Track Recorders: Silver Spring II

_{NOTICE!   This is a majorly revamped and updated version of a piece from the summer of 2016 – now with enhanced content – that will be followed in close succession by a suitably elaborate history of Gene Rosenthal and Adelphi Records, although sandwiched in between will be a history spotlight on Track’s Chief Engineer, Bill McCullough.}

Perhaps someday in the not-too-distant future, Silver Spring will organize an event to celebrate all the music history attached to Track Recorders, a sound studio upstairs in the Cissel-Lee Building (directly above the present-day Urban Butcher [R.I.P.]) on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland – just over the Washington, DC line – that saw action in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s.  Stevie Nicks may have been originally inspired by a name on an interstate sign, but as it turned out, her instincts were correct:  Silver Spring in the mid-to-late 1970s was a focal point for a fair amount of musical magic, as indicated in the hyper-linked list below.

Downtown’s last Spanish Colonial Revival –

Track Recorders on the 2nd floor

DC-area historian, Marcie Stickle, writing in 2009 about the history of the Cissel-Lee building, notes that this “significant two-story brick structure was Spanish Colonial Revival, all the ‘rage’ at the time.  With its unique black slate canopies angled around two sides of the roofline, the Cissel-Lee Building was the only remaining such structure in all of the [Central Business District].”

Track Recorders proved to be, as the historical evidence below makes clear, a highly productive – and respected – recording facility that operated out of the Cissell-Lee building’s upper floor for twenty-plus years across two decades — the 1970s and ’80s.

Track Recorders: main studio

_{photo courtesy of Bill McCullough}

Thanks to the music industry trade journal, Billboard, we know that Track Recorders was notable for being the Washington area’s only 8-track sound facility, when it opened its doors in 1970, and that by November of the following year, Track had already made the investment in 16-track recording equipment:

Track’s “Toddler” Years

Billboard

June 17, 1972

Sam Sutherland’s “Studio Track” column:

From Silver Springs, Md., Track Recorders has noted activities there.  That studio was D.C.’s only 8-track facility when it opened two years ago, and, last November, they became Washington’s first 16-track facility.  A custom-designed board built and designed by the studio’s personnel, uses API and Suburban Sound components [note: Track’s owners would soon acquire a state-of-the-art Neve board]. The 16-track machine is 3M, and both the main studio (there are two rooms, but the second is incomplete*) and the control room have been redesigned acoustically, with modifications now underway [*foreshadowing: see Zero to 180’s history of Adelphi Records].

[Track’s] Founders Cotter Wells, Bill Tate, and Jim [Sennott] have been aiming the studio at the area’s local musicians, but they are now broadening their work to include outside artists, and in-house productions are also being considered.  Chief engineer and “small owner” (his words) Cory Pearson reported sessions by Mask Man [& The Agents (below)], produced for Musicor Records by Jim Burston; Carr-Cee Productions recording The Soul Searchers for Sussex; Van McCoy‘s productions for Whitehouse Productions; and Mike Auldridge, working on a Takoma album [i.e., label co-founded by John Fahey and Ed Denson].

_{L to R: Harmon “Mask Man” Bethea; Tyrone Gray; Paul Williams; Johnny Hood}

Track Recorders’ Music History:

Notable Moments

_{(chronologically speaking)}

• The Young Senators‘ classic funk 45 – “Jungle” b/w “That’s The Way It Is” – was recorded in 1970 at Track, according to Soul 51 music blog. The A-side, according to The Beat!  Go-Go Music from Washington, DC hit number one on local and regional R&B music charts and led the band to Eddie Kendricks, who used them as musical support for his first solo tour after leaving The Temptations. In 2016, the single would be reissued by Chicago’s Numero Group, in collaboration with DC’s Innovation Records. 
• Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys made a series of recordings at Track between the years 1971 and 1976 that would later be issued on 1991 CD compilation, Bound to Ride: Vintage Mountain Bluegrass.

• Claude Jones (“Warrenton, Virginia’s answer to the Grateful Dead“) was a hippie band whose members all lived together at a rural outpost they called “The Amoeba Farm.” The group — Joe Triplett, John Guernsey, Mike Henley, Happy Acosta, Francis Day, Frank Sprague, Reggie Brisbane — recorded their 5-track EP Sykesville in 1971.  Billboard‘s September 4, 1971 edition remarked how the 5-song “mini album” (“Jukebox LP Emerges As Vehicle For New Product“) is “gaining wide radio exposure through its 7-inch little LP which will now be serviced to one-stops for jukebox programming.” Claude Jones’ manager, Mike Oberman, told Billboard, “Actually, we produced it primarily because we just couldn’t afford to do a big album. But we’re frankly surprised at the consumer acceptance.” Title track has an accompanying video.
• Esther Mae Scott recorded her one and only full-length recording Mama Ain’t Nobody’s Fool at both Track Recorders and ITI Studios in Hunt Valley, Maryland (where a young gifted audio engineer, George Massenburg, had custom-wired a studio console with the world’s first parametric equalizers). Vassar Clements (fiddle) and Emmylou Harris (vocals) are two well-known musicians whose names somewhat unexpectedly appear in the musician credits of an LP that almost fell through the cracks of history. Album mixed by Massenburg, who also served as engineer, with help from Cory Pearson and producer, Tom Zito.

• Pioneering DC Christian rock band – Sons of Thunder – recorded 1972’s Day Follows Night at Track, with Cory Pearson engineering those sessions.
• The Soul Searchers‘ 1972 Sussex album We the People — featuring DC legend, Chuck Brown — was recorded at Track (a sealed copy fetched $405 this past October).  Vocalist and guitarist Brown, along with keys/trombonist John Buchanan, co-wrote the title track, which served as the A-side of the group’s first 45.

“We the People” 

Cash Box

“Newcomer Pick“

May 13, 1972 singles review:

Group has an unmistakable percussive power; the lyrics don’t falter either. Jazz influences make this a black magic record of tremendous potential.

_{Recorded at Track Recorders}

“We the People” (not to be confused with the Allen Toussaint composition) reached #40 on Billboard‘s Soul Chart (for the week ending August 26, 1972), spending a total of six weeks on the chart. The original range of distribution for The Soul Searchers‘ debut album included Canada, Venezuela, and Guatemala. In 2006,  Soul Brother reissued We the People for the UK market, while in 2021 the album would finally see release in Japan.

• Hilton Felton, organist best known for his work with George Benson and Chuck Brown’s Soul Searchers, recorded the full-length LP My Mother’s Prayer at Track Recorders on April 6, 1972. The recordings were engineered by R. Jose Williams (of Silver Spring’s DB Sound Studios), who also mixed the album two days later, alongside Hilton Felton.
• Millie Jackson recorded her self-titled debut album at Track Recorders, as well as New York City’s Mediasound (inside the former Manhattan Baptist Church). Tony ‘Bazuka‘ Camillo (of “Dynomite” fame) handled some of the arranging work on this album, while Tony Bongiovi [see Gloria Gaynor below] was brought in for the remix. Audio links to the two single A-sides released from this album — “My Man, A Sweet Man” (#42 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for the week ending September 30, 1972) and “I Miss You Baby” (#100 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 9, 1972).

