Studios That Aided Shania Twain, Faith Hill in Bankruptcy

Shania Twain photo courtesy of Mercury Nashville.

April 10, 2009 — Three recording studios that had a hand in hits by Keith Anderson, Shania Twain and Faith Hill are in bankruptcy, according to The Tennessean. The studios are likely victims of the increasing use of home facilities for much of the recording work now conducted in the digital age.

The Voss Development Co. of California filed in Nashville for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, affecting the Emerald Sound Studios, The Tracking Room and Emerald Masterfonics. The latter facility is in the heart of Music Row, literally across the street from where the historic Quonset Hut became the central location around which Nashville’s music neighborhood coalesced.

Among the hit singles and albums that were cut in the Emerald, Masterfonics and Tracking Room facilities were Shania’s Come On Over, George Strait’s "Love Without End, Amen" and "You Know Me Better Than That," Faith Hill’s "Let Me Let Go," John Anderson’s Seminole Wind, Keith’s "I Still Miss You" and Kenny Chesney’s Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates.

The Tracking Room, which opened in 1994, had grandiose ambitions, featuring a main room that could accommodate a 90-piece orchestra and a stone booth that gave drums a live, raucous sound. At the same time, the advent of smaller, cheaper recording products allowed many acts &#l51; including Kix Brooks, Rodney Atkins, Steve Wariner and Diamond Rio’s Jimmy Olander, to name a handful — to handle smaller overdub sessions at their homes, cutting into the number of sessions booked at those more expensive rooms.

The filing marks the third time Masterfonics has been entered in bankruptcy in the past 11 years.