Woodland Sound Studios

Music Row isn’t the only neighborhood in town with a historic studio. From the street corner, look west, or to your left, to see a large white stucco building. This is Woodland Studios, formerly known as Woodland Sound Studios. Before it was a studio it was a theater, constructed by the Nashville-based Crescent Amusement Company in 1925 and designed by local architecture firm Marr and Holman.

After thirty years as a theater, it became a recording studio when the Crescent Corporation moved its gospel label, Nashboro Records, to this building. Crescent hired Glen Snoddy, a noted sound engineer who started at RCA’s Studio B. Under Snoddy’s leadership the building was converted from a theater to a world-class recording studio. By 1969, Woodland Sound Studios was in high demand, with recording requests ranging from gospel to country to pop to rock. Snoddy decided to build an addition for a second studio.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Woodland was one of Nashville’s top studios. It was here that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded their seminal album “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” a collaboration that included Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, and Earl Scruggs. Have you heard Charlie Daniels’ iconic song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” or the classic “Dust in the Wind” by the band Kansas? Yep, both were recorded right here at Woodland Studios. Other artists to record here include: The Oak Ridge Boys, Barbara Mandrell, Merle Haggard, Ronnie Millsap, Bob Seger, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Rondstadt.

After the 1998 tornado, the space was condemned. In 2002, the property was purchased and restored by singer-songwriter Gillian Welch and guitarist and music producer Dave Rawlings. The space now serves as the headquarters of Acony Records—their independent record label. After a century of operation, filled with change and challenge, the resilient spirit of East Nashville lives on through Woodland Studies.

Continue walking up South 11th St. to your next stop, the Nashville Public Library East Branch, on your left. Walk past the library toward Gallatin Ave. and stop at the painted mural on the ground in the triangle. Turn around to view the library and Woodland Presbyterian Church.