• Scacy Sound Service‘s heavy funk 45 from 1972 “Sunshine (Pt. 1 & 2)” – recorded at Track – changes hands for up to three figures at auction (and was sampled by Outkast in 2006 for “Mighty O“).
• Anacostia‘s 45 for the prestigious Columbia label, “On and Off (Pt. 1)” — arranged and produced by Van McCoy — was, according to this 1972 Billboard news item, all but certainly recorded at Track. “On And Off” (a single that also saw distribution in Australia) reached the #90 position on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for the week ending January 27, 1973.

• Al Brown‘s funky 1973 instrumental A-side – “The Whip” – (sought after in the UK) was laid down at Track and issued on the Memphis-based BM label (“with an affiliate in Baltimore”). The 45 label playfully states “choreography as performed by The Exotics.”
• Sir Joe Quarterman & Free Soul‘s debut album — which saw release in the US, UK, Venezuela, Spain, France, Italy and Japan — was recorded 1973 at Track, as well as Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.  Bill Tate and Cotter Wells are both credited as arrangers and producers on this album. Kick-off track “(I Got) So Much Trouble In My Mind” was identified as one of Billboard‘s Top Soul Single Picks for the week ending December 1, 1973. Billboard‘s February 24, 1973 issue also identified “Give Me Back My Freedom” as a top track.

_{‘Memphis funk’}

Track Recorders 45

History Spotlight

“This Feeling” by Julius Brockington
Old Sounds Refashioned Anew

Julius Brockington‘s 1973 landmark single – “This Feeling” b/w “Cosmic Force” – is yet another 7-inch record laid down at Silver Spring‘s Track Recorders that has been able to fetch three figures at auction within the last five or so years.

“This Feeling,” as Soul Sides points out, enjoys the distinction of being reissued the following year, in 1974, as a two-part “Freedom” remix that kicks off with an ever-so-slightly menacing Minimoog line.   Indeed, is this one of the earliest instances – as Soul Sides asks – “where a seven-inch single got remixed onto 7-inch again”?

Prior to releasing this single (quite possibly the Burman label’s one and only title), Brockington recorded three full-length albums for Today Records: 1972’s Sophisticated Funk and The Brockingtons (both LPs distributed in France), plus 1973’s The United Chair.

Thirty years later, “alternative” hip hop group Jurassic 5 would sample “This Feeling” to trippy effect on “Freedom” from 2002’s Power in Numbers album:

“Freedom”

Jurassic 5

(2002)

45 label says –

Recorded in “Silver Springs”

Remixed in “Phila”

Released on “Balto”-based label

Who knew, in 1973, the eventual global reach of Brockington’s Silver Spring-based sounds?

• Around this time, DC-based producer/songwriter, Caltrick Simone (née Jeff Stein), would launch his label, Secant Records.  Percussionist and humorist, Dave Nuttycombe, who did session work at Track Recorders, recalls playing drums on Secant’s first two 45 releases, with the first recording session being particularly memorable:

That session was to record two songs for a 45 by a very precocious 16-year-old from Springfield, Va., Jan Ince, who wrote and sang well beyond her years.  “I’ve Been Waiting” b/w “Sailor” was Pick Hit of the Week on an AM station in Easton, Md.  We all drove down when she was interviewed by the DJ.  She later moved to England and married Nick Glennie-Smith, now a big-time movie soundtrack guy.

• Caltrick Simone co-wrote both sides of David Coggeshall‘s sole vinyl offering, “You Are The Salt Of The Earth” b/w “Give Your Life To Him,” released in 1973 as Secant’s second single.

• Pentagram recorded their fuzzed-out version of “Under My Thumb” – with inspired dual guitar solo – at Track in 1974, produced by Skip Groff (beloved music store owner) and Bob Fowler.  Copies of the original 45 often sell at auction for a healthy three figures, with one copy selling for an impressive $1603 in 2024 after 22 bids.
• Danny and the Fat Boys [i.e., Danny Gatton, Billy Hancock & Dave Elliott] taped their debut album in 1974 at Track and issued a 45 whose B-side (“Harlem Nocturne“) made folks sit up and take notice of the phenomenal new guitarist. The Track sessions for the American Music LP are among Gatton’s earliest, and include musical support from Robbie Magruder (drums), Steve Wolfe (bass), Dick Heintze (piano), Ralph McDuffie (tenor sax), Moses McDaniel (clavinet), Charlie Barden (vibraphone), Lance Quinn (guitar), and Obie O’Brien (percussion).

Track Recorders History Spotlight:

Johnny Castle

Johnny Castle, who has performed and/or recorded with just about every musician [Johnny Gimble, Jimmy Arnold, Joe Maphis, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, John Lee Hooker, Elvin Bishop, Mac Wiseman, J.D. Crowe, Doug Sahm, Root Boy Slim, Catfish Hodge, Danny Gatton, Martha Hull, Tex Rubinowitz & Eddie Angel, Switchblade (i.e., Ratso, Eddie Angel, and Jim Dougherty – later Mark Wenner and Steuart Smith, future guitarist for The Eagles), Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun, John Tichey & Andy Stein, the Twangbangers (honky tonk supergroup = Redd Volkaert, Dallas Wayne, and Joe Goldmark), the Thrillbillys (his own band), and The Nighthawks, to name a few] has logged serious time at Silver Spring’s Track Recorders.

Johnny Castle started his musical career in the DC area with Crank – including guitarist Geoff Richardson – a popular hard rock outfit who once opened for Hendrix and The Allman Brothers.  Crank recorded at Track during the studio’s early years, when the band was able to get a sweet deal on a package that also included promotional materials.  No recordings were ever released, but DC radio’s Barry Richards got hold of a tape of one song (“Used To Be Worried“) and, played it so often on his radio show, according to Castle, it made the Top 10 one week. 

Johnny Castle would go on to record a number of other sessions at Track:

• Three albums with Eddie & Martha Adcock‘s II Generation for Mt. Airy, Maryland-based Rebel Records:  1974’s Head Cleaner, 1975’s We Call It Grass, and 1976’s Second Impression.
• Switchblade‘s 45 “She Makes Me Rock Too Much” b/w “Tight Blue Jeans” (notable for its marriage of reggae rhythm with a rockabilly feel) from 1981 — with Ratso, Jim Dougherty, and Ste(u)art Smith.  The A-side features a blood-curdling scream near song’s end that was recorded in isolation and nearly sent a piano tuner, who was intensely focused on his work, into cardiac arrest.   Picture sleeve images and recording credits at this link.
• Page Wilson‘s 1983 album, Road Tired, Wired and Ready, which features musical support from Mike Auldridge, Steuart Smith, Eddie & Martha Adcock, Robbie Magruder, Akira Otsuka, and Mark Greenhouse (harmony vocals & recording engineer), among others.
• Castle would also join forces with Mark Greenhouse (guitars/keys/vocals), Steuart Smith (guitar), Pete Ragusa (drums), and Mitch Collins (keyboards) to record four songs at Track as a fun recording side project known as Dog Days Revue.
• Interrobang, featuring a young Linwood Taylor – “Washington, DC’s premier blues man” – who tells Zero to 180 that Castle played on two songs (“Suspicious” and “Last Goodbye“), one of which being a runner-up winner on a DC101 home tapes contest, resulting in free studio time at the Warehouse in Philadelphia!
• Numerous “vanity” sessions on self-released recordings by local-area artists.

