Nashville’s Station Inn is thee site for a special remembrance on Monday April 21 for their long-time and deeply-beloved audio engineer, Kurt Storey, who died March 27 following a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was only 64 years of age when he passed in a Florida hospital. His daughters Molly and Annie are hosting the event.
For years Kurt served the music community as a free lance engineer, both in the studio and on the road. When he was available, you would find him behind the board at the Station Inn.
Storey also had his own studio, Kurt Storey Sound / Audio Groomers, in Lebanon, TN, and was a house engineer at Dave Kirkey’s Eagle Canyon Studio, also in Lebanon. He did live sound on the road with Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper until his health forced him to retire, and had previously served that same role with Mark O’Connor and his O’Connor Family Band.
His final project would seem to be the debut album for Southern Legacy, featuring Josh Williams, Ron Block, Don Rigsby, Steve Thomas, and Mike Anglin, which he had engineered.
Kurt was born and raised in Nashville, and entered the music business as a fiddler looking for work, which he found with the Ray Price Band. He was also a busy session and fill-in player on fiddle and bass in the bluegrass scene. Mark O’Connor and Kurt became fast friends, and you can well imagine why fiddlers like O’Connor and Cleveland wanted someone with his skill and background mixing them on tour.
A great honor in Storey’s life was being perhaps Bill Monroe’s final recording engineer. He had tracked more than two dozen Monroe sets at Bean Blossom in 1994 and ’95, leading to two live albums released by Decca/MCA. Fortunately, we have learned that plans are afoot to see more of those recordings come to light in the near future.
Over the years he came to know almost everyone in bluegrass, at least anyone who played The Station Inn, which was nearly everyone in bluegrass. He will be long remembered for his kindness, mentorship, warmth, and general friendship to everyone he met, and his close friends in particular.
A memorial jam is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. on April 21, with all encouraged to bring their instruments to The Station Inn. The doors open at 7:00, and there is no admission charge to attend.
