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Year of birth: 1943

City of birth: Atlanta, GA

Mike Clark, co-owner and manager of Southern Tracks Recording, died at home on Thursday, February 1, 2007, after an 8-month battle with cancer. Under Clark’s direction, Southern Tracks become one of the most successful recording facilities in Atlanta’s history, a studio of world renown. Southern Tracks has contributed to the combined sales of over 40 million albums.

Born Charles Michael Clark on Dec. 13, 1943 in Atlanta, Clark attended Joel Chandler Harris Elementary School in the Atlanta community of West End where he began playing drums in the 5th Grade. He was a member of the prestigious West End Elementary Band, featuring outstanding players chosen from grammar schools in the area. After a bout with non-paralytic polio in the summer of 1956, Clark enrolled at Atlanta's Brown High School. One of his schoolmates at Brown was a singer named Tommy Roe, with whom he formed a combo, Tommy Roe and The Satins. In 1958, their single, "I Got A Girl," was recorded at music publisher Bill Lowery's studio, which in those days was an old schoolhouse equipped with a Gates Radio Console and a simple two-track tape deck. Lowery pitched Roe’s song to Judd Phillips (brother of Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records who had discovered Elvis Presley), and it became a regional hit for the Memphis label, Judd Records. This was the beginning of Mike Clark's association with Bill Lowery, which lasted four decades until Lowery’s death in 2004.

Mike Clark graduated from high school in 1962, the year that Tommy Roe had his first million-seller with "Sheila." As Roe's drummer, he toured with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars; the legendary package tour was headlined by Sam Cooke, and it featured every top R & B act from the period: The Drifters; Jerry Butler; Solomon Burke; Little Eva; and Smoky Robinson and The Miracles, who were having their national breakthrough with "Shop Around."

During the 60s, Clark was in demand around Atlanta as a studio session drummer. He played in most of city's popular clubs including The Sans Souci, The Domino, and The Darlington Lounge. He backed up Freddie Cannon ("Palisades Park") at Ponce de Leon Ball Park, the now-demolished home of the historic Atlanta Crackers. On the road, he briefly toured with Roy Orbison. He jammed with Liza Minelli at Miami Beach's famous Peppermint Lounge. He worked dates with Ray Stevens' touring group which on occasion included both Jerry Reed and Joe South.

In 1966, Bill Lowery asked Clark to work at the Lowery Music Company (Lowery Music would be named BMI's #1 publisher in 1969). In a short time, he was elevated to National Director of Promotion. By day, he promoted records; at night, he did session work at The Old Schoolhouse, playing drums on successful tracks by the Classics IV ("Traces"), Billy Joe Royal ("Cherry Hill Park"), and Lou Christie. At the same time, Clark flew out on weekends for national dates with Billy Joe Royal. By the early 70s, the demanding schedule had become overwhelming. He gradually withdrew from steady roadwork, though he continued to hold down his job at the publishing company. Clark eventually persuaded Bill Lowery to let him begin producing records, a move which led to success in 1975-76 with Starbuck's hit "Moonlight Feels Right." Later in the decade, Clark left behind his promotional responsibilities to become Lowery's Administrative Assistant, overseeing two label deals with Capitol and MGM Records, licensing masters to record companies, and working with new songwriters.

By 1979, Clark was now managing the old schoolhouse studio. He co-engineered two Grammy-nominated albums for the Atlanta Pops Orchestra. Under Clark's watch, the studio cut Bertie Higgens' surprise 1981 hit,"Key Largo." When Atlanta's rapid transit system, MARTA, acquired the old schoolhouse property in 1983, Lowery and Clark moved their headquarters to the current Northeast Atlanta site. The new studio, Southern Tracks Recording, was built from the ground up and designed by George Augspurger as a single-room facility. At first, it was used primarily for Lowery's stable of songwriters and artists.