Archaic Punctuation –

The Interrobang

• The Seldom Scene — Mike Auldridge (dobro), John Duffey (mandolin), Ben Eldridge (banjo), John Starling (guitar), Paul Craft (guitar), and Tom Gray (bass) — recorded 1974’s Old Train album at Track, where the group was joined by guest vocalist Linda Ronstadt on back-to-back selections:  “Through the Bottom of the Glass” and “Old Cross Roads.” Audio engineering for this album was performed by “whiz kid” extraordinaire, George Massenburg.
• Mike Auldridge — “one of the finest dobro players” (per Billboard) who was part of a “progressive country” scene that was being documented at the Silver Spring sound studio — collaborated with “some of the finest musicians in the business” (per Billboard) in the form of Ricky Skaggs, David Bromberg,  Doyle Lawson, Linda Ronstadt, and Lowell George (on “Everybody Slides“), plus members of The Seldom Scene, on 1974’s Blues and Bluegrass, recorded at Track, with engineering oversight by audio innovator, George Massenburg. Album was deemed a ‘Top Album Pick‘ by Billboard for the week ending August 10, 1974.

• J.D. Crowe and the New South‘s debut album — featuring the stellar musicianship of J.D. Crowe, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, and Bobby Slone — was recorded January 1975 at Track.  The International Bluegrass Music Association’s “World of Bluegrass” convention in 2015 would host a panel discussion – “How J.D. Crowe and the New South Changed Bluegrass Music” – that identified the band’s 1975 Rounder debut as “one of the most influential bluegrass albums of all time,” and “known to most simply by its stock number:  0044.”  Bill Nowlin’s three-part history, “The Story of 0044,” is part of the Further Reading bibliography at piece’s end.
• Tony Rice‘s California Autumn album was engineered by Bill and (no relation) Fran Tate at Track, and mixed at Baltimore’s Blue Seas by George Massenburg in 1975 (LP would see release the following year in Japan).  Rice enjoys backing by The Seldom Scene, with fiddle and mandolin assistance from Ricky Skaggs, and dobro work by Jerry Douglas on two tracks: “Billy in the Low Ground” and “Good Woman’s Love” (the latter with banjo work by J.D. Crowe).

Silver Spring Music History Moment:

Linda Ronstadt at Track Recorders

This bit from Bob Kirsch‘s “Studio Track” Billboard column in the April 27, 1974 edition:

Bill Tate, owner of Track Recording, Inc. in Silver Spring, Md., reports that Linda Ronstadt was in recently for three sessions.  Lowell George handled the production and also played on the sessions.  George Massenburg handled the engineering.  Columbia’s David Bromberg also played.  Track has recently put in a new quadrasonic control room, complete with a custom-built Neve console.  David Harrison of Studio Supply in Nashville designed.  Finally, local bluegrass group Seldom Scene was in working on sessions.

We know that at least one track on Heart Like a Wheel was taped at Track — one of six studios in all used by Linda to record the album. Fortunately for music history’s sake, Ronstadt’s 2013 memoir, Simple Dreams, reveals the circumstances that brought the West Coast musician to Silver Spring:

By the time we arrived in Washington, DC, I was coughing, feverish, and could hardly walk. We had a show that night at Georgetown University. Emmylou [Harris] and John Starling came to the show. John took my temperature. It was 103 degrees. I sang anyway but sounded just awful and felt sorry for the audience having to listen to it. John had recently nursed his wife through the same flu. Being a doctor, he knew how dangerous the virus could be and warned me that it could turn into pneumonia. Lowell [George] and I went to stay with John and Fayssoux [Starling], and the tour went on without me. I missed the last two shows. That meant no washing machine.

I went to bed and didn’t get up for four or five days. When I finally got up , I had only enough strength to go downstairs and lie in the big orange leather beanbag chair in their living room.

In the morning, John put on his white coat and left to see patients and perform surgeries. In the evening, he took off the coat, strapped on his guitar, and played music with Emmylou and members of the Seldom Scene. The first week, I could only lie in the beanbag chair and listen, still too sick to sing. The second week, I began to join in.

Paul Craft, a songwriter friend of John’s, came up from Nashville, slept in the Starlings’ basement, and taught me to sing his newly written “Keep Me From Blowing Away.” I decided to record it there in Maryland and have Paul and John play on it.

John told me about a good sound engineer who had built a great recording studio in nearby Silver Spring. John brought him over to meet me. His name was George Massenburg, and he would eventually become my most important musical partner, working together on at least sixteen albums.

Emmy turned up with her young friend Ricky Skaggs. He was just beginning to develop a name for himself as a formidable bluegrass tenor and superb harmony singer. John Starling had introduced him to Emmy, recommending him for her backup band. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard how well he sang. I sat down with him and started to learn. Over the next ten days, he taught me everything I know about bluegrass harmonies.

Emmy brought a second friend to stay in the Starlings’ basement. Jet Thomas had been the dean of freshmen at Harvard, and also a proctor in Gram Parsons’ dormitory when Gram studied there in the mid-1960s. Modest and quiet, Jet had piercing blue eyes and a brilliant mind. He and Gram had continued a friendship beyond Harvard, and Jet would appear occasionally at recording sessions and concerts to boost Gram’s morale. Emmylou and Jet forged a deep bond of friendship after Gram’s death. Jet listened more than he talked, but when he talked, he had a great ability to clarify thinking and change attitudes for the better. In the gravity-defying M.C. Escher landscape of the music business, he was a good man to have around.

With such a great bunch of musicians assembled under one roof, we played all the good songs we knew, and we played all night. Outside it was snowing hard. By midnight, the snow was so deep that no one could leave. Great! We carried on for several more days. Emmy and I have often remarked that we have been recording the songs from our snow marathon for thirty years and counting. They have turned up on my records, Emmy’s records, and the Trio records that Emmy and I made with Dolly Parton — usually with George Massenburg presiding in the studio control room.

When the snow was cleared away, we drove to Silver Spring and recorded “Keep Me From Blowing Away.” Lowell went along to help and was so impressed with George Massenburg that he patched up his quarrel with Little Feat and talked them into coming to Maryland, where they recorded Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. Lowell also produced a beautiful album, Long Time Gone, for John Starling, with Massenburg engineering on several cuts.

Lowell convinced Massenburg to move to Los Angeles, where he continued to record Little Feat, plus a series of successful albums with Earth, Wind & Fire. He built another studio, the Complex, in West Los Angeles, where Peter Asher and I recorded with him for years.

Side two, track four

• Andrew White, one-time Stevie Wonder bassist and an accomplished reed player, recorded 1974 LP Passion Flower (one of Dusty Grooves‘ “favorite 70s albums”) at Track.  Curiously, a different drummer (Bernard Sweetney of the Reuben Brown Trio) is listed on Discogs than the one (Keith Killgo – of DC’s Blackbyrds) identified on the back cover below. Record World‘s jazz reviewer, Michael Cuscuna, gave the album a shout out at the top of his column in the November 23, 1974 issue.
• Bill Holland & Rent’s Due If It Ain’t One Thing was recorded and mixed substantially at Track in 1974-75 and released 1975 by Adelphi Records.  Blues Art Studio informs us that Holland had been keyboardist for The Nighthawks prior to forming Rent’s Due. Would you be surprised if I told you that If It Ain’t One Thing saw “radio action” on Bethesda Maryland’s mighty WHFS, as reported in Billboard‘s December 27, 1975 edition?

