn’t know, but in a very, I mean, you hear Bob’s voice in his writing.
Mike Porter:
Yeah. He showed up for his first session in here, his flight had been late, so the musicians had been here since 2:00, he didn’t get in until 5:00 and had no song written. So he went downstairs and finally at 2:00 AM the next morning they started recording the first song.
Buzz Knight:
Is that right?
Mike Porter:
Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
So he just got here, hunkered down, probably had everything in some skeletal fashion, but then, put it all together.
Mike Porter:
Yep.
Buzz Knight:
Wow.
Mike Porter:
And this console that’s in here has its own story as well. I mean, we can go in here if you want.
Buzz Knight:
Sure.
Mike Porter:
Every large console from the major manufacturers, they all have a lineage to them and a history that kind of follows them around. And this is an API built, it’s an API, still around. It’s a US company. And this console was built in 1972. And it’s not that it’s an old console, we can’t afford something nicer, it’s a classic console, discreet electronics, sounds great, and it just is a tank. You can’t kill it.
But when this console was brand new, it was owned by Wally Heider, Remote Recording Services out of San Francisco and was on their truck. And this console did the band, Last Waltz, did the West Coast tour of Frampton Comes Alive, did two Rolling Stones Live albums and he, in turn, sold it to another remote truck company out of Los Angeles. Chris Stone at The Record Plant had it on a truck, and then they sold it later to Paul Christensen out of Omega Productions out of Dallas. He put it on a truck. And this console had never been inside a building until we bought it about 18 years ago, and we found it in the back of a shag carpeted remote truck in the middle of a barnyard in Texas.
Buzz Knight:
No. Are you kidding?
Mike Porter:
So it had gotten sold from Paul Christensen to someone else.
Buzz Knight:
Was that a stroke of luck, you think? That it was from…
Mike Porter:
Well, we kind of knew… We kind of hit, it had kind of been followed, we kind of knew where it was. And Paul Christensen, who had had it before, had actually sold it to, I think a former employee. And that’s when we found out that it was in, they found it. So we bought the entire truck and towed it to Nashville, got the console out of it, a few pieces of gear, and that LA 2 down there still has a Wally Heider sticker on it. The one you’re looking at now is an Ampex tape machine electronics. And that’s the one that still has the Wally Hider tag on there.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, yeah.
Mike Porter:
So here’s a console built in ’72, which is long before most of our students, their parents were still in high school at that point. That’s in here working every day.
Buzz Knight:
Man.
Mike Porter:
Teaching a new generation. So, in both studios here, we teach full analog process. We did sell our multi-track tape machines a few years ago. The time was right to that, they’re expensive to maintain. We do have pro tools in here, but it only serves in this capacity here as the tape recorder. It’s just the storage device. Everything else is analog to teach them that process.
Buzz Knight:
I mean, just to fathom all the music that’s come through this.
Mike Porter:
Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
God.
Mike Porter:
If you go to Paul Christensen’s website, Omega Productions, he’s got extensive history on this console in there. Now we do have plans to replace both consoles on the building with something newer. This one will stay in the Belmont family. We have another plan for it. So I don’t want it to go away because it’s too important, it’s too great of an old console for it to get away from us.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. Can’t let that one get away.
Mike Porter:
So that’s kind of our technical tour here.
Buzz Knight:
That’s fantastic. I’m so grateful that you shared the stories. Took us around and let us take this in, which I’m still in awe of.
Mike Porter:
Oh, it’s a neat place to work. It really is. No two days are the same. We never know who may show up at the front door, and the Secretary of the Department of Education showed up at the front door three weeks ago.
Buzz Knight:
Really.
Mike Porter:
After his bodyguard had showed up. We had a US Marshal come to my office door, and that was a surprise to look up and see a little gold badge down here. I was getting vetted and had to show them the building and show them where all the exits were. But we had a really nice visit with him for about a half an hour. He got to talk to some students. So it’s always interesting.
Buzz Knight:
Well, Mike, thanks for preserving history, sharing history, and taking a walk, for sure.
Mike Porter:
My pleasure. And thanks to Mike Curb for keeping this place around.
Buzz Knight:
Yes, thank you Mr. Curb.
Speaker 5:
Taking a walk with Buzz Night is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
About The Author
Buzz Knight
Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.
After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.
