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Curb Sees Past and Future In Old Studio
Record Label Owner Plans To Restore Columbia Studio A For Education, Historical Purposes. By: RICHARD LAWSON Staff Writer
Hidden by surrounding office space, it was known as Columbia Studio A going back to the early days of Music Row. The space is connected to the Quonset Hut, a recording studio regarded for years as the foundation of Nashville's country music industry. In recent years, the space has been hidden by Sony Music Nashville's headquarters offices. Standing in the label's former vault yesterday, soon-to-be new owner Curb, Sony Nashville's finance chief Jeff Allen and real estate broker Ira Blonder study a tattered 42-year-old architectural plan trying to determine the location. "You can see Studio A from the outside," Curb says repeatedly of the space poised to be his next contribution to country music history, learning and tourism. A call from Kay Smith, A&R with Sony for more than 30 years, clears things up. The vault is directly below what was Studio A. On Friday the Curb Family Foundation will officially own it, the Quonset Hut and the rest of the former Sony space. Yesterday, Curb spoke for the first time publicly about his plans for the space. Curb's goal is to restore both studios, adding another place for Belmont University students to learn, as well as an additional tourist stop for visitors to discover where music greats such as Brenda Lee, Charlie Rich, Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan and Patsy Cline recorded hits. Sony and Curb wouldn't disclose the price the foundation is paying for the former headquarters on 16th Avenue South, although Allen jokingly said Curb is getting a steal. Curb has already started buying equipment for the studios. He said he bought microphones from Jerry Bradley, whose father Owen and uncle Harold built the Quonset Hut in 1955. He said he couldn't find the original piano that had been used in Studio A and instead bought Cash's piano from the late singer's estate. In restoring the studios, the foundation is creating quite the country music history heritage tour on Music Row. The foundation also is moving contents of the House of Cash Museum from Hendersonville into a separate house a few doors down on Music Row. The Music Row Cash museum will feature original manuscripts of Cash songs, awards and other memorabilia from the country legend's career. "He (Curb) and Belmont have led the rebirth of Music Row from a visitor's standpoint," said Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. "The more they make it interactive and improve the visual presentation, the stronger the draw of the heritage." Once the deal is done, Curb wants to restore both studios to their original state in the 1950s and 1960s. "What we are going to do is the same thing we did with RCA Studio B," he said. Curb's foundation bought the famed studio where artists like Elvis Presley recorded. He had it restored and handed operation of it over to the Country Music Foundation and Belmont University. Restoring Columbia Studio A and the Quonset Hut would still leave empty office space. Curb envisions Belmont using it for classrooms for the Curb College of Music & Entertainment Business. Music business education has become a large part of the university's enrollment. Bob Fisher, Belmont's president, said fall enrollment for music business is 1,200 of the 4,200 total. At Studio B, Belmont students learn the ways music was recorded in the 1960s with analog equipment. Today, digital recording is the primary method. "We try and give students perspective," Fisher said, adding that he hopes Curb fills Studio A with modern recording equipment for the students. "He's asked us to dream about the possibilities," Fisher said. "We looked at the space. There is certainly a way for our students to utilize it." |
Originally Published In The Tennessean On July 26, 2005
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