I Never Travel Far Without A Little Big Star: SXSW 2010
Mere days after the death of Alex Chilton, a panel scheduled at Austin's South By Southwest festival on the legacy of Big Star was repurposed as a tribute to the life and times of Chilton. Entitled "I Never Travel Far Without A Little Big Star," it included panelists from founding members of Big Star Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel, power pop legends Chris Stamey and Tommy Keene, additional current Big Star members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, to Ardent Studios owner and founder John Fry. Bob Mehr moderated the panel. For the first time since then, video of the panel is ...
L Nix & Co Featured in Memphis Daily News
Larry Nix, mastering engineer and proprietor (with his son Kevin Nix) of L. Nix Mastering, Inc, was recently featured for an article in Memphis Daily News highlighting his newly refurbished record lathe. From the article: Producing vinyl records – those albums that most people 40 and older grew up with – has rapidly become a lost art as technology has sent that format the way of the 8-track tape. But a few local music engineers are turning back the clock by refurbishing a Neumann VMS 70 lathe – a machine that is used to cut vinyl discs – that Stax founder Jim ...
Big Star’s Performance at Levitt Shell to be Broadcast on Sirius/XM
Those who missed Big Star's historic performance at the Levitt Shell on May 15th of this year need not fret, as the show will be broadcast on Sirius/XM as a part of their summer kickoff programming over Memorial Day weekend. The show was mixed by Jeff Powell and John Fry here at Ardent this week, with Adam Hill assisting. Larry Nix mastered the show, which will be broadcast on THE LOFT (SIRIUS channel 29 and XM channel 50) at the following times: 5/29/10, 6:00 PM (Eastern) 5/30/10, 7:00 PM (Easterm) 5/31/10, 6:00 PM (Eastern) You can check out a full lineup of what the ...
Help Fund Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story!
Producer-director Danielle McCarthy, who over the course of the last 2 + years has become one of the greatest stewards of the great underdog story that is Big Star's history, will return to Memphis this week to film the May 15th Big Star show in Memphis' Overton Park (tickets available here). Joining her will be her co-director Drew DeNicola and her brother and cameraman Patrick McCarthy. The film is being initially funded by the kindness of Big Star fans, through Kickstarter, a fund raising Web site for the arts. Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story's Kickstarter page has already ...
Announcements
Mere days after the death of Alex Chilton, a panel scheduled at Austin’s South...
Larry Nix, mastering engineer and proprietor (with his son Kevin Nix) of L. Nix...
To our friends in Nashville: Jody will be traveling your way this weekend to participate...
Producer-director Danielle McCarthy, who over the course of the last 2 + years...
The Levitt Shell Foundation has announced it’s final lineup of guests for...
Read More Posts From This CategoryMemphis Events
Please join us at the Stax Museum on Friday, July 16th from 5 – 7 PM for...
Stax Music Academy summer music experience grand finale concert! “A...
Join us for food, drinks and fantastic blues at The Beale Street Caravan 2010 Blowout!...
Pictured above are Jody Stephens and Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke....
The Levitt Shell Foundation has announced it’s final lineup of guests for...
Read More Posts From This CategoryArtist Spotlight
Big Star’s Performance at Levitt Shell to be Broadcast on Sirius/XM
Those who missed Big Star‘s historic performance at the Levitt Shell on May 15th of this year need not fret, as the show will be broadcast on Sirius/XM as a part of their summer kickoff programming over Memorial Day weekend. The show was mixed by Jeff Powell and John Fry here at Ardent this week, with Adam Hill assisting. Larry Nix mastered... [Read more of this review]
Van Duren Recounts his Experience with Big Star at the Shell
O My Soul: Big Star Tribute at the Levitt Shell By Van Duren Big Star drummer Jody Stephens called me in late April and asked if I would come and do a song with Big Star at the May 15th show at the Levitt/Overton Park Bandshell. Of course, there was no hesitation when I accepted his invitation. The show was originally scheduled as a Big Star homecoming... [Read more of this review]
Devon Allman’s Honeytribe Returns for Space Age Blues
Old friend and regular Ardent client Devon Allman took over Studio C this January with Honeytribe, converting the studio into what he’s calling “The Mothership.” Purple christmas lights adorned the walls, storm trooper posters were placed here and there, and as you can see from the picture above, Devon and the guys had space suits.... [Read more of this review]
Leslie Finishes Tracking in Ardent’s Studio C
South Carolina rockers Leslie recently finished tracking additional songs for their first full length release with producer/engineer Paul Ebersold. After driving from Charleston to Nashville to play some shows, the band made their way to Ardent and began digging in. The band consists of Sadler Vaden on guitar and vocals, Jason Fox on bass, and Jonathan... [Read more of this review]
The Scruffs’ Conquest Released
Readers of this blog may remember a post from June of last year giving a bit of history on The Scruffs, detailing their iterations and history from their debut record Wanna Meet the Scruffs? (recorded at Ardent in 1977) and leading up through the present day. The Scruffs latest release, entitled Conquest, was flushed out and mixed here at Ardent Studios... [Read more of this review]
Huey Lewis and the News at Ardent Studios
Superstar, R&B aficionado, and all-around nice guy Huey Lewis came to Ardent this month to start work on a new record. And yes – he brought the News. Together they were working on a Stax tribute record – yet to be titled – and felt that Memphis and Ardent were the way to go for just such a project. Says Lewis of the record: “…we’re... [Read more of this review]
John Kilzer Completes Tracking with Jeff Powell, Lucas Peterson
Former Geffen recording artist John Kilzer was in the studio this month, laying down tracks for a new record with producer/engineer Jeff Powell and assistant Lucas Peterson. Here’s what Lucas had to say about the session: “Tracking for John Kilzer’s newest record started on November 21 in Studio A of Ardent. We had the room divided... [Read more of this review]
The Truth According to Ruthie Foster Nominated for Grammy
You may remember our post from some time last year about a great artist that graced us with her presence here at Ardent – Ms. Ruthie Foster. Ruthie, along with producer Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama, Ben Harper, Aaron Neville) engineer Jimmy Hoyson (James Taylor, CSNY, Ozzy Osbourne), assistant Jason Gillespie and a host of great musicians... [Read more of this review]
Jack Dalton Completes “Icarus” at Ardent
Australian rocker and American expatriate Jac Dalton returned to Memphis and Ardent Studios to overdub, edit and mix his new album, “Icarus.” The project was produced by Gregg Brown and Darren Mullan, with Ardent’s GRAMMY award-winning engineer John Hampton at the console. Gregg Brown and John Hampton have worked together with many top... [Read more of this review]
Paul Mark Returns to Ardent with Jeff Powell
New York native and Ardent regular Paul Mark was back in the studio recently starting work on a new project with engineer Jeff Powell and assistant Lucas Peterson. Along with bassist James Strain, keyboardist Al Gamble (Gamble Brothers Band, City Champs) and drummer Harry Peel (Susan Marshall), they spent 3 days tracking 6 songs for 2 new yet-to-be-titled... [Read more of this review]
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