The Sweetwater session layer: a staff of producers

1979 — the present · the studio itself is carried in the Music History chapter

Producers on salary: Sweetwater Studios works the way the great session towns once did — producers, engineers, and a house band on staff — and the layer under Hornsby and Naish belongs in this record in brief. Chuck Surack, the founder, is a producer in his own right before he is a retailer: the company began in 1979 as his four-track recording studio, local musicians cut their first songs on the eight-track in his basement (the singer Doug Strahm's recollection, jingles included), and Surack carries a producer's credit on Back 2 Da Soul (2019). Dave Martin, the staff bassist — a Western Swing Hall of Fame inductee who owned and operated Java Jive Studio in Nashville before Fort Wayne — produces as well as plays, sharing the producer's chair on Strahm's Souvenirs. Around them sits the staff band the records are made with: guitarist Don Carr, two decades with the Oak Ridge Boys; drummer Nick D'Virgilio, of Tears for Fears, Sheryl Crow, and Genesis engagements; and, of the current engineering generation, head engineer Jason Peets, whose immersive-mix credits run to Bootsy Collins and beyond. The firm's business is the Business chapter's; its studio's founding is the Music History chapter's; the names on the credits are here.

Sources:

1. Vents Magazine, 30 September 2019 — Back 2 Da Soul "recorded and produced at Sweetwater Studios by" Hornsby, executive producer Naish, "and Sweetwater founder and CEO Chuck Surack"; the All-Stars session band named (Carr, Naish, Martin, D'Virgilio).
2. ReleaseWire, 26 September 2018 — Sweetwater Studios' staff: bassist Dave Martin, "a member of the Western Swing Hall of Fame," formerly owner-operator of Java Jive Studio in Nashville; keyboardist Phil Naish; guitarist Don Carr; drummer Nick D'Virgilio; "renowned staff producer Mark Hornsby."
3. ListenIowa, interview with Doug Strahm — Strahm's first recordings on the eight-track in Chuck Surack's basement, the jingles cut there, and Souvenirs recorded at Sweetwater Studios with senior producer/engineer Mark Hornsby "and producer/bassist Dave Martin."
4. Whatzup (Fort Wayne), "World-class studios here in Fort Wayne" — the staff-musician system at Sweetwater Studios: Carr's two decades with the Oak Ridge Boys; D'Virgilio's work with Tears for Fears, Sheryl Crow, and Genesis; Martin's and Naish's records.
5. Jason Peets, professional site — "Based in Fort Wayne, IN — Head Engineer at Sweetwater Studios"; immersive mixing and engineering credits including Bootsy Collins's Album of the Year #1 Funkateer.