Former Buck Owens Recording Studios Closes Doors

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. --

RECORDING STUDIO’S RICH COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY

The recording studio on North Chester Avenue, which houses various collections of Buck Owens memorabilia, has completed another chapter in its rich music-related history.

The old River Theater A.K.A. former Buck Owens Studios, where iconic country music legends such as Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash recorded country hits, closed its doors on April 30.

The former Buck Owens Studios is just a few blocks north of legendary Trout’s Bar where Red Simpson, one of the songwriting pioneers of the Bakersfield Sound, still performs on Monday nights.

Simpson, also famous for a series of trucker song albums, wrote around 30 songs for Buck Owens. “I’ve recorded down there a few times,” Simpson said. He said he used to go down to the studio in the 1970s when Buck Owens had his offices there and performed on session recordings.

“It’s a great studio,” Simpson said. He agreed that maybe another recording studio could move in, or the building could be turned into a country music museum.

Homer Joy, a songwriter hired by Buck Owens Enterprises in 1970, penned, “The Streets of Bakersfield” and cut the original track for that song in the studio. He recently appeared at its closing on April 30. Joy’s wife, Suzan, said he wanted to do a photo shoot there to say his goodbyes to the facility.

Joy was hired as a songwriter after creating a demo tape for Buck Owens. He worked for Owens until 1976. He has since had success on independent country music charts.

1990S: FAT TRACKS/PIG STUDIO - A PLACE FOR LOCAL ROCK AND ROLL

Not called the River Theater or even Buck Owens Studios in the 1990s, the building housed several tenants, including Fat Tracks Recording Studio, which eventually sublet to Pig Studio, run by Nick Forcillo.

Owens vacated the site in 1992. Since then, Rick Davis, who is executive director of the Kern County Board of Trade and father of Jonathan Davis of Korn, leased the studio from the Owens’ family for his business, Fat Tracks.

Davis ran the studio mostly making money off local bands, but decided recently to shut the business down for economic reasons.

Under Davis, the studio was open more than 15 years for local bands to record until he decided to close. Though Pig Studio dissolved, engineer Nick Forcillo, who recorded and produced Adema’s “Planets” album, is now a part of a recording studio at Bakersfield’s New Life Center Church.

Around 1994, Max Reese, an engineer working for Davis, was still using analog equipment at the former Buck Owens Studios to record local Bakersfield bands. He recorded at least one band that year for a now hard-to-find compilation CD titled, “Cultivation 94.”

At the time, asked by a young musician if his band’s recordings at the studio was any good, Reese grumbled, “It’s alright. But it’s not my job to say if it’s good. It’s my job to record what you want and to give you the sound you want.”

Local bands made for the majority of music recorded at Fat Tracks and Pig Studio. But that didn’t mean all the bands paying for studio time should have even been recording.

In the mid-1990s, there was no digital recording equipment at the studio. That meant no fixing tracks per current digital standards. If singing or instrument timing weren’t impeccable, tracks could be off, and sound could be shoddy. The drum tracks of the band recording in 1994 for “Cultivation” with Max Reese were terrible -- the timing was off – and some of the tracks were never used.

“Cultivation 94” followed Korn’s Jonathan Davis appearance on the previous “Cultivation 92” album while in the band, Sex Art.

It wasn’t until Nick Forcillo’s Pig Studio a few years later that digital recording via ProTools began to change how recording sessions were done at the renovated theater. “Forcillo is entirely self-taught on ProTools,” Matt Munoz, front man for longstanding band Mento Buru said in an interview at Pig Studio.

In the mid-1990s, drum tracks couldn’t be easily readjusted to change precision timing, something that is now easily remedied using digital recording software.

Though several tracks were discarded by a local band for the “Cultivation” compilation because of poor recordings, a fault of the band and not the recording studio, the studio still likely needed the band’s money in order to survive. Only one 7-minute song made the compilation from that band.

It was Korn’s first album and Bakersfield band, Adema, who used the facility, which helped usher in a new era of popular rock music to come out of the old recording studio.

Jonathan Davis' personal console used for the soundtrack to the movie, “Queen of the Damned” was bought by Forcillo and housed in Pig Studio. “It had the music still on it when Nick bought it. But for the record, he deleted the songs. So you won’t find them on eBay,” Munoz said.

Forcillo pointed to one console that Buck Owens once recorded many songs on. “This machine mastered ‘Act Naturally,’ and ‘Tiger By The Tail,’” said Forcillo. “But now it’s collecting dust.”

THE REMAINING YEARS

Many local bands recorded at Pig Studio during its remaining years. In 2007, Bakotopia Magazine’s compilation CD was mixed and re-mastered there, including Mento Buru’s song about women dancing a Panamanian dance: Hector Lavoe’s, “La Murga.”

“I think it was fantastic. We had such a good experience in there,” said Munoz, band leader for Mento Buru. “We hadn’t recorded in seven years. The quality really helped us to stay on the map with a phat new track so to speak.”

Buckaroos drummer Dave Wulfekeuhler said that at one time the Buckaroos band was huge. While there were a lot of songwriters and singers with collections of songs, not all of them had bands. “I was lucky enough to do a few Buckeroos sessions with other artists,” said Wulfekeuhler who has been with the Buckaroos for about five years. “There were about three projects that came up, one that came out of Nashville about a year ago. They thought it would be cool to have a Buckaroos sound on the CD."

More recently The Iron Outlaws, an indie/country/punk band out of Bakersfield, was the last band to record at Pig Studio. At least one solo artist did record after the band at the studio.

A.J. Lopez, bassist for the Iron Outlaws said his band didn’t find out about the studio closing until part way through their session work. Cesareo Garasa, drummer for the Iron Outlaws said it became harder to book studio time because other bands and solo artists began jockeying for position to record at the studio.

Members from the band said it’s a shame the studio closed. “It’s one of those things that’s kind of like if the Blackboard were up right now and then hearing about it being turned into a Laundromat,” said Garasa. “It’s one of those things that shouldn’t be happening. But unfortunately is.”

Violinist/mandolin player Paul Cartwright, who records music for various bands and television shows like the new “Battlestar Galactica,” “Eureka” and the “Sarah Connor Chronicles,” said that while he’s recorded in major studios, it hasn’t been the same as when recording at the former Buck Owens Studios. “I walk in and it just feels like home … it’s Bakersfield. This is where I’m from … It’s just got a great vibe to it and I’ll miss it.”

For more about the final band to record at the former Buck Owens Studio, watch the original half-hour ABC23 documentary, "The Last Band" (Includes interviews with Red Simpson, The Iron Outlaws and Matt Munoz.)