• Emmylou Harris‘ Pieces Of The Sky album was recorded at Track [as well as the Enactron Truck] in 1975, with musical backing from James Burton (guitar/dobro), Ray Pohlman (bass), Ron Tutt (drums), Ben Keith (steel guitar), Glen Hardin & Bill Payne (piano), Byron Berline & Ricky Skaggs (fiddle), and Bernie Leadon (banjo/guitar), among others. Marie Ratliff, Record World‘s “Country Hot Line” columnist, identified “If I Could Only Win Your Love” – issued by Reprise as a single – as both a “left fielder” and a “blockbuster” in the June 21, 1975 issue. Pieces Of The Sky would peak at the #45 position on Billboard‘s Top LPs & Tapes chart for the week ending May 10, 1975.
• THIS JUST IN:  Musical encyclopedia and beloved WHFS disc jockey “Weasel” blew Zero to 180’s mind with the bombshell that the mighty NRBQ recorded two songs at Track Recorders in 1975, one of which “Cecilia” (a Ruby Dreyer song recorded by Louis Prima, Chet Atkins, The Three Suns, and many others) would end up on 1977’s All Hopped Up.

• Powerhouse – featuring guitarist Tom Principato – recorded 1975’s Night Life at Track (for which Bullmoose Jackson of King Records fame would be pulled out of retirement for a guest vocal).  Album was engineered by Obie O’Brien and recorded in late October 1975 for Aladdin Records, although the tapes (notes Discogs) would be remixed later in May/June 1979 at Track by Bill McCullough.
• Liz Meyer‘s Once A Day album — recorded at Track between 1975-1977, but not issued until 1982 by Adelphi Records — features guest performances from Emmylou Harris, Buddy Charleton, Mike Auldridge, Tom Gray, Lance Quinn, and Winnie Winston among others. One Discogs contributor characterized Once A Day as “an excellent album of unpretentious country twang.”

• Banbarra‘s classic 1975 A-side “Shack Up” — a sampler’s dream (A Certain Ratio, Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad, 3rd Bass, Stetsasonic, Gang Starr, Kool Keith, and Happy Mondays, et al) — was recorded at Track and produced by Lance Quinn and Mantis Recs. “Shack Up” received wide distribution outside the US, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Philippines, Spain, Italy, Canada, and the UK.
• Stephen Spano‘s album Eye to Eye (featuring kick-off tune “Love Is the Sound“) was recorded, in part, at Track and today commands up to three figures at auction. The album – engineered by Bill Tate, Gene Rosenthal, and Richard Drevo – was released 1975 by Adelphi Records, with striking layout work by Howard Rosenthal.

^{_{“Washington, DC”}}

• Gloria Gaynor‘s 1975 album Experience Gloria Gaynor – produced and engineered by Tony Bongiovi – was recorded, in part, at Track (though listed in the credits as being located in “DC,” as is the case with the Banbarra and Clovers 45s above & below).  MGM would issue a total of three singles from this album, with one of the tracks, “My Man’s Gone, being a non-LP B-side written by Gaynor. The album’s distribution range outside the US is rather impressive: Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, India, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
• Gloria Gaynor returned to Track the following year (now signed with Polydor) to record some of the sessions for I’ve Got You. Both of these albums ended up being mixed by Tom Moulton — originator of the remix, as well as 12-inch single (trivia: also a former King Records sales/promotion staffer from 1959-1961). All tracks that Gaynor recorded at Track were engineered by Tony Bongiovi (cousin of Jon Bon Jovi, whose debut album was produced by Bongiovi with Lance Quinn)

• The Clovers — one of the most successful vocal groups from the doo-wop era, with twenty-one chart records under the guidance of Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Abramson, and Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records — recorded a 45 for Aladdin Records at Track in 1975 that was co-produced by Bill(y) Hancock and Obie O’Brien.
• The Reuben Brown Trio Featuring Richie Cole‘s Starburst album was recorded at Track on June 24, 1975, with Cole on alto sax, Brown on keyboards, Marshall Hawkins on string bass, and Bernard Sweetney on drums. The album, engineered by Gerry Wyckoff, with assistance from Tony Anderson, was released 1976 by Adelphi Records (art direction supervised by Dick Bangham).

_{“Washington, DC”}

• Black Heat‘s farewell album, 1975’s Keep on Runnin‘ — recorded at both Track and Atlantic Records studios — was later issued in Japan (2009) and Europe (2014).  The group’s soul version of “Drive My Car” would be issued as Black Heat’s final 45 by Atlantic Records.
• Jimi Hendrix‘s posthumous LP Midnight Lightning (completed with overdubbing by session players) was produced, in part, at Track and released in November of 1975  [see: Midnight Lightning bonus bit at the end of this piece].  Track would also be one of three studios used to produce Hendrix’s Crash Landing in similar fashion, released two months earlier in September.

• Caltrick Simone‘s third Secant 45 release – “Time Bind” b/w “Lightning Bolt” – was released in 1975 under the name, Cal’s Tricks.  Secant would follow up this single with another Cal’s Tricks 45 recorded at Track — Kool & the Gang’s “Who’s Gonna Take The Weight” b/w “Wayne’s Song” — that was released the following year in 1976.

• Bill Keith‘s 1976 Rounder album Something Auld, Something Newgrass, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass — recorded entirely at Track by John Nagy — kicks off with a fresh arrangement of the classic Stones song “No Expectations,” features a heavy-hitting supporting cast, including Tony Rice (guitar), David Grisman (mandolin), Vassar Clements (fiddle), Kenny Kosek (fiddle), and Tom Gray (bass), among others. 
• Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard‘s self-titled 1976 Rounder album was recorded by John Nagy primarily at Track Recorders and Baltimore’s Blue Seas (owned by Steve Boone, formerly of The Lovin’ Spoonful), with musical support from Mike Seeger, Mike Auldridge, Buddy Charleton, Tom Gray, and Tracy Schwartz, among others (audio link to “Mary Johnson“).

• O’Donel Levy recorded Windows — engineered by Tony Bongiovi, with vocal contributions from Aleta Greene — in August of 1976 at Track, with overdub sessions that took at NYC’s Mediasound (inside the former Manhattan Baptist Church) with musical support from Randy Brecker (et al.) One Discogs contributor deems the album “a top notch groover” and proclaims “I Believe In Miracles” to be a “beautiful and sublime piece of work.” Audio links to “Panama Red” and “I’ll Sing From My Window.”
• Skip Mahoaney & the Casuals recorded 1976’s Land of Love (listen to title track) — whose eight songs would be issued as four single releases that same year — at Track. Land Of Love, produced by James Purdie and engineered by William “Obie” O’Brien, with assistance from Gerry Wyckoff and Tony Anderson, was released on Abet, a soul subsidiary of Nashboro.

• All of The Nighthawks‘ albums recorded for Adelphi Records involved Track Recorders to some degree:  1976’s Open All Nite, 1977’s Side Pocket Shot and 1978’s Jacks and Kings (with members of the Muddy Waters Band – Pinetop Perkins, Guitar Jr., Calvin Jones & Bob Margolin) were all engineered and mixed at Track. Meanwhile, 1976’s Nighthawks Live was recorded at Bethesda’s Psyche Delly by Track recording engineer Obie O’Brien (and Roger Byrd of Sonority Sound), while 1980’s Full House included unreleased tracks from Jacks and Kings, and 1982’s Times Four included 1977-79 studio sessions laid down at Track.

