Underappreciated Studios that Made the Hits

Part 1: Damon Recording

Smaller, independent studios from towns across America turned out some of the biggest hits of the late 1950s and 1960s. Damon Recording of Kansas was one of them. Here is the story of Vic Damon, a modern recording pioneer. 

(Story excerpted from Historic Recording Studios by Randy McNutt, HHP Books.)

Vic Damon in his studio, 1940s.

A Man and His Lathe: Vic Damon, Hit-Maker

Victor “Vic” Damon, a bank teller in Kansas City, made a bold move during the Great Depression in 1933. He quit his job and spent his savings on recording equipment. He opened Damon Transcription Facilities. He would become a pioneer in the early days of independent recording studios and labels. A few years later, he changed the name of his business to DAMON RECORDING STUDIOS, and operated at 1221 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. From the beginning he recorded commercials, personal records, and local musicians on lacquer discs, the technology of the times. Clients would include some jazz greats, including Charlie Parker and Tommy Douglas. He did many on-location projects, using his disc-cutting lathe. Damon became a well-known figure in Kansas City music, recording on 10-inch and 16-inch discs. He drove a small car—a cross between a large riding lawn mower and a Crosley car—in parades, with “Damon Recording Studios” painted on the sides. The Sound Bug, as he called it, could have been mistaken for an amusement park ride, equipped with a sound system. Most people in the music field knew him and his business. Working in a cramped studio in the Midland Building, he began experimenting with cutting lacquer discs, and finding local acts. In the late ’30s he recorded some sessions at the Municipal Auditorium and did more live remotes. Writer Sean Dietrich said of the underappreciated studio: “Electric lights suspended high above a giant mess of cables. Omniscient microphones standing tall, appraising the heart of arrogant musicians who approach. Scribbled papers rest on music stands, while heated brawls are incubated among hot headed horn players.” In 1948, Damon formed his own national label, Damon Records, and released the top-five national hit “My Happiness” by Jon and Sondra Steele. Another client, big-band leader Al Trace (“Everybody Calls You Sweetheart”), found national success. Damon was known as the studio owner who defied the Petrillo recording ban by using non-union musicians. He continued to record in the late 1940s when the larger labels did not. His company pressed discs, recorded songs, and promoted them on his own label. In this respect, he was ahead of his time in the pop music industry. Sydney Nathan at King Records in Cincinnati began recording in his new studio about this time, but he was recording hillbilly and R&B. Unfortunately, when the 1950s arrived, Damon Records couldn’t equal the success it had in the late ’40s. However, some of the label’s other releases became regional hits. To obtain more studio space, he later relocated the studio to 117 West 14th Street, where he opened a spacious tracking room and a control room. In 1971, Vic Damon sold the studio to his young engineer, Chuck Chapman, who continued to operate it in one form or another for years. Vic Damon died in 1974.

Some Damon advertisements from 1948.

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The book is out! Historic Recording Studios: America's Sound Factories and the People Who Made Them is available through Amazon and other book outlets. Your best bet is Amazon because there will also find my book Vintage Tape Recorders. Historic Recording Studios is Volume One, A through M. It consists of nearly 400 pages with many photos and illustrations. I appreciate my readers' interest in the vintage microphones, studios, records, producers, vinyl, and other aspects of the music industry of old. 

Here is another entry from the book:

