Creative Workshop II and Creative Recording In 1982 songwriter and producer
Buzz Cason expanded his
Creative Workshop recording studio by building Creative Workshop II next door, designed by George Augspurger. In 1986, Cason sold Creative Workshop II to Creative's vice president, engineer and producer
Brent Maher, who renamed the studio Creative Recording.
John and Martina McBride John McBride, who had dreamed of owning his own recording studio but was turned down for an
SBA loan and instead approved for a
live sound system company, which he operated in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. He met
Martina and the two moved to
Nashville, Tennessee, on New Year's Eve 1989. McBride joined
Garth Brooks' sound crew and became Brooks' concert production manager, eventually selling his live sound company MD Systems to
Clair Brothers in 1997. Over the next several years, McBride was buying recording equipment and building a studio in his garage.
Blackbird Studio On January 15, 2002, the McBrides bought the
Creative Recording studio located at 2806 Azalea Place in
Berry Hill, an area sometimes referred to as the "Music Hill" counterpart to
Nashville's "
Music Row". An avid fan of
the Beatles, McBride re-named the studio Blackbird Studio. Over the next year, McBride enlisted the help of
audio engineer Vance Powell and invested $3 million to expand the 1970s-era George Augspurger-designed studio, partially motivated with providing his wife Martina with an improved recording space. Initially a single-room studio, Blackbird's Studio A featured a
Neve 8078 analog mixing console that was custom-built for
Motown's Los Angeles studio before being owned and used by
Donald Fagen. McBride purchased the console from Fagen in 2002, and restored and modified it for Blackbird. Studio A's live room features a moveable ceiling. In 2004, McBride bought the land behind the initial building and built Studios C and D. Also in 2004, Blackbird Audio Rentals, headed by Rolff Zwiep, was launched to rent vintage and new equipment owned by the studio. as well as its exceptional live rooms, and a variety of
echo chambers.
Producers and
engineers working at Blackbird have included
George Massenburg,
Dann Huff,
Tony Brown,
Ethan Johns,
Richard Dodd,
Niko Bolas,
Rob Cavallo,
Peter Asher,
Phil Ramone and many others. ==References==