Famous studio may find new life at fairgrounds
Fundraising efforts under way for Bradley's Barn replica in Wilson County
The original Bradley's Barn burned in a fire in 1980, but fundraising efforts are under way to reconstruct the studio at Fiddlers Grove Historical Village at the fairgrounds in Lebanon.
While the project is still in the planning stages, it could become a concert venue similar to the Loveless Barn in Nashville and house a local hall of fame to honor other Wilson County musicians.
Bradley, who recorded Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison and Ernest Tubb in the Barn, is among those credited with creating the "Nashville Sound," which emerged in the late 1950s and incorporated elements of pop into country.
"The heyday of the Barn was in the '60s and '70s," said Jerry Bradley, Owen Bradley's son. "That place rocked. We recorded people from all over the world. We did The Who. We did Gordon Lightfoot. … Everybody was coming to the Barn in those years.''
The Barn was in existence by 1964, the full-service studio facility built within a barn on property Bradley bought after the sale of his previous studio, the so-called Quonset Hut on Music Row, to Columbia Records.
One day when his wife sent him out for hot dogs for a picnic in Mt. Juliet, he stumbled on an auction, according to Harold Bradley, Owen's brother.
The 68-acre Benders Ferry Road property came with a barn, and Owen Bradley bulldozed the manure out and created a studio that would be close to home, where he could teach the business to his son, Jerry.
"It was really a great place to record," Harold Bradley said. "Back then, we were working four sessions a day."
The studio became an attraction to artists eager to record with Bradley. When it was built, it was one of only a handful of studios in the Nashville area, Jerry Bradley said.
With the studio and office inside, it retained the look of a barn from the outside, painted red with "Bradley's Barn" above the door in white letters.
In 1980, a fire caused by a fluorescent light destroyed the studio, leaving nothing but burnt money from the soda machine, Jerry Bradley said.
The Barn was rebuilt, and Owen Bradley continued to record there until his death in 1998. After that, recording at the Barn tapered off as studios switched over to digital equipment and recording technology became more widespread.
Studio equipment to be donated
Jerry Bradley, a former head of RCA Records Nashville, continues to use the building as an office. He said the idea for a replica came through talks on what he should do with the old equipment, and Wilson County Fair Board members took notice.
Now 71, Bradley plans to donate much of his father's recording equipment from the new Barn, including a 1994 Otari mixing console and historic photographs from the studio. A replica of Owen Bradley's office is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.
Fiddlers Grove, at the county fairgrounds, is a historical village with cabins, barns, markets and other buildings.
Adding a larger venue such as the Barn, with a broader appeal to country fans, would bolster Fiddlers Grove as a regional attraction, said fair board President Hale Moss.
"On a daily basis, you might have people coming off the interstate that were coming to or from Nashville to see memorabilia about Bradley's Barn or Gretchen Wilson that might be there," Moss said.
Wilson, who could be included in the proposed hall of fame, will host a concert Oct. 15 to raise money for the project's building fund.
Written by Matt Andersonat
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