Gary Brewer and his talented family were among those in the music industry who actually had a good year in 2020. Though marked by the passing of his father and longtime musical partner, Finley J. Brewer, Gary and his Kentucky Ramblers saw the release of an epic, career-defining album, 40th Anniversary Collection, which spent several weeks at #1 on the national Billboard bluegrass sales charts, staying in the top 5 for 32 weeks.
Seeing that album completed, and achieving such success without touring support, was a dream come true for Brewer and his two sons, Mason and Wayne, with whom he operates the band, his Stretch Grass Music label, and other Brewgrass Entertainment business concerns. And as long as aspirations were being realized, Gary decided to use the proceeds from the best-seller status of the 40th project to build a professional grade recording studio on the family farm.
As it happens, there was room in a warehouse on the property that was perfect for this use. The building is home for the band’s tour bus, plus Gary and Wayne’s vintage muscle car collection, and the new recording space fits right in. So the Brewers used time over the holidays to get the equipment moved in, and the tracking booths and control room set up.
A personal studio has been a pipe dream for Gary since he started in music many years ago, and he has been collecting vintage microphones and outboard gear for quite some time with this end in mind. Now he can put all this Neumann, Shure, Telefunken, and RCA gear to work in the new digital studio, with a Steven Slate Audio Raven Multi-Touch-Screen Production Console running Pro Tools at the heart of the system. They have also installed custom built-in racks for their new/vintage processing equipment, which includes Universal Audio Apollo X8P interfaces, preamps, EQ, among them.
With a studio at their disposal, Gary is planning to re-record some older Kentucky Ramblers material, as well as the new songs that he is continually churning out.
They have christened the new space Brewgrass Entertainment Studio, which is intended primarily for the private use of the Brewers. In other words, they are not going into the recording studio business, but may be willing to track and mix selected projects for others as the situation develops.
Special thanks to Alyssa Brewer, Wayne’s wife and the official publicist for Brewgrass Entertainment, who sent along these photos of the studio. She also teased that a new music video and single with Ashton Shepherd was on the way, plus Mason Brewer’s debut album, and an upcoming 40th Anniversary Celebration Tour announcement.
