ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on August 29, 1996.
Tim Austin's first name was incorrect in a photo caption Tuesday.
LIGHTNING STRUCK a Ferrum recording studio Saturday and burned it to the ground.
Tim Austin was in the middle of a recording session Saturday afternoon with a bluegrass band called the Gibson Brothers from upstate New York when the lights inside his recording studio in rural Franklin County flickered from an approaching thunderstorm.
Austin took the precautions he takes any time an electrical storm passes through.
He stopped the session and unplugged all of the studio's equipment that could be damaged by a strong power surge: the microphones, amplifiers, tape machines, and a state-of-the-art digital sound board. It was past lunch, so he used the idle time to run into Rocky Mount to pick up some pizza.
When he returned about 25 minutes later, the studio was engulfed in flames.
Lightning had struck the building, located on Cooks Knob Road about two miles east of Ferrum. ``It actually blew the light bulbs out of the ceiling,'' Austin said Monday.``It was like fireworks going off inside.''
He was told what had happened by some of the musicians from the Gibson Brothers who had stayed behind when he drove into Rocky Mount. He said that when the lightning struck, they ran outside to look for damage on the roof, and the back of the building was already on fire.
They then tried to salvage what they could from inside, but Austin said they were able to recover only three instruments - a banjo, a dobro and an upright bass - before smoke and flames forced them out.
Everything else was destroyed, including $35,000 worth of fiddles and bows owned by Aubrey Haynie, a Nashville musician who has worked for country stars Clint Black and Aaron Tippin. Haynie had been hired as an extra studio musician for Saturday's session.
Austin estimated his own losses in recording equipment at more than $80,000.
He also lost his prized 1941 Martin acoustic guitar.
Monday, except for a singed guitar case sitting in the grass and the metal rings of a drum kit collapsed together in a heap, there were few clues among the charred remains of the building to indicate that one of the leading recording studios in contemporary bluegrass music once stood on the same spot.
``Once I saw the roof actually fall in, I knew it was gone,'' Austin said.
He opened the studio, which he called Doobie Shea Studios, in 1988. It soon became a place where some of the bigger names in bluegrass came to record, including Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson and Charlie Waller of the Country Gentlemen.
Austin's former group, the award-winning Lonesome River Band, also recorded at the studio.
Musicians were attracted to the studio because they felt a kinship with Austin, who is a fellow musician, and not just another recording engineer. They liked the Appalachian setting, he said.
Austin also hit upon a distinctive, clear sound at the studio that combined state-of-the-art digital technology with a variety of vintage recording techniques. It was a sound that was copied throughout bluegrass music.
Last year, an album recorded at the studio, Ronnie Bowman's ``Cold Virginia Night,'' won album of the year from the International Bluegrass Music Association. The title track also was honored as bluegrass song of the year.
``There are a lot of people in bluegrass who are going to feel real bad about this,'' Bowman said Monday. Bowman also lives in Franklin County. He played in the Lonesome River Band with Austin for several years. ``For me personally, there were a lot of memories there. I learned a lot there. It was like my home away from home, and now it's all burned to dust.''
Austin said the studio was insured, although it had been insured only since February when he could finally afford it. But he was concerned about the half-dozen or so master tapes of various recording projects that were nearly finished.
They were destroyed by the fire, and they can't be replaced by insurance money.
The only way to replace them is to bring the musicians back into the studio and record the project over again. Even then, it would be impossible to duplicate exactly what has been lost, he said.
``Right now, I'm pretty much just devastated.''
Even so, Austin was optimistic. He plans to rebuild the studio as quickly as he can. He said he would like to move it closer to Roanoke, because most of the outside musicians who record with him fly into Roanoke and often stay at hotels there.
``This gives me the initiative to build a better studio, geared even more to the acoustic musician.''
Staff photographer Philip Holman contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. 1. The back wall of Tim Austin'sby CNBstudio sags beneath its own weight after Saturday's fire. 2. A steel
door, buckled from the heat of the fire, lies amidst the rubble and
ashes of Austin's Ferrum recording studio. color. 3. Jim Austin
pauses to study the burned remains of the interior of his Ferrum
recording studio, which he opened in 1988. Graphic: Map by staff.