BRIANS STUDIOS, 2200 Sunnybrook Drive, Tyler, Texas. Originally known as Robin Hood Studios, Brians Studio is the dream of a talented audio engineer named Robin Brians. When it opened in 1963, in his family home, he called it Brians Recording, but everyone called it Robin Hood Studios, so he changed the name. Now it is Brians. For over a half century he has survived trends, fads, recessions, and all manner of unlikely obstacles. And still, he operates--and does it well. “We offer equipment that is different,” he said. “I made some of it by hand.” His studio is one of those out-of-the-way operations which gains popularity because of the hits it creates. Its buzz keeps on buzzing. The studio, in a ranch house in a residential neighborhood, welcomes all types of performers. Robin has been interested in recording since he was a boy—a rockabilly singer-piano player who reminded people of Jerry Lee Lewis. Robin’s first experience with recording came in the 1950s when he went to Nashville to record “Dis an Itty Bit” for Harry Carlson’s Fraternity Records. He keenly observed the equipment in Music City. Back in Texas in 1960, Brians moved behind the console and started putting together pieces of equipment for his own studio. He quickly earned a reputation for his ability to find that elusive “sound.” His hometown, the self-proclaimed Rose Capital of the World, found itself playing host to all kinds of recording artists, who had come to town to record. In the mid-1960s he recorded The Uniques for Jewel Records out of Shreveport, Louisiana, on an Ampex 350-2 for stereo and 350-1 for mono, using Telefunken M250, Neuman U67, and Altec MII microphones. In the late 1960s he operated an Ampex 351 8-track recorder. When hit singles were peppering the national charts about 1970, Brians used an Electrodyne 16-position console, numerous custom-made effects devices, Scully 16-, 8-, and 4-track stereo recorders, Martin Audio Varispeed, and Pultec filters. He also used a natural echo chamber, quadraphonic mixing, and 8 pan pots. The 35x48-foot studio was equipped with numerous instruments, including a Baldwin harpsichord, Kawai grand piano, Ludwig drums, and a Hammond B-3 organ with Leslie speakers. His array of microphones included Electrodyne, Scully, Shure, and Pultec. Based in the studio were Brians’ new video services and remote van (he was an early advocate of such equipment), his music publishing company, Sunnybrook; his own audio equipment sales department, Texas Eastern Audio; and his RHB Productions, which he operated with the studio’s second engineer, Randy Fouts. Brians and Fouts produced commercials in the studio for such clients as Pizza Hut, Bordens, and Frito-Lay, and produced records for Uni, Fraternity, and other labels. In the late 1970s, Brians changed the name of the business to Robin Hood Studios. “Nobody called it Brians anyway,” he said. About 1970, Dale Hawkins recorded an album for Bell Records that was partially cut in the Brians’ studio. It was the essence of modern recording—done at more than one place and at different times. Its name, LA, Memphis and Tyler, Texas, summed up what recording had become: diversity in location and sound.

SOME HITS FROM BRIANS: “Mountain of Love,” David Houston; “Western Union,” “Sound of Love,” and “Zip Code” by The Five Americans (produced by another former rockabilly, Dale “Suzy-Q” Hawkins, A&R director of Abnak Records); “Do It Again (Just  a Little Bit Slower)” and “You Got Style” by Jon and Robin and the In Crowd; “Sweet Thang” and other country hits by Nat Stuckey; “Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)” and other chart records by John Fred and His Playboy Band; “Smell of Incense,” Southwest F.O.B.; “Fire,” Five by Five; and records by Dale Hawkins, ZZ Top, and the Uniques, among many other artists.

QUIRKS: The studio operated in a ranch house in a residential area. In the early days, Brians’ mother sometimes met visitors at the front door. 

 

Historic Recording Studios

Hello again, music fans! My new book, Historic Recording Studios: America's Song Factories and the People Who Made Them, was published this week and being distributed worldwide by HHP Books. You can buy it on Amazon.com. The thing weighs over two and a half pounds. It is divided into two parts, A to M and N to Z. This is part one. The other part will be published later this year. The book features many studios, both famous and infamous, large and small, funky and staid. I cover not only the studios but the hits and the owners and engineers who operated their own "palaces" of sound. The publication is 8.5x11 inches and 399 pages. About half of the book is loaded with old ads and photos, many which I shot while on the road from the 1970s to the 1990s. The price is $30. Below you will find an example of one of the many studio entries. The book should be up and running on Amazon in a few days. HHP has other distributors, but Amazon is the quickest, most convenient one.

