Nashville Library unveils oral history of Music Row
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The RCA Studio A building in 1965. Photo: Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The Nashville Public Library has unveiled an oral history of Music Row featuring the executives and industry insiders who know the iconic thoroughfare best.
Why it matters: Music Row may be the most commercially and culturally significant stretch of music industry history in the entire country.
Driving the news: The stories behind Music Row's recording studios, publishing houses and record label offices are in danger of being lost over time.
- Music Row is a shadow of its former self in part because some of its anchor tenants, including large record labels, have set up shop in other parts of town.
- The Row still has character and plenty of major music companies headquartered there, though it's not always immediately apparent to passersby.
Case in point: From the sidewalk, RCA Studio A has the architectural charisma of an old mop.
- The building is a sort of brownish-tan color with bland doors that look like the side entrance to your high school.
Yes, but: The magic of Studio A isn't in its bricks and mortar. It's a marvel because Dolly Parton recorded there. Country music icons like Willie Nelson, George Jones and Waylon Jennings also recorded at Studio A.
- Studio A was the subject of Nashville's most prominent recent preservation fight when philanthropist Aubrey Preston dramatically saved it from the wrecking ball at the last minute in 2014.
Zoom in: The oral history tells the tale of Music Row going back to the 1940s. The project was created in 2015 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and features interviews with 35 insiders.
If you go: Excerpts from the oral history are available online, or you can go in-person to the downtown library for a deeper dive inside the special collections area.
Zoom out: The library has been leaning into oral history projects to tell the broader story of Nashville. Previous oral histories include the 2010 flood, the Civil Rights Movement and military veterans.
💠Nate's thought bubble: When I was a music business reporter for The Tennessean, I loved learning fantastical tales of Music Row. One of my favorites is the night in 1970 when Joan Baez was recording at Quad Studios and needed singers to fill out the choral part of her legendary song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
- Quad had become the most popular non-country studio in Nashville, and a sort of unlicensed bar/hangout for musicians. Baez's producer Norbert Putnam had the idea to create a makeshift choir of the people hanging around the studio to sing the backing vocals.
- As he told me in 2015, "We said, 'Let's get all the drunks in here and see what it sounds like,'" Putnam said.
- It ended up being the most legendary drunken choir in music history including Dave Loggins, Guy Clark and Jimmy Buffett.