Plans for revitalized Capricorn studio area another boost for downtown Macon
The down-in-the-mouth recording palace was coming back to life.
Word had spread in recent days that the wasting-away Capricorn Records studio, now a cream-colored brick building that for decades has blended into a background of downtown Macon blahs, was again becoming a focal point.
So on Thursday, at the public unveiling of a $25 million plan to build apartments, offices and recording space for budding musicians, they called in a famous piano man and keyboardist, one who like other stars of old had made their marks at Capricorn.
Chuck Leavell, standing in what was once a studio there, addressed 100 or so locals who'd shown up for the mid-afternoon announcement.
"We had so much fun in this room and in the other rooms that exist in this building. We made a lot of great music," Leavell said.
He spoke of Gregg Allman's debut solo album, "Laid Back," and Dickey Betts' first solo, "Highway Call," coming to life there. As did the Allman Brothers' 1973 "Brothers and Sisters" album, which included the tunes "Ramblin' Man" and "Jessica."
A major component of the development, the rebirth of the building's recording elements, has Mercer University ties. Mercer at Capricorn, as it is being called, will allow musicians from all genres a space -- studios and rehearsal rooms -- to perfect their crafts.
"It's amazing to think that new life will be breathed into these walls and that music will be played here again," Leavell, 63, said.
"For many years I've driven past this building and looked at it with a heavy heart and with sadness. Even the buildings seemed to be sad themselves and to be crying out for help."
The Capricorn building will be a close neighbor to a new four-story, 137-unit apartment complex.
The development will sit across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from the WGXA-TV offices, where the city's once-renowned Brown House hotel stood.
Thursday's public unveiling of the construction plans, first reported in The Telegraph on Sunday, was a who's who of local officials and community cheerleaders.
Macon Mayor Robert Reichert told of an aim "to make this a happenin' place once again."
He said developments like the Capricorn project prove the downtown doubters wrong.
"When one structure gets revitalized and put back into the marketplace, other structures nearby say, 'Wow, me too! Hey, let me start!'" the mayor said.
Reichert, speaking of the crowd on hand, said, "I dare say this is the first time every parking space on MLK in front of Capricorn studios has been filled in decades."
Earlier, as Mercer President Bill Underwood browsed in the old studio, where dark-wood shingles adorned half-century-old sound booths, he remarked, "It's very '70s, isn't it?"
When it came his turn to address the gathering, Underwood said Mercer is "very committed to making some important things happen here."
He said, "We intend for this to be a tool to reignite a vibrant music scene in this community."
The building's first floor will house what Underwood deemed one of the state's "most unique performance venues," and said its upstairs will included nearly a dozen rehearsal spaces of various sizes.
"Where young musicians can gather," he said.
"They will have a space to call their own. ... Our expectation is that over time some of these musicians will one day join the pantheon of great musicians cultivated here."
To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.
About Capricorn Records
Located at 540 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in downtown Macon, the historic Capricorn Records studio is the physical space that captured and defined the 1970s Southern rock sound.
Originally purchased as a studio space for Otis Redding and the soul artists on RedWal Music, a music publishing firm operated by Otis Redding, Phil Walden and his brother Alan Walden, plans for a recording studio were put on hold after Redding's untimely death on Dec. 10, 1967.
After a brief hiatus, Phil Walden helped launch Capricorn Records in 1969 with guidance from his mentor, Atlantic Records' Jerry Wexler. Walden, Frank Fenter and others assembled a roster of new rock talent that began to redefine American music. Among them were the Allman Brothers Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie and Elvin Bishop.
As the success of the touring artists rose, the label needed a studio in Macon and found a location in the real estate that Redding and Walden had purchased a few years earlier. By the mid-1970s, the headquarters of Capricorn Records included executive offices on Cotton Avenue and the active recording studio on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Among features of the studio space are basement level echo chambers where music was recorded and piped to the recording booth upstairs.
Legendary studio engineer Tow Dowd was recruited for some of the labels' biggest albums and was later quoted as saying there were the "Five M's" of the music industry: Miami, Manhattan, Muscle Shoals, Memphis and Macon. The albums released during Capricorn's era that spanned the 1970s earned nine platinum album awards, 17 gold album awards and five gold single awards. Among the artists to record at the legendary studio -- both signed to Capricorn or associated with its music -- included the Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker Band, Bonnie Bramlett, Livingston Taylor, Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Clarence Carter and more.
Source: NewTown Macon.
This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Plans for revitalized Capricorn studio area another boost for downtown Macon ."