Fifteen students from Montgomery County Community College’s Sound Recording and Music Technology program recorded two original songs at FAME Recording Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, during an inaugural residency held Aug. 17 to 20, thereporteronline reported.
The Muscle Shoals Recording Residency placed students inside the historic studios as participants in professional recording sessions rather than as observers, according to the report. Students worked alongside session musicians Spooner Oldham, Will McFarlane, Clayton Ivey and Justin Holder, applying classroom lessons in recording, engineering, production and songwriting.
SRT Director David Ivory, a Grammy-nominated producer and engineer who organized the residency, said lessons exist that cannot be taught in a classroom and must be experienced in the studio in real time. He said the goal was for students to be on the other side of the glass making records themselves.
Student Shaun Brown, who studied Stax Records and the Memphis Sound in an MCCC course, heard musicians connected to that tradition play on his own composition. He said Oldham and Ivey played on his song and that recording at FAME Studios with them is something he will remember forever.
Student Zach Wheitsel recalled watching Oldham play the Wurlitzer piano used on Aretha Franklin’s hit for a classmate’s original song. Student Jakob Seeds said the experience built confidence as an engineer and felt like being where they were meant to be.
Planning is underway for the next residency, with Ivory saying the program wants to build on the experience and give another group of students the opportunity to discover what they are capable of making themselves.
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