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.