Thanks!

Randy

JACK’S TRACKS RECORDING STUDIO, 1308 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee. On a sunny day in 1999, there's no sign in front of Jack’s Tracks, a prominent studio on Music Row for three decades. Obviously, the tan two-story house is no longer a home. Large side windows are neatly filled with wooden boards and a couple of massive air-conditioners sit outside. The owner, producer Allen Reynolds, bought the studio from Jack Clement, who founded it about 1974. “I had come up from Memphis to write for Jack,” Reynolds said, “and a bunch of writers pestered him to open a demo studio. Jack had operated a commercial art and photography studio in the building, which still had working gas lights.” The stately brick house was built in the 1890s. As Music Row expanded farther down 16th Avenue, the house became commercial property. Shortly after the studio opened, Reynolds became Clement’s business partner in the venture. Clement, who already owned several other studios in Nashville at the time, sold Jack’s Tracks to Reynolds in 1976, and Reynolds embarked on a successful career in independent production and songwriting from his studio. It turned out hit singles and albums for Don Williams, Kathy Mattea, Crystal Gayle, and Garth Brooks—all produced by Reynolds. In 1978, Ampex Corporation’s magnetic tape division gave its Golden Reel award to Reynolds; his engineer, Garth Fundis; and Crystal Gayle for making We Must Believe in Magic. The project was mastered on Ampex tape. Reynolds is a friendly, articulate man with a gray beard and an ear for good songs. Starting in his native Memphis in the late 1950s, he recorded for Sun Records and learned to write songs (“Five O’clock World” by The Voges was an early hit, in 1966). He learned his way around the studio from Clement, who once produced for Sun. For Reynolds, Sam Phillips was another early engineering hero. “When he stopped at Jack’s Tracks years ago,” Reynolds said, "he said he liked it better than Jack’s other studios. The place has a certain homey feel to it that I've grown to appreciate. I was going to sell it once, but then I decided to hang on to it. It’s not open to the public anymore. It’s my private workshop.” In a room in front, golf clubs sat in a corner. Recording awards and photos hung on the walls. The heavy wooden front door remained locked. Access to the control room was through the former parlor, where recording artists could relax as they listened to playbacks. “We didn’t plan it that way,” Reynolds said. “It just happened.” The control room was small, no more than 12 feet long. It led into the studio, which was also surprisingly small. Dark commercial carpeting covered the floor; brown soundproofing material covered the walls. Wooden folding chairs sat around for musicians, who sometimes moved to one side to prevent instrument leakage. Special booths were used for drums and sometimes for vocals. Surprisingly, this little studio turned out Garth Brooks’ big album, the one that sold 10 million copies. In fact, all Brooks' projects, except for his live concert album (done on 48 tracks), were cut at Jack’s Tracks, as were Crystal Gayle’s many hits that Reynolds produced. Business boomed at the studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Reynolds upgraded to a 24-track Sony recorder. He retired the old Quad Eight console in 1980 in favor of a new Quad Eight, which he still used (as of 1999). Reynolds and chief engineer Mark Miller used an Otari MTR-100 24-track tape recorder and a two-track Sony 3402 digital recorder. In addition, the studio included Tube Tech, Pultec, UREI 1176s, and a live echo chamber. But tape was Reynold's real love. “I don't see the need for any more than 24 tracks, and I like the feel of analog,” he said. “Maybe that's because I grew up with tape. But I feel that it brings a warmth and richness to recording. The board I use is old, but it’s sweet.” Now, Allen Reynolds is retired from the music business. Garth Brooks owns the studio.

SOME HITS FROM JACK’S TRACKS: “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” “Ready for The Times to Get Better,” “Talking in Your Sleep,” Crystal Gayle; “I Believe in You,” Don Williams; most things by Garth Brooks, including “The Dance.”