Track Recorders History Spotlight:

Mark Wenner of The Nighthawks

_{[Photo courtesy of Linda Parker Photography]}

Harmonica ace, Mark Wenner, certainly knows the inside of Track Recorders as “founding father” and remaining original member of The Nighthawks.  Around the time The Nighthawks (with Jimmy Thackery on guitar, Jan Zukowski on bass, and Pete Ragusa on drums) were recording their first album for Adelphi in 1976, Wenner recalls Obie O’Brien (engineer/producer) and Lance Quinn (studio guitarist) in the throes of recording intensely-layered (e.g., banjo lines) disco productions for the likes of Gloria Gaynor.

Younger readers may not realize that hewing to a classic blues (but “well-recorded”) sound was going against the grain at the time, but Open All Nite — four musicians, no external players — ending up being reasonably successful from a sales standpoint, Wenner tells Zero to 180.  (1976, incidentally, would also be the year when Obie O’Brien would press Wenner and members of the Rosslyn Mountain Boys into service to record a novelty single with vocalist Bro Smith – “Big Foot” – that reached the #57 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending June 5, 1976 (see pg. 76).

_{c1976 Jonas Cash Promotions}

“Engineered by Obie”

_{45 label}

The band’s next studio effort, however, Side Pocket Shot — a ‘Revolver’ concept, with each song different from the other — was another kettle of fish altogether, with Billy Price’s Rhythm King Horns, for example, spilling out out of a limo one day with a bottle of whiskey and whatnot, recording their horn parts and then immediately rolling back out of town.  Not to mention the addition of pedal steel, percussion, and backing vocals.  In the wake of Obie O’Brien’s departure, however, the album would be engineered by Cap’n Jon and Gerry Wyckoff at Track.

Opening for Muddy Waters for three different runs at DC’s famed Cellar Door – in conjunction with block booking at Track Recorders – facilitated the band’s crowning achievement, Jacks and Kings, with Muddy Waters’ band members, Pinetop Perkins (piano), Guitar Jr. (i.e., Luther Johnson), and “Steady Rollin’” Bob Margolin (guitar), plus Dave Maxwell (kick-off track:  “For You My Love“).  Engineered  by Bill McCullough and Gerry Wyckoff, Jacks and Kings would be a big seller for Adelphi and one that would prompt the band’s first major tour outside of the mid-Atlantic area — Chicago, Denver, Austin, New Orleans, and Kansas City, a key distribution point.

Wenner remembers Track as not only a great place to hang (e.g., a big party for Jacks and Kings, with a refueling stop at Little Tavern and more than one cinema run to catch Raging Bull), but also an adventurous place to ply his trade (e.g., “triple-mic’ing” his harmonica in a stairwell, recording it at three different levels).

The Nighthawks (who appeared as themselves in the second season opening episode of The Wire) are still raging strong today in 2017, with Johnny Castle (bass), Paul Bell (guitar), and Mark Stutso (drums).  2010’s Last Train to Bluesville (Pete Ragusa‘s farewell appearance), a special set recorded live and acoustic on Sirius/XM’s Bluesville channel — thanks to the generosity of radio host, Bill Wax — would win the band their first-ever Blues Music Award from the Blues Foundation, while 2015’s Back Porch Party features another well-received set of acoustic blues that mixes classics (e.g., Ike Turner’s “Matchbox” and Willie Dixon’s “Tiger In Your Tank“) with originals, such as Wenner’s “Guard My Heart” and Stutso’s “Down To My Last Million Tears.”

Q:  How challenging was it to get permission from the Art Institute of Chicago to use the Edward Hopper painting on Open All Nite?
A:  $60 fee and use of their slide, with no printing over the actual picture.

Nighthawks On The Blue Highway

Must-see documentary film

• Bill Horton‘s free-form, Beefheart-esque Dancehall for Midgets (sample: “Rages of Emptiness“) was assembled in 1976 at Track, with Gerry Wyckoff serving as audio engineer. Horton (guitar and vocals) recorded his lone album — with help from Steve Fricker (basses & electric sitar) and Dave Gardner (drums & percussion) — and then nothing more. Original copies of this album trade hands at auction for two to three figures.
• Thomas Crawford‘s 1976 album The Peak Experience was recorded, in part, at Track, and one of two rather collectible albums for Bethesda boutique label, Integrated Performance Systems International Incorporated (e.g.,$216 paid for this LP at auction in 2015).

• The very first release by DC Star — rockers from Clinton, Maryland, who were active in the 1970s and ’80s — was recorded at Track and released by Caltrick Simone‘s Secant label in 1976.
• Parts of the recording sessions for the Bicentennial Gold album that was released 1976 by Private Stock were recorded at Track (Q: .which parts? A: .my guess – those tracks that involved guitarist, Lance Quinn, and rising producer, Tony Bongiovi). Would you believe this is the one and only album release from The DCA Experience?

• In 1976, Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals recorded three songs at Track (“Foggy River” + “Standing On The Mountain” + “Two More Years“), with audio engineering assistance from Obie O’Brien and Gerry Wyckoff, among others. These three tracks would later find release on 1991’s Classic Bluegrass CD compilation.
• Ralph Stanley and his bluegrass ensemble — Jack Cooke, Keith Whitley, Danny Marshall, Ed Ferris, and Curly Ray Cline — recorded an entire album, Old Home Place, in a single day (February 16, 1976) at Track Recorders that was produced by Dick Freeland for Rebel Records.

• Country Gentlemen‘s gospel album, Calling My Children Home, was recorded between April, 1976 and August, 1977 at Track (kick-off tune: “Place Prepared for Me“), as was 1976’s Joe’s Last Train and no doubt other albums released on Rebel Records (founded in Mt. Rainier, Maryland by Dick Freeland). Both of these albums from the progressive bluegrass group — Charlie Waller, Doyle Lawson, Mike Auldridge, Bill Holden, and Bill Yates — would be issued in Japan soon after their release in the US.
• Southbound — Louis Pyrtle, Dennis Severt, Jimmy Haley, and Doug Campbell, with musical assistance from Mike Auldridge, plus “mysterious” Track staffer, R.B. (on drums) — recorded their second (and final) full-length (self-titled) album at Track Recorders in March of 1977. Included on the LP are originals (such as “Sam’s Tune” and “Grease Gravy“), as well as bluegrass takes on Loggins & Messina’s “House At Pooh Corner” and The Grateful Dead’s ‘Friend Of The Devil.” The album’s rear cover, it bears noting, displays vintage photos of Track — an exterior side door, as well as a shot of the studio interior (see image below).

• Karen Goldberg‘s very first release – “The Music Keeps Me Going” b/w “No Fool Like An Old Fool” – ended up being the final 45 for DC-based Secant Records in 1977.

• Acclaimed bluegrass musician Jimmy Arnold recorded 1977’s Jimmy Arnold – Guitar at Track, with musical support from Johnny Castle, Ricky Skaggs, and Mike Auldridge, among others.  Arnold’s album was assembled from three separate recording sessions at Track between October, 1974 and June, 1976, with Steve Ham, Obie O’Brien, and “R.B.” responsible for the audio engineering. [listen to entire album]
• The Ramones (would you believe?) traveled to Silver Spring to mix their second album Leave Home in 1977 (also mixed at Quebec’s Le Studio). Production responsibilities for this album were shared between Tommy “Ramone” Erdelyi and Tony Bongiovi.

