Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/367813
photography by Jonathan h. Jackson AUSTINWAY.com 117 top-name acts—including his uncle and his mother, Bobbie—and sell-out crowds. As for Austin City Limits , the iconic show is in its 40th season, with tap- i ngs t h is year by Nick Cave, Jeff Tweedy, and a star-studded anniversary concert with Gary Clark Jr., Jeff Bridges, Sheryl Crow, and more. In many ways ACL Live is the antithesis of Arlyn Studios, the 7,000-square- foot commercial recording studio he founded in 1984. Where ACL Live is expansive and distinctly urbane, the studio—favored by some of the indus- try's most renowned musicians (the recording roster includes everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Ray Charles to Wilco and Toro y Moi)—has been largely restored to the way it looked in the 1950s and '60s. It has low ceilings, wooden posts, walls, and beams, and is housed in a nondescript South Austin building that was once owned by Willie Nelson and was known as the Austin Opry House, a concert hall that reveled in "Outlaw Country." "The studio has a lot of history for me," says Fletcher. He named Arlyn after his late father and remembers his mother playing piano there when he was a boy and a restaurant stood in its place. "Arlyn is my baby," he'll likely say, more than once, in even the shortest conversation. Lisa Fletcher, Will Bridges, T. Murphey, and Chief Engineer Jacob Sciba are now partners. Fletcher and his associates at Arlyn have a new venture in the formation stage. They are collaborating with a nonprofit whose global initiative is to provide instruments to children around the world. "Right now it's my num- ber-one project," says Fletcher. "I firmly believe you've got to leave the world better than when you found it. There's not a better gift than an instrument. You know, music changes people's lives." "I grew up here and wanted to preserve the hIstory. thIs has always been a musIc town, and I felt lIke austIn really needed a world-class facIlIty." — freddy fletcher Freddy Fletcher at ACL Live at the Moody Theater. right, from top: The view from the stage at ACL Live; the venue's exterior.