Owen Bradley

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Owen Bradley
Birth nameWilliam Owen Bradley
Born(1915-10-21)October 21, 1915
Westmoreland, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedJanuary 7, 1998(1998-01-07) (aged 82)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
GenresCountry
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • record producer
  • recording studio founder
  • songwriter
  • radio director
  • radio and TV producer
  • arranger
Instrument(s)Piano
Years active1935–1980
LabelsDecca Records

William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915

Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.[3]

Bradley, originally from Westmoreland, Tennessee, started with piano at a young age, and performed in local nightclubs and roadhouses as a teenager. Bradley's early career took a decisive turn when he joined WSM (AM) radio at 20, as an arranger and musician. By 1942, he had become the station's musical director, and led a dance band that enjoyed popularity in local society circles.

In 1947, Bradley transitioned to

recording industry center. Bradley's work extended to producing records for artists like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn
, playing a key role in their career successes. He attempted to update the sounds of older country artists to fit the evolving musical landscape. Despite his achievements, not all transformations Bradley pursued were equally successful across artists.

After selling the Quonset Hut Studio, Bradley established

Country Music Hall of Fame in 1974, reflecting his impact on the industry. Bradley's later years saw him working on selected projects, including k.d. lang's "Shadowland
" album.

Bradley's contributions have been recognized with various honors, including the dedication of a public park and a bronze likeness in Nashville. His legacy in the music industry is marked by his role in shaping the Nashville sound and influence on several generations of musicians.

Before the fame

A native of

WSM-AM radio, where he worked as an arranger and musician.[1] In 1942, he became the station's musical director, and was also the leader of a sought-after dance band, joined later by vocalists Bob Johnstone and Dottie Dillard, that played well-heeled society parties all over the city. That same year he co-wrote Roy Acuff's hit "Night Train to Memphis". He kept the band up until 1964, although in the intervening decades, his work as a producer would far overshadow his own performing career.[4]

In 1947, Bradley took a position as a

Paul Cohen on Castle Studio recording sessions by some of the biggest talents of the day, including Ernest Tubb, Burl Ives, Red Foley and Kitty Wells.[1] Learning from Cohen, he eventually began to produce records on his own. When his mentor left the label in 1958, Bradley became vice president of Decca's Nashville division,[5]
and began pioneering what would become the "Nashville sound".

The Nashville sound

Further information: Nashville sound

Country music had long been looked on as unsophisticated and folksy, and was largely confined to listeners in the less affluent small towns of the American South and Appalachia. In the late 1950s, Bradley's home base of Nashville was positioning itself to be a center of the recording industry, and not just the traditional home of the Grand Ole Opry. Part of what became the Nashville sound, began in a Quonset hut attached to a house Bradley owned with his brother Harold at 804 16th Avenue South in Nashville.[1]

This location, which would come to be informally known as

RCA Victor to build its RCA Studio B.[citation needed] A handful of other labels soon followed setting up shop on what would eventually become known as Music Row.[1] Bradley and his contemporaries infused hokey melodies, with more refined lyrics, and blended them with a refined pop music sensibility to create the Nashville sound, known later as 'countrypolitan'. Light, easy listening piano (as popularized by Floyd Cramer) replaced the clinky honky-tonk piano (ironically, one of the artists Bradley would record in the 1950s was honky tonk blues singer pianist, Moon Mullican - the Mullican sessions produced by Bradley were experimental in that they merged Moon's original blues style with the emerging Nashville sound stylings).[citation needed] Lush string sections took the place of the mountain fiddle sound; steel guitars and smooth backing vocals rounded out the mix.[1]

Regarding the Nashville sound, Bradley stated, "Now we've cut out the fiddle and steel guitar and added choruses to country music. But it can't stop there. It always has to keep developing to keep fresh."[7]

Starmaker

Owen Bradley's Quonset Hut Studio console

The singers Bradley produced made unprecedented headway into radio,

US Army
.

Bradley's Barn studio

Bradley sold The Quonset Hut Studio to

Mt. Juliet, Tennessee) in 1961, converting a barn into a demo studio.[1] Within a few years, the new "Bradley's Barn" became a popular recording venue in country music circles.[1] The Beau Brummels paid tribute to the studio, through titling their 1968 album Bradley's Barn.[1]
The studio burned to the ground in 1980, but Bradley rebuilt it within a few years in the same location.

Later years and honors

Owen Bradley was inducted in 1974 to the

Country Music Hall of Fame.[1] He also achieved the distinction of having produced records for more fellow Hall of Fame members (six) than anyone else except Paul Cohen
who produced nine. He retired from production in the early 1980s, but continued to work on selected projects.

Canadian artist k.d. lang chose Bradley to produce her acclaimed 1988 album, Shadowland.[1] At the time of his death, he and Harold were producing the album I've Got A Right To Cry for Mandy Barnett, who is best known for her portrayal of Patsy Cline in the original Nashville production of the stage play, Always... Patsy Cline.[10]

Owen Bradley's final studio

His production of Cline's hits such as "

biopics Coal Miner's Daughter and Sweet Dreams
were filmed, Bradley was chosen to direct their soundtracks.

In 1997, the Metro Parks Authority in Nashville dedicated a small public park between 16th Avenue South and Division Street to Owen Bradley, where his bronze likeness sits at a bronze piano. Owen Bradley Park is at the northern end of Music Row. Bradley also has a section of roadway named after him where Bradley's Barn once stood in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, on Benders Ferry Road.

Bradley's son, Jerry, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. His brother Harold was inducted in 2006.

Bradley was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum upon receiving the 2019 Producer Award.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-85112-726-6
    .
  2. ^ "Obituary: Owen Bradley". The Independent. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ Coe, Tyler Mahan (May 4, 2021). "The Nashville Sound". Cocaine & Rhinestones. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  5. ^ Billboard - Google Books. 1958-04-21. Retrieved 2014-07-30.
  6. ^ Coe, Tyler Mahan (May 18, 2021). "The Nashville A Team". Cocaine & Rhinestones. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  7. ISBN 1-904041-96-5
    .
  8. ^ "Oh boy: Why Buddy Holly still matters today". The Independent. London. January 23, 2009. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  9. ^ Carpenter, Cecil. "Gene Vincent Biography". Rockabillyhall.com. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  10. ^ "Always...Patsy Cline". Archived from the original on 1998-02-10. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  11. ^ "Owen Bradley". Country Music Hall of Fame and Mu. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved 28 September 2021.

Bibliography

  • Oermann, Robert K. (1998). "Owen Bradley" In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 50–51.
  • Richliano, James Adam (2002). "Angels We Have Heard: The Christmas Song Stories." Star Of Bethlehem Books, Chatham, New York. (Includes interviews with Bradley and chapters on Bradley's involvement in the making of "Jingle Bell Rock", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", and "A Holly Jolly Christmas").

External links

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