CMT Blog: Archive

Thank heavens for The Station Inn in Nashville. It may be the only place that guarantees to have a copy of Jim Rooney's latest album, Farewell to the Tracks. Jim who? Well, you may be forgiven for not recognizing the man who has produced fine albums for Nanci Griffith and Hal Ketchum. If it wasn't for my browsing over the CD shelves during a long wait for the bar, then I may never have found this release. Released last year, this album is a tribute to Jack's Tracks, a recording studio in Nashville. A studio which may have sold more records than any other studio in Nashville - Garth Brooks, Don Williams, Crystal Gayle, Hal Ketchum, Kathy Mattea and many others.

There are guests a plenty on this record, Nanci Griffith and Tim O'Brien for example. But this album is actually about the history of the studio, the writers, the engineers and the musicians who helped build the careers of some of the biggest names in country music. Nanci sings Pat Alger's ‘Goin Gone,' which was a hit for her, and an even bigger hit for Kathy Mattea. Pat went onto write "The Thunder Rolls" with Garth Brooks. The album sounds like a music party you just happen to stumble across. Everyone's playing and singing their hearts out from the first beat of the bar to the very last. In the liner notes, Jim described the session as a ‘wake' for the studio; and it does feel like that to the listener. It's a party with a hint of melancholy.

The inside cover shows a great picture of three men who were the pillars of Jack's Tracks: Jack Clement (famous Sun Studios engineer who built the studio), Allen Reynolds (bought the studio from Jack and then produced Don Williams, Crystal Gayle, Garth and others), and Jim Rooney (a partner in the music publishing company that provided songs to these artists). This record would be a great place to start learning about three of the most important men in country music in the last 30 years.