Ben Folds: Save Music Row or make 'music in Condo City'

Music Row executives, songwriters, musicians, neighborhood activists and music fans gathered at RCA Studio A on Monday to show their support behind preserving the famed corridor.

The rally was put together by piano rocker Ben Folds, who rents the famous studio space that as of last week was set to be sold to a Brentwood development company. Fearing the studio and the entire RCA Building built by luminaries Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley might be demolished for redevelopment, Folds penned an open letter about the issue.

The developer, Tim Reynolds, responded by saying he will only go through with plans to develop the property if the studio can be spared.

With that victory under their belts, Folds and his supporters are broadening their focus to the preservation of Music Row. The gathering drew more than 200 people, many of whom added their signature to a petition advocating for sparing the recording studio where Dolly Parton, Tony Bennett, Vince Gill and Keith Urban cut records.

The rally included talk of forming a Music Row neighborhood association and a nonprofit organization in response to the growing threat of developers tearing down famous studios, record label buildings and music industry office space to make room for more condominiums.

"All of those ugly buildings, all of those beautiful houses, I think they're all important," Folds told the crowd. "I live in a condo, it's awesome over in the Gulch and I love it. But, I started to think about it, 'Condos in Music City, that's awesome. But music in Condo City is not as attractive.'"

Well in advance of Monday's rally, Metro officials have been pondering preservation mechanisms for maintaining the quirky mix of buildings along Music Row and staving off the encroaching development. But those early conversations have revealed an immediate hurdle in that many of the buildings are bland and nondescript architecturally. That means a preservation overlay would be hypothetically put in place to preserve the uses of the buildings and not the archictecture.

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But speakers at the gathering, which included musicians union President Dave Pomeroy and record producer Pat McMakin, said Music Row deserved to be preserved because of the synergies created by having the varying music business operating next door to each other.

McMakin, one of the leading advocates of preserving Music Row, said the challenge will be to parlay the momentum created by Folds' open letter into a real organizing effort.

Folds said it took time for Music Row to respond to the threat of redevelopment – several notable buildings have already been torn down – because "people were making future music history."

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Folds advocated sending the petition to "the grown-ups," whom he described as Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Metro and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

"We need to have a seat at the table and a voice when the discussions are going on about what becomes of this place," McMakin said.

After his open letter, the Twitter hashtag #SaveStudioA was spawned. Folds said he wanted to grow the movement and turn the hashtag into #SaveMusicRow.

"This is an opportunity for everyone to come together, trade business cards, phone numbers if they haven't done so, and get a coalition together that will establish how this is going to happen," Folds said.

Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.