Bradley's Barn

Bradley's Barn was a music recording studio founded in the mid-1960s by Owen Bradley. The studio was built in a converted barn on farmland in the Nashville suburb of Mount Juliet, and was the site of numerous notable recordings by artists including Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, The Beau Brummels, J. J. Cale, Bill Anderson, k.d. lang, George Jones and others.

History

After brothers Harold and Owen Bradley sold their Quonset Hut Studio to Columbia Records in 1962, Owen bought a farm at 722 Benders Ferry Road in Mount Juliet, a suburb 17 miles east of Nashville. Investing less than $2000 in equipment, Owen and his son Jerry converted a barn on the property into a studio for recording demos. By 1964, the barn had evolved into a fully-fledged recording studio, which Bradley appropriately named "Bradley's Barn."

Within a few years, Bradley's Barn became a popular recording venue in country music circles, hosting 488 sessions in 1967 alone. The following year, the Beau Brummels paid tribute to the studio, naming their 1968 album Bradley's Barn after the studio where it was recorded. The studio hosted recording projects by such future Country Music Hall of Fame inductees as Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Webb Pierce, and Conway Twitty. Other artists who recorded at the studio in the 1960s included Jack Greene, Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, Warner Mack, and Dinah Shore,

In 1970, Jerry Bradley left the studio to work with Chet Atkins at RCA Nashville, but Bradley's Barn recording studio's string of commercially-successful projects continued throughout the decade, including several hit albums featuring the duo of Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty. In 1977, when RCA closed its Nashville studios, Owen Bradley purchased the studio equipment and sub-let the studio space. RCA Studio A was remodeled and operated as Music City Music Hall, and RCA Studio B was re-named Master Sound Studios and operated as a subsidiary of Bradley's Barn.

In October 1980, the Bradley's Barn studio in St. Juliet was completely destroyed by a fire. but Bradley rebuilt it on a smaller scale at the same location within a few years. In 1988, k.d. lang recorded her award-winning album, Shadowland with Owen Bradley at the studio. In 1994 Brian Ahern produced The Bradley Barn Sessions, an album of classic George Jones hit performed as duets with Marty Stuart, Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Tammy Wynette, Keith Richards, Vince Gill, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood, Mark Knopfler, Mark Chesnutt, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton. In 1995, Ween recorded their album 12 Golden Country Greats at the studio.

Owen Bradley died in 1998. Bradley's Barn recording studios closed in 2008.

References

1. Owen Bradley
2. Bradley's Barn (album)
3. The Beau Brummels
4. The Bradley Barn Sessions
5. Townes Van Zandt (album)
6. Jerry Bradley (music executive)
7. Boom Chicka Boom
8. 12 Golden Country Greats
9. Really (album)
10. Ron Elliott (musician)
11. Hank Wilson's Back Vol. I
12. Honky-Tonk Man
13. For the Sake of the Song
14. Okie (J. J. Cale album)
15. Coal Miner's Daughter (song)
16. Jessica
17. They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy
18. Naturally (J. J. Cale album)
19. Little Bird
20. Cristo Redentor (album)