Theories, rants, etc.
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WOODLAND STUDIOS IN NASHVILLE HAS had quite the history since it opened in 1967. Originally a cinema, it was repurposed as a recording facility by Glenn Snoddy, the engineer who’d cut Ring Of Fire straight to acetate, and who’d accidentally invented fuzztone during a Marty Robbins session in 1961. By the mid ’70s, the complex was welcoming rock stars as well as country dignitaries, and it was here Neil Young fetched up in November 1977, fleshing out his latest set of folk-tinged songs at the behest of his label. The album that came out of those sessions, Comes A Time, sits at the heart of a tempestuous Neil streak beginning with Zuma and ending with Live Rust, and in the middle of this issue’s excellent cover story by Grayson Haver Currin. A tale that finds Young “trying to keep moving as fast as possible… to keep pivoting and shapeshifting.”
Woodland crops up elsewhere this month, too – as the home of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings for the past couple of decades. The MOJO Interview with these modern greats of American folk kicks off our characteristically thorough review of 2024’s finest music, peaking with a Top 75 rundown of the year’s best albums, voted by the extended MOJO team. My Number One? Woodland, by Welch & Rawlings. But to find out where it landed in the official count, you’ll have to hold your nerve for a few more pages yet…