I feel really lucky that my friends are involved in restoring the legacy of Fantasy Productions (Elvis front company/Marty Lacker/ American East/ The Onyx / Easley/McCain).

Two weeks ago, I helped to bring over equipment from Leeway Music that was bought out by David Gicking. The front of American Recording has been restored to match what it looked like in the late ’60s when Elvis would have pulled up.

Photo 1 – David Gicking out front, my Ford Fiesta to the side.

Photo 2 – open the door and new logo and new curved wall. Three Silvertone amps (Jack White favorites), the 8 track was left over from the fire, their was apparently a Studer that dissappeared between the fire and the recent sale.

Photo 3 – Almost finished control room, will house a new Vintage King Classic Neve spec console by end of summer, right now we put in the Pro Tools HD rig, but, will be looking for a vintage analog 16 or 24 from one of the storage dealers in Nashville. Note the big holes up above that probably had old Urei with horns or something. Will have updated monitors.

Photo 4 – New logo sign on the lava rock (can we say Blue Hawaii in Memphis) wall.

Photo 5 – Main room, 20 foot ceilings, they have a boutique amp dealer, who used to be in Leeway that shows his gear there and allows the amps to be used in session.

Photo 6 – Notice the wall treatments are matched to original late 60′s style. The iso booth, one of two refurbished.

Photo 7 – Control room, Brad Dunn (partner) with a long Memphis music history family leaning on monitor, David Gicking hashing out decisions. The window goes to where the original analog deck was and where the next one will go.

Photo 8- Will (house engineer) in back and Matt Martone, Producer (Three Doors Down) hash out how to rebuild the racks of gear before rolling them into the control room.

Photo 9 – Outside at dusk, with original tacky green and red lights

Photo 10 – Iso booth gets new wood and trim.

Photo 11 – Looking back at the Control room

Photo 12 – new hallway, going from one side of the building to the other.
Pete Matthews, Producer, (Evanescence) helped with the move also. He mainly works out or Ardent. There is a lot of buzz about the studio already.
Room is being rewired by some company with higher specs then Mogami.

Great early Memphis music, great alternative stuff, like Wilco, Pavement, White Stripes, Sonic Youth, the last Jeff Buckley sessions, recorded there, great vibe. They had some friends come jam a few days ago, to test out the room and it sounds great. This would be a great place for a band vibe or big session like the Bob Dylan, Nashville, Blonde on Blonde or Nashville Skyline type things as well as a Phil Spector Wall of Sound thing.