Track Recorders: Silver Spring

NOTICE

This piece has since been majorly revamped with much new content –

in fact, DITCH THIS SEVERELY TRUNCATED VERSION!

LINK to Track Recorders: Silver Spring II

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) on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland – just over the DC line – that saw action in the 1970s, ’80s & ’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-late1970s was a focal point for a fair amount of musical magic, as indicated in the hyper-linked list below.

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].”

Downtown’s Last Spanish colonial revival –

Track Recorders on the 2nd floor

Notable Moments in Track Recorders’ Music History
(chronologically speaking)

• The Young Senators‘ classic funk 45 – “Jungle” – was recorded in 1970 at Track and reissued in 2016 (with picture sleeve) on Chicago’s Numero Group.
• The Soul Searchers‘ 1972 Sussex album We the People – featuring DC legend, Chuck Brown – was recorded at Track (and first issued in the UK in 2006).

LOTS OF MISSING CONTENT

LINK to Track Recorders: Silver Spring II

• The Slickee Boys‘ winner 1980 A-side “The Brain That Refused to Die” was recorded at Track, (while the flip side “(Are You Gonna Be There at The) Love-In?” was recorded at Bethesda’s famed Psyche Delly).
• Black Market Baby‘s forthrightly rocking A-side “America’s Youth” was recorded in 1980 at Track.

• The Muffins‘ album 185 – featuring Tom Scott & Fred Frith, et al. – was recorded in 1980 at Track (and reissued in 1996 on Silver Spring’s own Cuneiform!).
• Gregory Charles Royal‘s 1980 single “Pain” b/w “Take a Ride to Heaven” (reissued in 2016 on Swiss label, High Jazz – and currently sold out) was recorded at Track.

• Tommy Keene‘s Strange Alliance from 1982 – his debut LP – was recorded at Track.
• Brother Ah & The Sounds of Awareness would record the Key to Nowhere album at Track on July 7, 1983.

• Iwabo‘s early-80s rootical 12-inch single “Reggae Down” b/w “Smile on Your Face” was recorded (thanks, Popsike!) at Track.
• Larry Carlton‘s 1993 album Renegade Gentleman was overdubbed, in part, at Track.

Cissel-Lee Building

Current incarnation (sans Spanish Colonial):

Urban Butcher

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

dB Magazine

August, 1973 edition

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

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 — and in which we learn that The Allman Brothers recorded an unreleased 15/8 instrumental jam (“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 by Bill McCullough of Track Recorders.

Bill Nowlin‘s history behind the recording of J.D. Crowe and the New South — an iconic album (re-released 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.