History
Easley McCain Recording began as Doug Easley's rudimentary, four-track studio in the woods near the Wolf River bottoms in Memphis in the late 1970s recording blues musicians like Mose Vinson, as well as local rock bands. In the early 1980s Easley operated "Easley Recording" out of a hand-built garage studio behind his home near University of Memphis. During this period, bands such as Tav Falco's Panther Burns came in to record; Alex Chilton produced an album for a Detroit group called The Gories the last year the studio was located in Easley's garage.
By 1990, Easley, with new partner Davis McCain, had found a larger midtown Memphis facility for the studio and moved into it by the next year. McCain had been the sound man at a 1980s local alternative music nightspot called The Antenna Club. The new Easley studio site was originally built in 1967 as "the Onyx" for Don Crews, who had been a business partner at American Sound Studios with producer Chips Moman. Crews parted from Moman at that time to start his own studio at the Onyx location.
Easley McCain Recording's business began to pick up more clients from outside Memphis in the early 1990s, after a local group called the Grifters grew in popularity and advertised the studio's phone number in their liner notes. Indie rock bands from around the country including Pavement, Sonic Youth, Come began recording there. By 2001 the White Stripes had become a client, which led in turn to a Jack White-produced album by Loretta Lynn to be mixed there.
Others recording at this indie-oriented studio have included Townes Van Zandt, Pezz, Jeff Buckley, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Guided by Voices, Lydia Lunch, dahrius, Box Tops, Rufus Thomas, Wilco, Cat Power, Modest Mouse, Kim Deal with her band The Amps, The Bamboozlers (precursors to Ingram Hill), Custard and many more.
On March 2, 2005, the studio's lobby and control room sustained serious damage in a fire.
In 2009, after four years of inactivity, Easley McCain Recording reopened at a brand new location in Memphis, TN. Most of their vintage analog recording equipment survived the fire, and Doug Easley is back engineering/mixing/producing/mastering full time. His recent clients were The Shakedown, Ben Nichols (Lucero), Harlan T Bobo, Bosco Delrey, Viva L'American Death Ray, The Magic Kids as well as a number of film score/soundtrack projects. See easleymccainrecording.com for details.
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