Beginning in 1986, Clark managed and produced the Contemporary Christian band, Newsong, whose "Arise, My Love" has become a standard in the field of Contemporary Christian Music. Then, in 1988, Bill Lowery and Clark formed an official studio partnership, and the modern era of Southern Tracks Recording began. They opened the studio to the public, purchasing new equipment that included a Solid State Logic (SSL) recording console. Under Clark’s management, Southern Tracks began turning out platinum albums by Silk, Keith Sweat, and Another Bad Creation.

In 1989, a young local engineer/producer named Brendan O'Brien began bringing his projects into the studio. By 1993, having established himself on the West Coast as one of the decade's most important producers of American Alternative Rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers; Pearl Jam; Stone Temple Pilots), O'Brien relocated to his Atlanta home and made Southern Tracks his base of operations. Clark immediately purchased the first SSL Ultimation console in the South and, with the addition of an arsenal of vintage microphones and electronic gear, he transformed Southern Tracks into a recording facility of world renown. Things had come a long way from the day in 1958 when Tommy Roe and Clark had cut their first record on a little two-track machine and a Gates Radio Console.

Since that time, guided by Mike Clark, Southern Tracks record of success became extraordinary. The list of rock, country, Rap, and R&B artists who tracked or mixed at the Atlanta studio in the 90's included Pearl Jam, Black Crowes, Keith Sweat, Stone Temple Pilots, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Rage Against The Machine, Matthew Sweet, .38 Special, Kansas, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Silk, LSG, Doug Stone, Travis Tritt, Indigo Girls, Another Bad Creation, and Outkast. The studio worked on soundtrack albums for “Godzilla,” "Dumb & Dumber,” "Money Talks,” “The Bevis & Butthead Experience,” the “Friends” TV soundtrack, and the two “Crow” movies. Clark returned to studio work in 1997, co-producing the Dove Award's Album Of The Year Nominee, Newsong's “Love Revolution.”

In the 21st Century, Southern Tracks Recording has continued to set a unique standard. Bruce Springsteen visited the studio in 2002 to record his monumental return album with The E Street Band, The Rising, as well as his solo disc from 2005, Devils and Dust, both with Brendan O’Brien as producer. Train has recorded three albums at Southern Tracks including their multi-platinum single, “Drops of Jupiter.” The Wallflowers and Third Day made their most recent discs at Southern Tracks, and up-and-coming rockers The Bravery cut their forthcoming disc here in Summer/Fall, 2006.

With over six decades of experience, Mike Clark became closely identified with Southern Tracks Recording and with the music business, which he loved. Clark had many outside interests as well, including a passion for collecting historical antiquities and raising horses with his wife Melissa on their Forsyth County farm.

Clark was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1999, a crowning achievment of his career. Along with Ludacris, Organized Noize Productions and Trisha Yearwood, he was posthumously named a recipient of the 2007 Recording Academy Honors Award in Atlanta on April 26, 2007.

In a tribute to Mike Clark, his colleague, Jeff Calder, night manager at Southern Tracks and leader of Atlanta’s beloved Swimming Pool Q’s, said:

In a very real way, Southern Tracks was Mike’s work of art, and, as such, it is truly a great one. As with a painting, you can describe the colors, the techniques employed and so forth, but if it is a great painting there is always an element of the unexplainable, something that defies summary, quantification, something that remains impervious to glib commentary. Like any nice recording facility, Mike’s could be broken down into marvelous recording gear, fun environment, wonderful staff. But what Southern Tracks has is that unexplainable quality, and that quality was, to be sure, Mike’s essence. Just after Mike got sick, Brendan said to me, as usual, right straight to the point, “Who knows how Mike does what he does. It’s like…it’s like some kind of voodoo.”

Precisely.

As long as there is a Southern Tracks, and, yes, even long after it’s gone, its hallways and recording rooms will continue to resonate in our minds with the vibration of the artist’s presence, even if we can’t explain exactly what that presence was. Except to say with certainty that Mike Clark, as we knew him, was a titan in the field, and the titans are few.

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