Ben Folds Fights to Preserve Nashville's Historic RCA Studio A
By Josiah Hughes
RCA Studio A is one of many fabled recording studios on Nashville's Music Row. Unfortunately, the site may soon be torn down to make way for condominiums, but not if Ben Folds has anything to say about it.
The piano pop superstar has leased RCA Studio A for the last 12 years, but recently learned that the building was being sold to a developer who intended to tear it down and make way for condominiums.
Rather than sit idly by and watch the studio crumble, Folds has spent the last few weeks sharing open letters on his Facebook and rallying support to save the building.
"Take a moment to stand in the silence between the grand walls of RCA Studio A and feel the history and the echoes of the Nashville that changed the world," he wrote.
Folds is certainly right about the history. Build in the early 1960s, the studio has produced records from a vast, diverse group of artists, including Anika, Sara Bareilles, the Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, Blind Boys of Alabama, Wayne Coyne, Steve Earle, Alan Jackson, Joe Jackson, Amanda Palmer, the Nashville Symphony, Henry Rollins, Bob Seger, William Shatner, Keith Urban and many, many others.
Folds' campaigning has sparked an outcry from over 200 people in the music industry. Further, a new non-profit called the Music Industry Coalition has formed and will work to protect all of Nashville's Music Row from being lost to condo developers, the Huffington Post points out.
"My aim is to make sure Studio A is standing and making music of future generations long after we are all gone," Fold wrote on Facebook. "By drawing attention to this I also have the opportunity to cast a spotlight on those on Music Row who have been individually struggling with their versions of the same story as they watch bulldozers level acres of our rich music history every day."
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