PRODUCING COUNTRY
Music:Interview
A SERIES FROM WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Edited by Daniel Cavicchi
Yip Harburg: Legendary Lyricist and Human Rights Activist by Harriet Hyman Alonso
Reel History:
The Lost Archive of Juma Sultan and the Aboriginal Music Society by Stephen Farina
Producing Country:
The Inside Story of the Great Recordings by Michael Jarrett
Always in Trouble:
An Oral History of ESP-Disk,’ the Most Outrageous Record Label in America by Jason Weiss
The Music/Interview series features conversations with musicians, producers, and other significant figures in the world of music, past and present. The focus is on people who have not only made good music but also have insightful and profound things to say about creativity, politics, and culture. Each Music/Interview book presents an original approach to music-making, showing music as a vehicle for inspiration, identity, comment, and engagement. The interview format provides conversations between knowledgeable insiders. By foregrounding individual voices, the series gives readers the opportunity to better appreciate the sounds and music around us, through the voices of those who have experienced music most directly.
publication of this book is funded by the
BEATRICE FOX AUERBACH FOUNDATION FUND
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
PRODUCING COUNTRY
THE INSIDE STORY OF THE GREAT RECORDINGS
MICHAEL JARRETT
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown CT 06459
© 2014 by Michael Jarrett
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Richard Hendel
Typeset in Chaparral, TheSerif and Champion
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.
publication of this book is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Steve Cropper’s comments on Otis Redding, “Dock of the Bay,” first appeared in Michael Jarrett, “Mystery and Manners: Steve Cropper and the Sound of Stax,” The Fretboard Journal, 4 (Winter 2006): 44–59. Reprinted by permission. Portions of Tom Dowd’s comments on Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis, and Willie Mitchell’s comments on Al Green appeared in Michael Jarrett, Sound Tracks: A Musical ABC, Vols. 1–3, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Reprinted by permission. Portions of comments by several producers appeared in Michael Jarrett, “The Self-Effacing Producer: Absence Summons Presence,” in The Art of Record Production: An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field, eds. Simon Frith and Simon Zagorski-Thomas, Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2012, pp. 129–148. Reprinted by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Producing country : the inside story of the great recordings / [interviews by] Michael Jarrett.
pages cm. — (Music/interview)
ISBN 978-0-8195-7463-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8195-7464-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8195-7465-7 (ebook)
1. Country music—Production and direction—History. 2. Sound recording executives and producers—United States—Interviews. I. Jarrett, Michael, 1953–, interviewer.
ML3524.P76 2014
781.642′149—dc23 2013048875
5 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration: Tompall Glaser in the studio control room at Hillbilly Central, 1978. © Leonard Kamsler.
For all y’all but, mostly, for Pamela
CONTENTS
OVERTURE: WHAT IS A RECORD PRODUCER? 1
1. CUTTING TRACKS: CAPTURING THE PERFORMANCE, 1927–1949 11
Various, RCA Country Legends: The Bristol Sessions, Vol. 1 (1927) and “A Satisfied Mind” (1954) 13
Various, Roots n’ Blues: The Retrospective 1925–1950 15
Bill Monroe, The Essential Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys 1945–1949 17
Bob Wills, The Essential Bob Wills 1935–1947 18
Gene Autry, The Essential Gene Autry (1933–1946) 19
Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings (1936–1937) 20
Tex Ritter, “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle” (1942) 21
The Maddox Brothers and Rose, America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band, 1946–1951 23
T. Texas Tyler, “Deck of Cards” (1946) 24
Tex Williams and His Western Caravan, “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” (1947) 25
The Dinning Sisters, “Buttons and Bows” (1947) 27
Merle Travis, Folk Songs of the Hills (1947) 28