Sun Records tribute LP announced, High/Low studio moves location

Last June, a group of artists assembled in the Bluff City to record a tribute to Sun Records. The album, “Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records” — which was funded by the Memphis-based Americana Music Society, and will be the inaugural release on its AMS record label — will be out June 16. The Americana Music Society was founded in 2016, to “foster and support the creation, performance and appreciation of Americana music in Memphis and the Mid-South.” Proceeds from the project going to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

Co-produced by North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson and Tamara Saviano, the Nashville-based Grammy winner, the album pays homage to the work of Sun founder Sam Phillips. The project was recorded locally at two of Phillips' studios: the Memphis Recording Service (aka Sun Studios) and the Sam Phillips Recording Service. 

Luther Dickinson and his brother Cody Dickinson anchor a house band that features a crew of notable Mid-South roots musicians, including bassist Amy LaVere, guitarist John Paul Keith, and Lucero keyboardist Rick Steff. 

In addition to LaVere, Keith and Luther Dickinson handling lead vocals on several cuts, the lineup of singers also includes West Tennessee natives Valerie June and Bryan Hayes, Arkansas-born, Nashville-based Shawn Camp, Mississippians Bobby Rush, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Jimbo Mathus and members of the cast of the recent “Sun Records” TV show, led by the program’s musical director BR549’s Chuck Mead.

Award-winning author, music historian and Elvis expert Alanna Nash penned liner notes, and writes in her essay that “like Walt Whitman, Sam Phillips heard America singing … What he heard on the streets of Memphis was inspiration in the untutored voices of both blacks and whites. What he hoped to find was untried and unproven talent, especially that of regional performers who had the affinity to express themselves, but never had the opportunity to record. And in opening his Memphis Recording Service in 1950, and two years later his little Sun Records, he sold hope to people who had none."  

For more information or to pre-order go to redhotalbum.com. 

High/Low On the Move

Memphis studio High/Low Recording is relocating. The former Crosstown studio, owned and operated by Toby Vest and Pete Matthews, is in the process of moving to a new, historic location in South Memphis at 2272 Deadrick.    

The building High/Low will occupy is rich in local studio history. Founded in 1968, it was the first location in Memphis purpose built to be a studio, when it opened as American East, an offshoot of Chips Moman’s American Studios. Later it became The Onyx, where it was the home base for funk-soul stars the Bar-Kays. Eventually it became Easley-McCain, and the site of important indie rock recordings for Guided by Voices, Pavement, the White Stripes, Jeff Buckley, and Wilco, among others.    

For the last eight years High/Low had been located on North Cleveland in the heart of the Crosstown district, and had quietly grown into one of the city's busiest and most intriguing recording rooms. 

The studio was founded by musician Vest — of Augustine/Third Man, Bulletproof Vests, Tiger High, etc. — who had been working in the location since 2006. The bank of rooms originally served as a rehearsal space and the offices of the Makeshift Music label. Between 2009 and 2011, Vest began experimenting with the studio, learning his craft and building out the rooms.  

In 2011, Vest decided to take a risk and quit his day job to make a go of the studio business full time. He began cutting bands like Memphis' Dead Soldiers and James & the Ultrasounds, Nashville's Natural Child, as well as tracks for veteran locals like Alicja Trout and Dave Shouse. In 2014, Vest and longtime Ardent engineer Pete Matthews — who decided to close up his East Memphis studio, PM Music — combined forces to become partners in High/Low.     

In a statement announcing the move, Vest noted that High/Low had gone “from a place to hang out and play music at all hours into a place that helped a lot of people come together and create. After spending ten years at that location it’s been strange, yet exciting, tearing it down and packing up. But it has also been a reminder that High/Low was never about that particular place...it was about the family we built together thru countless hours of recording and rehearsing.” 

“That strong sense of camaraderie and trust isn't found in inanimate objects, it’s found in connecting with other human beings and chasing creative moments together,” added Vest. “That ethos will be a constant no matter where we call home.”

The new venture finds Vest and Matthews occupying space that’s been restored fully to its original dimensions. “It’s got 45-foot ceilings, and is three to five times bigger than our tracking room in the old High/Low, with three isolation booths, and two echo chambers,” says Vest. “We’ve got a 24-track two-inch tape machine, a Trident console, and we’re just trying to integrate the rest of our stuff in right now.” 

High/Low will officially open for business on June 1, with an inaugural session to track an LP by Memphis roots songstress Marcella Simien.