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SOUTHERN TRACKS RECORDING
Mike Clark, owner and manager of Southern Tracks Recording, died at home
on Thursday, February 1, 2007, after an 8-month illness. Under Mike’s direction, Southern Tracks
has become one of the most successful recording facilities in
Atlanta’s history, a
studio of world reknown. Southern Tracks has contributed to the combined
sales of over forty million albums. Since 1984, of the fewer than 300
albums to have charted No. 1 debuts at Billboard magazine, Mike’s studio has recorded or
mixed twelve of them.
Mike was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1999, a crowning
achievment of his career. Along with Ludacris, Organized Noize Productions
and Trisha Yearwood, he is scheduled to become a 2007 Recording Academy
Honors Award Recipient from the Grammy organization, The National Academy
of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), to be presented by the Atlanta
Chapter of the Recording Academy on April 26.
Born Charles Michael Clark on December 13, 1943 in
Atlanta,
Mike attended
Joel
Chandler
Harris
Elementary School in the
Atlanta community of
West End,
where he began playing drums in the 5th Grade. He was a member of the
prestigious
West End Elementary Band,
featuring outstanding players chosen from grammar schools in the area.
After a bout with Non-Paralytic Polio in the summer of 1956, Mike
Clark enrolled at
Atlanta's
Brown
High School. One of his schoolmates at Brown was a
singer named Tommy Roe, with whom he formed a combo, Tommy Roe and The
Satins. In 1958, their single,
"I Got A Girl," was recorded at music publisher Bill Lowery's
studio, which in those days was an old schoolhouse equipped with a Gates
Radio Console and a simple two-track tape deck. Lowery pitched Roe’s song
to Judd Phillips (brother of Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records who had
discovered Elvis Presley), and it became a regional hit for the
Memphis label, Judd
Records. This was the beginning of Mike Clark's association with Bill
Lowery, which lasted four decades until Lowery’s death in 2004.
Mike graduated from high school in 1962, the year that Tommy Roe had
his first million-seller with "Sheila." As Roe's drummer, he toured with Dick
Clark's Caravan of Stars, which remained an unforgettable experience for
him. The legendary package tour was headlined by Sam Cooke, and it featured
every top R & B act from the period: The Drifters; Jerry Butler;
Solomon Burke; Little Eva; Smoky Robinson and The Miracles, who were having
their national breakthrough with "Shop Around."
During the Sixties, Mike was in demand around
Atlanta as a studio session drummer. He
played in most of city's popular clubs including The Sans Souci, The
Domino, and The
Darlington Lounge. He backed up Freddie Cannon ("Palisades
Park")
at
Ponce de Leon Ball Park, the
now-demolished home of the historic
Atlanta
Crackers. On the road, he briefly
toured with Roy Orbison. He jammed
with Liza Minelli at
Miami Beach's
famous Peppermint Lounge. He worked dates with Ray Stevens' touring group
that on occasion included both Jerry Reed and Joe South.
In 1966, Bill Lowery asked Mike to work at the Lowery Music Company.
(Lowery Music would be named BMI's #1 publisher in 1969.). In a short time, Mike was elevated to
National Director of Promotion. By
day, he promoted records; at night, he did session work at The Old
Schoolhouse, playing drums on successful tracks by the Classics IV ("Traces"),
Billy Joe Royal ("Cherry Hill Park") and Lou Christie. At the same time, Mike flew out on
weekends for national dates with Billy Joe Royal. By the early Seventies,
the demanding schedule had become overwhelming. He gradually withdrew from steady
roadwork, though he continued to hold down his job at the publishing
company. Mike eventually persuaded Bill Lowery to let him begin producing
records, a move which led to success in 1975-76 with Starbuck's hit
"Moonlight Feels Right."
Later in the decade, Mike left behind his promotional
responsibilities to become Lowery's Administrative Assistant, overseeing
two label deals with Capitol and MGM Records, licensing masters to record
companies and working with new songwriters.
By 1979, Mike was now managing the old schoolhouse studio. He
co-engineered two Grammy-nominated albums for the
Atlanta Pops Orchestra. Under Clark's
watch, the studio cut Bertie Higgens' surprise 1981 hit,"Key Largo."
When
Atlanta's rapid transit system,
MARTA, acquired the old schoolhouse property in 1983, Bill and Mike moved
their headquarters to the current
Northeast Atlanta
site. The new studio, Southern
Tracks Recording, was built from the ground up and designed by George
Augspurger as a single-room facility. At first, it was used primarily for
Lowery's stable of songwriters and artists.
Beginning in 1986, Mike managed and produced the Contemporary
Christian band, Newsong, whose "Arise, My Love" has become a
standard in the field of Contemporary Christian Music. Then, in 1988, Bill Lowery and Mike
formed an official studio partnership, and the modern era of Southern
Tracks Recording began. They opened the studio to the public, purchasing
new equipment that included a
Solid
State Logic (SSL)
recording console. Under Mike's management, Southern Tracks began turning
out platinum albums by Silk, Keith Sweat and Another Bad Creation.
In 1989, a young local engineer/producer named Brendan O'Brien began
bringing his projects into the studio; by 1993, having established himself
on the West Coast as one of the decade's most important producers of
American Alternative Rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers; Pearl Jam; Stone Temple
Pilots), O'Brien relocated to his Atlanta home and made Southern Tracks his
base of operations. Mike immediately purchased the first SSL Ultimation
console in the South and, with the addition of an arsenal of vintage
microphones and electronic gear, he transformed Southern Tracks into a
recording facility of world reknown. Things had come a long way from the
day in 1958 when Tommy Roe and Mike had cut their first record on a little
two-track machine and Gates Radio Console.
Since that time, guided by Mike Clark, Southern Tracks record of
success became extraordinary. The list of rock, country, Rap and R & B
artists who tracked or mixed at the Atlanta studio in the 90's included
Pearl Jam, Black Crowes, Keith Sweat, Stone Temple Pilots, Korn, Limp
Bizkit, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Rage Against The Machine, Matthew Sweet, .38
Special, Kansas, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Silk, LSG, Doug Stone, Travis
Tritt, Indigo Girls, Another Bad Creation, and Outkast. The studio worked
on soundtrack albums for “Godzilla,” "Dumb & Dumber,” "Money
Talks,” “The Bevis & Butthead Experience,” the “Friends” TV soundtrack,
and the two “Crow” movies. Mike returned to studio work in 1997,
co-producing the Dove Award's Album Of The Year Nominee, Newsong's “Love
Revolution.”
In the 21st Century, Southern Tracks Recording has continued to set a
unique standard. Bruce Springsteen
visited the studio in 2002 to record his monumental return album with The E
Street Band, The Rising, as well as his solo disc from 2005, Devils and
Dust, both with Brendan O’Brien as producer. Train has recorded three
albums at Southern Tracks including their multi-platinum single, “Drops of
Jupiter.” The Wallflowers and Third Day made their most recent discs at
Southern Tracks, and up-and-coming rockers The Bravery cut their
forthcoming disc here in Summer/Fall, 2006.
With over six decades of experience, Mike Clark became closely
identified with Southern Tracks Recording and with the music business,
which he loved. However, he had many
outside interests including a passion for collecting historical antiquities
and raising horses with his wife Melissa on their
Forsyth
County
farm. He is survived by his wife Melissa, his children, Courtney, Chris,
Payton, Robyn and Travis, and his brother Randy.
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