Recording Stars Follow the Herd
Date:----------------------
By: -------------------
Of the: Journal Staff
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Recording Stars Follow the Herd Date:---------------------- By: ------------------- Of the: Journal Staff |
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Muscle Shoals, Ala., the Caribou Ranch in Colorado and Nashville.
Only Nashville sounds familiar to the average person, but all three locations are widely known in the recording industry. They are or have recently been centers of recording activity. Many a hit record has been recorded at unlikely places like Muscle Shoals, and a lot of money has been made from the work done at those places. Milwaukee is notably absent from the list of locations where the million record sellers cut their hits. It need not be so, according to Dave Kennedy, whose Dave Kennedy Recording Studios is the oldest recording operation here. Has the Equipment Kennedy had the first 4 track system made in the United States in his studios. He also had the first American 8 track system and now has 16 track capability. But the stars aren't beating a path to Kennedy's door. He blames the herd instinct. Kennedy has been in business for 25 years.
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He has a full service studio, which means he can do cassette duplicating for industry, make radio and TV commercials and jingles. Arranges and produces the type of recording that winds up on your stereo at home.
Most of the groups that use his studio to record are local. Dave Major and the Minors recently finished a record there. Kennedy said the big recording stars made their records at locations that have produced previous hits. A studio or group of studios in an area gets hot, has a few hits recorded, and everybody wants to work there. It makes little difference that identical equipment with the same technicians and musicians could be used somewhere else. Kennedy said RCA's $3.5 million studio in Chicago is scraping for business while an identical operation in Nashville is going wild with work. The same technicians work the two studios, the same musicians would be available to work either studio, but the Chicago operation isn't attractive to the stars.
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Some Work Here "Everbody wants to record in Nashville now," Kennedy said. The other recording studios in Milwaukee do some record work but aren't attracting big name stars regularly. Occasionally a performer will do a few hours' work at Milwaukee studios if he is in town for a concert, but the million record sellers don't come here to specificaly record. Bananas, Inc., at 9415 W. Forest Home Ave., Greenfield, has been in business four years and does recordings for local musicians. Sigmund Snopek, Jim Spencer and Sweetbottom have all recorded at Bananas, but that studio spends more time on local and regional commercials, according to an official. Studio East at 832 N. Van Buren St. has been in existence for five years and has just changed owners. Larry Hanson, one of the three owners, said the studio is spending more time on jingle packages and advertising agency services than on records now. When will Milwaukee become another Muscle Shoals? All it will require is that Elton John or Carol King or maybe John Denver be persuaded to record a big hit here. |