• Del McCoury, with support from Bill Runkle, Don Eldreth, Dewey Renfro, and Bill Poffinberger, recorded the songs for the Our Kind Of Grass album in April and June of 1976 at Track Recorders, with engineering assistance from Obie O’Brien, Gerry Wyckoff, and the ‘mysterious’ R.B. Rebel Records released Our Kind of Grass in 1978 — audio link to the entire album — while the LP saw release in Japan the following year.
• Seabird Band – country rockers from Norfolk Virginia – recorded their lone full-length release, in part, at Track, with engineering assistance from Bill McCullough and Gerry Wyckoff (audio link to “Sweet Forgetfulness“). Is it possible that the LP’s rear cover photos (see image below) were taken at Track?

• Coup de Grass‘ album Rhythm and Bluegrass — recorded at Track and engineered by Gerry Wyckoff and Bill McCullough — was released 1978 by Adelphi Records. Guitarist, Michael Dunkley recalls the strong reactions engendered by the LP cover —

The story behind the album’s cover is somewhat checkered, and we were delighted to have Jerry Douglas tell us that it should have won an award for ‘Best Cover’ — later we learned that David Grisman has a copy of it on his music room’s ‘Wall of Fame.’  On the other hand, one club owner said that he could never mount our album on the club’s wall, because it would end up “shot full of holes!”

• Root Boy Slim (one-time Silver Spring resident), with backing from The Sex Change Band and The Rootettes, recorded 1979’s Zoom — whose iconic cover had been designed by Dick Bangham — at Track Recorders.  Two of the album’s tracks -“World War 3” b/w “Dare To Be Fat” – would be issued as a single in the US, as well as the UK, albeit with the two sides, curiously, flipped.  Additionally, the demo recordings Root Boy and the band made the previous year at Track for the self-titled major-label debut release, had received a strong response from WHFS’s radio audience. Furthermore (as noted in the accompanying profile of Track’s chief recording engineer, Bill McCullough), Warner Brothers ended up incorporating parts of the Track demos (e.g., the “puking” vocals from “Boogie Til You Puke“) into the album’s final mix.

• Bill Harrell & The Virginians — Darrell Sanders (banjo), Carl Nelson (fiddle), and Ed Ferris (bass) — recorded their Ballads & Bluegrass album (“featuring the dobro of Mike Auldridge“) for Adelphi Records in May/June of 1978 at Track Recorders, with Bill McCullough and Gerry Wyckoff responsible for the audio engineering (audio link to “I Dipped In The Sugar Bowl“).
• Jimmy Madison (drums) — with help from Mike Richmond (bass), Harold Danko (keyboards), Larry Schneider (sax), Tom Harrell (trumpet), and Bill Washer (guitar) — recorded the songs for 1978’s Bumps On A Smooth Surface album at New York City’s Garden Studio on Halloween 1977 and then mixed those recordings at Track Recorders a few weeks later on December 2nd (with assistance from Bill McCullough and Gerry Wyckoff). Liner notes by jazz critic and librarian, Dan Morganstern.

• Original Fetish‘s Warped 45 – “Standing in Line at Studio 54” b/w “I’m Glad That Elvis Is Dead” – was recorded in 1979 at Track and engineered by Bill McCullough (link to original 45 gatefold images of celebrities in caricature waiting at Studio 54). In 2005,  Dave Nuttycombe celebrated the 25th anniversary of the band’s dissolution – “Punk On The Inside” – for DC’s City Paper.
• Russ ‘n‘ Paul recorded 1979’s See You in Court (a Billboard “recommended album“) entirely at Track, with musical support from Mark Greenhouse and Steuart Smith, along with Eugene Thorne (flute & sax), Don Ryer (trumpet), and Michael Maye (bass) on such tracks as “Let It Come From Inside You.” Recording credits tag Gerry Wyckoff for production assistance and Bill McCullough for additional engineering.

• Bill Blue & Band recorded and mixed two Adelphi album releases at Track: Sing Like Thunder (recorded 1978, released 1979) and Givin’ Good Boys A Bad Name (recorded 1979, released 1980).  Gerry Wyckoff both engineered and wrote the sleeve notes for Sing Like Thunder, which features guest guitar work from Evan Johns and Jimmy Thackery on “Don’t Let Go,” while Bill McCullough and Cap’n Jon Curlin jointly produced the sessions for Givin’ Good Boys A Bad Name.
• Catfish Hodge‘s Bout With the Blues album — recorded at Track (save for two tracks) — was produced by Hodge, as well as Mark Greenhouse, Bill McCullough, and Mitch Collins (who also played keyboards).  Steuart Smith and Steve Jacobs both contributed guitar, while Jimmy Thackery stepped in to play slide guitar on “A-Political Blues.” At the time of the album’s release, interestingly, Catfish would form a new group – Chicken Legs – using members of his own band combined with “four of the five remaining members of Little Feat.” 

• The Slickee Boys — Mark Noone, Kim Kane, Marshall Keith, Emory Olexa, and Dan Palenski — recorded their sci-fi stomper – “The Brain That Refused to Die” – with producer Ted Nicely at Track in 1980 (while the flip side “(Are You Gonna Be There at The) Love-In?” was captured live at Bethesda’s fabled Psyche Delly).
• Black Market Baby‘s forthrightly rocking single – “America’s Youth” b/w “Crimes Of Passion” – was recorded in June of 1980 at Track, although this 45 only made it to the “test pressing” stage in 1981, notes Discogs. In 2000, however, 007 Records would issue this single in a limited pressing of 500 copies.

• DC go-go funk outfit, Experience Unlimited, recorded their 1980 single – “Rock Yer Butt” b/w “E.U. Groove” – at Track Recorders, according to Discogs.
• Crystal’s Image recorded their strings-enhanced disco/soul classic “A Friend” b/w “Crystal’s Image (Cold Crush Theme)” in 1980 at Track — a recording that boutique reissue label, Numero Group would reissue thirty or so years later in 2012. Special audio treat: check out the left-field sound effect around the the 2:00 mark of the A-side (Q — was this “soul shout” part of the original mix?)

• Bill Harrell & The Virginians recorded all the songs for 1980’s I Can Hear Virginia Calling Me album at Track in August, October, and November of 1978, with additional musical input, again, from Mike Auldridge (audio link to “I Can Hear Virginia Calling Me“).
• Herndon-Edwards Band recorded their original soft rock/power pop concoction – “No Time Waiting” b/w “Broken Hearted Woman” – at Track. As one Discogs contributor declared, “A side goes hard,” who added that the recording “threads the needle between power pop and something a little more leftfield.”

• Howard University‘s Jazz Ensemble recorded full-length album releases at Track in both 1980 and 1981. Rising talent, Gregory Charles Royal, contributed an original composition for each of those albums: “Dream Come True” (1980) and “Before You” (1981). Royal’s tenure at Howard overlapped with another young talent, Greg Osby, who also played on the 1980 Howard University LP, as well as the prior year’s 1979 Jazz Ensemble album likewise recorded at Track.
• Gregory Charles Royal‘s 1980 single “Pain” b/w “Take a Ride to Heaven” (reissued in 2016 on Swiss label, High Jazz) was engineered at Track by Mark Greenhouse, Bill McCullough, and Gerry Wyckoff.  As a 10th-grader, Royal had caught the attention of legendary drummer/bandleader, Art Blakey, during an engagement at DC’s Blues Alley. Soon after, Royal would find himself a member of The Jazz Messengers, living with Blakey at his Manhattan apartment. Royal later founded the New York Jazz Film Festival.

