I grew up on the west side of Denver, Colorado. My dad was an attorney, and he had a client who was part owner of recording studio in Golden. One day while I was a senior in high school, he arranged for me to visit Applewood Studios. The moment I stepped into the control room of that place, I knew how I'd be spending the next phase of my life (much to my dad's dismay).

I worked there at Applewood for about four years, teaching myself everything I could about both the technical and artistic aspects of recording. After I'd been there about a year, the owners replaced the crappy MCI board with a beautiful Neve 8036 console, hand-built in England. The Neve had character; it sounded meaty and open, solid and fluid.

Besides doing recording sessions, I spent a lot of time at night inside and underneath that console, learning how it was put together, and making modifications to the layout. We fell in love, that console and me.

By mid-1979 I realized I would have to leave cozy Golden, Colorado and move to a music center. I flew to Los Angeles for some interviews, and got job offers at Kendun and Cherokee. But L.A. scared me. I was still a kid, and though I loved making music and knew I had the chops to hold my own with the big boys, I wasn't so sure I was ready for the competitive, impersonal culture.

While pondering the L.A. decision, I had to fly to Nashville to overdub Janie Fricke singing on a commercial for a Denver bank. Although I hadn't grown up listening to country music, Nashville felt right somehow. 

So in the early winter of  '79 I packed my station wagon with my clothes and my demo tapes and headed south. Once there, I knocked on doors during the day and worked at Wendy's at night. Luckily it only took a couple of months for me to get hired as an assistant engineer at Woodland Sound Studios.

Woodland was one of the best studios in Nashville. There were two studios, each with Neve consoles and Studer tape machines, exactly the kind of environment I had hoped to find. By mid-1980 I was making real records.

Within two years I got so busy I decided to go "independent," meaning that instead of working for the studio, I worked directly for the record company. The money was a lot better. And though I still preferred Woodland, I was also free to work in other studios.

By late 1983 there was enough work to justify opening a small overdub/mix room of my own. With singer John Conlee and his producer investing, I started creating Knob Hill Studio (named for the high area in West Nashville where I lived) in the lower level of my house.

I knew I wanted a Neve of my own, but they were hard to find and very expensive. While catching up with a fellow engineer who still lived in Golden, I learned that after I'd left, Applewood had replaced their Neve console with a Harrison Raven. I stayed as cool as I could, casually asking if they were planning on selling it.

Three days later, I flew back to Colorado, handed them a check for $25,000, and then loaded MY Neve 8036 in the back of a Ryder truck. Driving through snow and ice, the Neve rested comfortably in the back, cushioned by a layer of bedsprings I'd found for it. The drive was dodgy, but we made it home.

There was other equipment to acquire, but those pieces fell into place easily. I bought an Otari MTR90-II from Neil Young, who was switching to digital. Nashville took a little longer to make the digital transition, but when I needed them I could rent Neil's Sony PCM-3324 machines.

I bought a few microphones from here and there, and scrounged up some good outboard gear. With my assistant engineer Greg's help, I worked long and hard to hook everything together.

Here is what Knob Hill Studio looked like right before our first overdub session:

Below are the two tape machines we had: the Otari 2-inch 24-track analog recorder on the right, and one of Neil's new half-inch 24-track digital machines on the left.

We stayed busy. I worked with John and Bud quite a bit, doing most of the overdub work on several of John's albums, including his lead vocals. Other artists included Glen Campbell, Sonny Throckmorton and a whole bunch of other people you likely never heard of.  Bud and I aslo co-produced an album for Johnny Lee, and we did most of the work on that album at Knob Hill as well.

By late 1986, the burnout hit. Bud and I weren't working together as much, my first marriage was ending, and there was more and more competition for cheap studios all over town. Less than four years after putting it together, I took it all apart and sold it. I let the Neve 8036 go for $25,000 - exactly what I had paid for it. It's probably worth $150,000 today.

Sometimes I really wish I'd kept it. Oh, well!