Sun Records
Matt Ross-Spang is a Grammy award winning engineer, mixer, and producer. His first brush with greatness began at only 14 years old, when he received 2 hours studio time at Sun Studios in Memphis, TN for his birthday. He went on to intern at Sun Studios when he was 16 and really learned what it...
Cliff Acred began playing music in junior high school and later majored in music in college. He played in the 3rd Army Band out of Atlanta while in the service and once out returned home to Memphis. Cliff was hired to play bass in the house bands for Sun Records and later for Stax Records. At...
Roland Janes! There were musicians/engineers/producers and then there was Roland Janes! The man nearly single-handedly invented many of the engineering methods used in modern recordings, from microphone placement and cabling to board and tape deck tricks. Yet, what he seemed most fond of was his...
Smoochy Smith was hired by Sam Philips at Sun Studios in Memphis to play piano on a few sessions in the late 1950s. Smoochy was being requested for record dates from both local performers as well as others who heard his style on countless tunes. He soon recorded on several other labels such as...
Carl Mann sang in church as a child and grew up just a few years behind Elvis Presley, who, like Carl, brought the style of church musical expression to popular music when he began recording for Sun Records in Memphis. While playing guitar on several Sun Record sessions, Carl met and befriended WS...
WS Holland played drums behind Johnny Cash for over 40 years! The man put the beat to most of Johnny’s greatest recordings and his innovations in drumming inspired countless musicians around the world. WS, known by his nickname Fluke, began as a session player at Sun Records in Memphis and would...
Ace Cannon grew up in Mississippi singing with his father on street corners and in church, and he knew even as a small child that he wanted to have a life in music. When he was ten years old his father drove him to Amro Music in Memphis and let him pick out an alto saxophone by CG Conn. Right...
J.M. VanEaton was the house drummer for a little recording company in Memphis that began one of the centers of the birth of rock and roll. Sun Records was formed by Sam Philips in 1951 and was put on the map when Elvis Presley began his career at Sun Records. Just a few months after Elvis left for...
Vernon Drane played several musical instruments growing up in Tennessee including the trumpet and saxophone. He later studied instrument repair and spent 68 years (!) working with the Amro Music Company in Memphis. Vernon was also a baritone singer who performed in two church choirs for over 60...
Kern Kennedy tickled the ivories on a number of early rock and roll and rockabilly recordings back in the 1950s. It was the heyday for Sun Studios in Memphis right after the success of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Founder, Sam Phillips often called on Kern when a piano player was...