• The Muffins‘ album <185> – with Fred Frith in the producer’s chair, as well as performer – was recorded in 1980 at Track and reissued in 1996 on Silver Spring’s own Cuneiform!  The band moves from longer to shorter form on this album, as evidenced by “Under Dali’s Wing.” [For additional information about this groundbreaking album, click on the link to “Bill McCullough Remembers Track Recorders.”]
• THIS JUST IN:  Thanks to a tip from Brian Bennett (comment below), I now know that Balloons For The Dog‘s “funky new wave/art rock” 45 from 1980 – “Assassination Candidate” b/w “Tuna Tonight” – was recorded at Track.  This single, Balloon For The Dog’s sole release, was issued by Random Radar Records, a Silver Spring-based label established by Steve Feigenbaum, who would launch Cuneiform Records four years later with R. Stevie Moore’s What’s The Point?!! (Rune 1).

John Simson‘s Track History Spotlight:

Tori Amos

American University professor, John Simson — one-time recording artist who became a manager (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Switchblade) and thirty-year entertainment lawyer (Chuck Brown, Government Issue, Root Boy Slim), as well as frequent lecturer on music industry and copyright issues, Executive Director of SoundExchange, and Chair of the Board of the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, among many other accomplishments — informed Zero to 180 that a teenage Tori Amos had recorded some of her earliest demos at Track Recorders.

The youngest person, at age five, to win a Peabody Conservatory scholarship, Amos (and her family) would later move from Baltimore to Silver Spring in 1972 so that her father could serve as pastor at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in the Adelphi section of Silver Spring.  As an underage performer, Tori would be chaperoned to Washington-area piano bars by her father, who would also mail tapes of her own original recordings to record labels.

Mark Greenhouse once played a demo cassette of demonstration recordings made at Track to John Simson, who was impressed enough with her talent to travel to Georgetown to hear Amos perform live.  This Wikipedia page claims that “Baltimore” – submitted in response to a Baltimore Orioles theme song competition – was recorded in 1979 at Track, with guitar accompaniment by Max Welker.  This past August, Welker would post an audio clip of a demo Amos made for “Walking With You” that is said to have been recorded at Track in 1980.

Curious coincidence: .Julius Brockington was once signed to Today Records, a subsidiary of Perception Records — the label that released John Simson’s 1971’s album.

• The Slickee Boys, with assistance from their producer, Ted Nicely, recorded their 1981 Dacoit 7-inch “Here To Stay” b/w “Porcelain Butter Kitten” at Track Recorders, under the engineering oversight of Mark Greenhouse. In 2022, Vinyl Conflict reissue this single in the US, while exactly 40 years prior, German label, Line Records, had gathered up all five Slickee Boys 45s from 1976-1971 on a compilation entitled, Here To Stay.
• Little Feat odds ‘n’ sods compilation, 1981’s Hoy-Hoy, includes songs recorded at ten different studios, including Track — so says this catalog record for the version released in the Netherlands.  However, I just discovered that the catalog record for the 1990 German release includes much more detailed recording info – though no mention of Track Recorders.  Which raises the question:  Did Little Feat (not just Lowell George) ever record at Track?  Bill McCullough actually answered this question in September, 2016:  Little Feat (as would The Allman Brothers and Kiss, et al.) recorded demos only for “fun” at Track (pssst: Dave Nuttycombe‘s fab photos of Little Feat at Track Recorders can be found at the very end of this piece).

• Harvey Reid‘s 1981 debut album Nothin’ But Guitar — his first of six for the Woodpecker label — was recorded at Track.
• Tommy Keene‘s Strange Alliance from 1982 — his debut LP — was recorded at Track (listen to title track).  This power pop album by the one-time Razz guitarist was engineered by Mark Greenhouse and Jim Crenca and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk.

• Iwabo‘s early-80s rootical 12-inch single “Reggae Down” b/w “Smile on Your Face” was recorded (thanks, Popsike!) at Track. One Discogs contributor ended their playful rant with this puckish sentiment: “The fact that [“Reggae Down”] is as good as it is but nobody has heard it, is not only ‘criminal’ as some music critics like to say—it is statistically inscrutable.”
• (Long-time WPFW host) Brother Ah & The Sounds of Awareness recorded the Key to Nowhere album at Track on July 7, 1983.  [listen to entire album]

• Michele Valeri (featured in this 2020 piece, with Bob Devlin) recorded the Parents’ Choice Gold Award-winning album Dinosaur Rock with collaborator, Michael Stein, at Track Recorders in 1983.  The musicians who made this album roar to life include Pete Kennedy (guitar), Jon Carroll (piano), Robbie Magruder (drums), Bryan Smith (bass), Bill Emerson (banjo), Akira Otsuke (mandolin), Jeff Agnew (pedal steel), Marty Erickson (tuba) & Greg Artzner (concertina).  LP originally released 1984 on Caedmon, a prolific spoken word/audiobook label founded in 1952 by Barbara Holdridge and Marianne Roney, according to Discogs (later acquired by HarperCollins) — click here to check out the title track.
• Billy Hancock would hold three recording sessions at Track in 1983 — as detailed in 2002 Ripsaw CD release Wanted: True Rock ‘n’ Roll [thanks, Bill Hanke!] — that would yield a total of ten songs.  As co-producer Jonathan ‘The Spider‘ Strong recalls in the liner notes:

Martha Hull did the female side of the duet on this 1957 Fats Domino number [“When I See You“].  One of the vivid memories of this session was The Velons and Martha, in between recordings, singing The Dominoes’ ‘Sixty Minute Man‘ together in the studio hallway.  Adding excellent piano and sax overdubs many years later were Daryl Davis and Chris Watling, respectively.  Daryl had almost become a Ripsaw artist more than 20 years earlier.  He had played piano on the original version of ‘Redskins Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ which songwriter David Nelson had submitted to Ripsaw in 1980.

Martha Hull at Track

_{photo courtesy of Ripsaw}

• Root Boy Slim‘s 1983 album Dog Secrets — recorded at Track — was enhanced with a bonus track, “Go Go Girls Don’t Cry” (thanks to John Simson & Dick Bangham), when reissued in 2010 on CD.
• Tex Rubinowitz‘s debut full-length album release features five “new” songs — including two written with Eddie Angel of Los Straitjackets, “Rock -n- Roll Ivy” and “No Club (Lone Wolf)” — that were laid down at Track Recorders in 1985.  Tex recorded his first single in 1978 for DC-based Alladin, whose roster included Danny & the Fat Boys, The Nighthawks, Powerhouse, and the aforementioned Clovers.

• The Howlers (who Discogs believes to be the early 1960s Belgian band of the same name) would record their 1985 debut album, in part, at Track.
• Englishman‘s 1986 album Fighting to Survive (on which Augustus Pablo would perform as one of three synthesists) was recorded at both Track and Lion & Fox, with engineering by Mark Greenhouse and Jim Fox, along with Philip Smart.  Sample track:  “Political Illusion.”

