Friday, July 16, 2004

Ghosts at Studio B in Nashville

If there are ghosts here I didn’t see or hear them, unless you count the glare my camera caught as I snapped this shot of the control room while standing in the studio.

I didn’t want to leave Nashville without touring RCA Studio B. I’d already seen the impressive new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum built in 2001 and the historic Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Old Opry from 1943 to 1974. They’re big places designed to accommodate hundreds of visitors.

Studio B is just a single story, cinderblock building with a reception area, one studio, one control room, one listening area. It’s not about the architecture, it’s who came here and what they produced. For a couple of decades Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers, Dolly Parton, Jim Reeves, Floyd Cramer, Willie Nelson produced hundreds of hit records here.