QUIRKS: The control room led to the parlor. The studio, a prime commercial property on Music Row, was not open for business.

Jack's Tracks as it appeared in 1999.

Historic Recording Studios and the People Who Made Them

Dear Readers,

I thank you for the many comments you have sent to me through my blog. Sorry I didn't respond, but I have taken a long hiatus. I've been busy working on some new projects. One is called Historic Recording Studios: America's Sound Factories and the People Who Made Them. As you might know, for many years I have traveled around the country looking for strange and otherworldly musicians, singers, studios, labels--you name it, I found it. I decided to put the studios into a large book, which HHP Books will sell on Amazon.com and through other outlets soon. I'll let you know when it is published. When I finished the book, I realized it would be 600 pages, 8-1/2x11 inches. So I have split it into two books. Aside from some historic "recording laboratories," as studios were called in the early 1900s, the studios in my book are all from the tape era, 1948 to 1995. I have many photos that I shot while on the road from the 1970s through the 1990s. Of course I cover the big-time palaces of sound from forty years ago, but I also found some quirky gems that I couldn't resist sharing with you. I hope the book will entertain as well as inform. Some oddball studios make for interesting reading. I found a studio in a coal bin, one in a duck blind, another in a truck. I won't even get into the acoustic echo chambers, which I love. I miss them. One was filled with crickets. These old chambers had distinctive sounds of their own. Anyhow, I will keep you posted on the project. Meanwhile, here's a little crazy name for you!

Best, 

Randy

FOUR-TRACK CHICKEN SHACK, Oxford, Ohio. Owned and operated by record producer Carl Edmondson in the early to mid-1970s, Four-Track Chicken Shack was certainly an unpretentious studio in an out-building. It was not a functioning chicken shack, of course, for Carl had to work under safe working conditions. But it was not large by studio standards of the day. Carl, who produced many of Lonnie Mack’s recordings in the early 1960s, including the seminal LP The Wham of that Memphis Man!, put together a tight little room with a Tascam board and recorder. “We really didn’t need any more than four tracks,” he said. “I never had any more than a few mics, including a RE-10, but that was all we needed. When I put the studio together, Dave Harrison, who made the famous consoles, suggested I try the Tascam board. It turned out fine. If I had that board today, it would be highly prized. I ended up selling it to Allen-Martin Productions in Louisville when I closed things up a few years later. What made the Chicken Shack were two things: the good room and the EMT echo. It was custom-made by Gene Lawson, the drummer for Lonnie at one time. Gene made the plate, four-by-eight feet of sheet metal. What a sound! We cut the demo of the hit ‘Black Betty,’ by some guys who had been in The Lemon Pipers (‘Green Tambourine’). They took it to New York and re-recorded it, and it was a big hit by Ram Jam, as the group was called. But I tell you this, the demo was better than the final version.” Carl knows what he's doing. The guitarist, who once front Carl Edmondson and the Driving Winds in the 1960s, cut many regional, local, and national hits in the King Recording Studios at the old King Record company's factory on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati. Many of his productions were released by Harry Carlson's Fraternity Records. Mack's original single "Wham!" was not as big a hit as "Memphis," which Carl also produced, but it was a national hit and an influential one at that. Later, Stevie Ray Vaughn covered it. Regional hits by Carl, also cut at King, included "Heart" and "Walk Tall (Like a Man)" by the 2 of Clubs. Although his Chicken Shack was no major hit-maker, it was an interesting little studio--one of the first I ever saw, back in the 1970s. Being a kind man, Carl let a young guy sit behind the board and play with the faders. He remains in Cincinnati today, teaching guitar and overseeing other music projects. Hats off to the Chicken Shack! It has inspired me to dig out my old Tascam four-track cassette recorder and cut some tracks in my long hallway, using natural echo with plaster-covered walls and wooden floors. 

Now, from the road . . . 

Look at me.

I recorded at the Chicken Shack.