• Tony Rice‘s Me and My Guitar — featuring Vassar Clements, Jerry Douglas & Sam Bush, et al. — was recorded (in part) and mixed at Track in 1986 (to get technical:  “Analog multi-tracks mixed to Sony 701 PCM digital system at Track Recorders.”)
• Root Boy Slim‘s Left for Dead – recorded at Track in 1987*, with Ernie Lancaster and Steuart Smith both on guitar – was engineered & mixed (in part) by Bill McCullough.  Album released in the US on King Snake Records, in the UK on Bedrock [*thanks to Bobby Uptight, who points out in the comment below that though the album “was *released* in 1987, it was recorded at Track in one session on the eve of the Shah fleeing Iran January 16th, 1979”].

• Fats Domino, according to this FAQ – has at least two unfinished albums, including an album recorded in 1982 “in a suburb of Washington, DC” that is either Track or Kensington’s Big Mo.  Track’s own Bill McCullough, along with Marc D’Amico, would both concur:  Fats recorded at Track!
• Larry Carlton‘s 1993 album Renegade Gentleman was overdubbed, in part, at Track.

 You Could Be Track Recorders’ Next Recording Engineer!
Full text of ad –

dB Magazine

August 1973 edition

Control Room at Track Recorders

(July 1972)

_{Courtesy of Sons of Thunder}

WANTED:  RECORDING ENGINEER 

$12,000 – $18,000/yr.  Negotiable

• Do you have a total knowledge of all aspects of audio recordings?
• Can you appreciate all forms of rock and soul and get along with all types of personalities?
• Can you take raw musical talent and convert it into a sellable product on tape?
• Do you know the sound of a hit?  Do you want to cut hits?  Do you want success badly enough to eat every top selling single and LP you’re not on?
• ln short, are you a born winner?
• If you can honestly answer “yes” to all the above, we want you to join us and we’ll pay whatever’s fair.  Track Recorders has had eight national chart records in the last year.  Washington, D.C. is the last major music frontier and we’re the leaders.  Our studio has all the standard quality equipment — 3M 16-track, 25-in/16-out custom console, EMT reverb, JBL 4320 monitors, Dolby, Kepex, varispeed, grand piano, Hammond B3 organ, amps, drums, excellent test gear and maintenance.  Your weekends will generally be free.  The Washington area offers great entertainment plus Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah Valley, Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean.

Call or write to:  TRACK RECORDERS, INC.
8226 Georgia Ave. #11-2, Silver Spring, Md. 20910.  (301) KL5-xxxx

Sons of Thunder’s Steve Halverson

Track Recorders

July 1972

John Kelly‘s review of Track Recorders

DC-MD-VA studio overview

The Washington Post

Nov. 6, 1987

TRACK RECORDERS ~ 8226 Georgia Ave. ~ Silver Spring, MD ~ $65/hour

Track just celebrated its 18th birthday and the list of major acts who have recorded there make it one of the most venerable studios in town.  Track alumni include Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Jimi Hendrix.  Local musicians, including Teresa Gunn, Random Samples and the Cultevaders, also take advantage of Track’s services. According to vice president/studio manager Mark Greenhouse, Track also runs its own vanity record label (it’s called, appropriately, Vanity Records).  The acts on Vanity put up the money themselves and are rewarded with an ultra-slick package that includes record, sleeve and promotional advice.  8-TRACK.

Further Reading: 

Track Recorders

John Kelly‘s March 14, 2015 column in The Washington Post that reveals the history behind the 1983 jingle for Mattress Discounters — a musical ad that haunts to this day.

Richard Harrington‘s August 13, 1986 Washington Post celebration of Track’s sixteenth birthday — in which we learn that The Allman Brothers had recorded an unreleased 15/8 instrumental jam at Track (“Chet’s Tune“), and that Track’s staff were musicians too, thus “the work has a certain spirit and attitude, reflecting a more intense personal relationship between technicians and musicians,” according to Mark Greenhouse.

Richard Harrington‘s December 27, 1981 Washington Post piece about the recording of a live Nighthawks album at The Bayou (Ten Years Live, with its randy runout groove etching) by Bill McCullough of Track Recorders.

Bill Nowlin‘s history behind the recording of J.D. Crowe and the New South — an iconic album (reissued in 2016) and one that helped establish Rounder Records’ reputation.

Wilfully Obscure‘s ruminations (parts one & two) about the recording of Tommy Keene‘s Strange Alliance album.

Midnight Lightning

“Posthumous Hendrix Album Coming“

The Aniston Star

Nov. 22, 1975

_{Note vintage belt buckle}

Excerpt –

 Once [producer Alan] Douglas had winnowed the 3,000 hours down to four hours of especially promising material, the tapes were turned over to [partner Tony] Bongiovi, who was expected to reduce the four hours of raw stock to the final product an eight-song, 36-minute album that will be entitled Midnight Lightning.

Bongiovi and his co-workers at Track Recorders, especially staff engineer ‘Obie’ O’Brien and session musician Lance Quinn, have gone to extraordinary lengths in their attempt to remain faithful to what seem to be Hendrix’s intentions.  Guitarist Quinn played a Fender Stratocaster, the same model that Hendrix used, for all his overdubs, and brought the strings down half a step to the F flat [!] tuning that Hendrix favored.  ‘But when we came in we weren’t trying to copy what he did or to make somebody sound like him,’ said Bongiovi.’  ‘We were trying to match the sound of the record.  So Hendrix is the star of the album; we just had to fill in all the air that was on the record with what Jimi had planned to put on later.’

And that’s why relatively anonymous session men like Quinn, drummer Alan Schwartzberg, and bassist Bob Babbit were used on Midnight Lightning. ‘We didn’t want to use any soloist guitarists like a Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton,’ says Bongiovi.  ‘Imagine if we had them on the album – they’re stars in their own right.  It would have ended up a guitar duel, and that’s not fair because Jimi’s not really here to defend himself.’

But even without the opportunity to solo and show off a bit, Quinn, a disciple of Washington’s Roy Buchanan and an admirer of England’s Jeff Beck, finds the Hendrix sessions rewarding.  ‘In some spots,’ says the corpulent [!] guitarist, ‘it was almost like playing in a band with him.  And you get a chance to hear him in situations that don’t turn up on record.  When we listened to the tapes, we heard the parts people never hear on record.  Some of the ideas he tried were amazingly creative things that might not work on record but which, as a guitar player, I could appreciate.  The guy was unbelievable.  He could really play guitar.  It wasn’t just that he had mastered the wah-wah pedal, feedback and the other effects.  He was a really great guitar player who took something that no one ever did before.  He just jumped into the space age all of a sudden instead of just playing rock & roll.  He was the most creative there ever was.  You can hear it in every note he played.

Track Recorders:

A Postscript

On Tuesday, May 25, 1971, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for Track Recorders Incorporated – as this link shows – by Track Recorders, Inc.  The trademark registration for Track, sadly, expired on June 7, 1993.

Cissel-Lee Building –

current incarnation:

Urban Butcher

_{(closed down c. 2020)}

In Track Recorders’ Own Backyard: 

Bonus Reggae History!

Silver Spring is also home to DC’s first reggae club, Spring Garden, according to the October, 1978 edition of Unicorn Times, with Honey Boy Martin (famous for rude boy classic, “Dreader Than Dread“) and The Family Reunion serving as the house band.  The address for Spring Garden – 1160 Bonifant St – would put the venue just a couple blocks from Track Recorders (toward the DC Metro station) on a part of Bonifant that has since been subsumed by the Silver Spring Transit Station.

LINK:

Bill McCullough Remembers Track Recorders

LINK:

Silver Spring, Maryland:
Musical Hot Spot