Ebook: The If These Halls Could Talk: A Historical Tour through San Francisco Recording Studios

Heather Johnson's fascinating book is a history of a big part of my professional life!

I'm a Bay Area native, a violinist, working in the local concert halls, theater pits and recording studios for more than 35 years. But this book goes back even farther than that. My dad had a record store in Berkeley, and I vividly remember a trip to the old Circle Records pressing plant in SF; I couldn't have been more than seven, so it was around 1952. I hadn't thought of it in years, if not decades, until I came across reference to it in Johnson's book. That was just one of many fond recollections triggered by her research.

I worked in every studio (I think) covered in the book, at one time or another. It was really interesting to read interviews with many of the engineers I worked with, as well as to get a more comprehensive idea of the flow of the recording business over time, seeing how facilities changed hands, upgraded (and occasionally downgraded), etc.

A different kind of "trip down Memory Lane" than for many, I suppose, but this book sure invoked some nostalgia in this old fiddler! Any musician who's done serious studio work hereabouts would appreciate the effort Heather Johnson put into her book.