ASPEN \u2014 A rustic creekside cabin in Old Snowmass that was a longtime recording studio for The Eagles\u2019 Glenn Frey has transformed into a hub for Roaring Fork Valley musicians.<\/p>\n
Mad Dog Studios also is opening its doors to the public for events, including this summer\u2019s Ride + Dine series, hosted by The Little Nell.<\/p>\n
Frey bought the property from fellow music legend Jimmy Buffett, who originally purchased it in 1976. Frey and Buffett memorialized the wild caretakers\u2019 parties there in their co-written 1985 song \u201cGypsies in the Palace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frey converted a log-built structure, which had been Buffett\u2019s garage and office, into a professional-grade recording studio in 1986 with design help from Frank Comentale of the Hit Factory in New York. Frey, who also lived in a house in Woody Creek, dubbed it Mad Dog Studios and made it his creative home in the mountains. He recorded there regularly over the next three decades, most notably making his 1992 solo album \u201cStrange Weather\u201d at Mad Dog.<\/p>\n
Frey moved his studio equipment out of the space around 2010, as he spent less time here and did more recording in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer placed the property under contract with local buyer Julie Garside and partners in early 2016, just days before his death at age 67.<\/p>\n
Since taking over the property, Garside has redesigned and renovated the 3,000-square-foot main house, while partnering with property specialist Tami Word and locally based music industry professionals to bring the studio back to rocking life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to continue the legacy of the property that Frey and Buffett began by making more wonderful memories in our little mountain community and foster the music culture of Aspen and the valley,\u201d Word said.<\/p>\n
On a late summer evening, the Aspen-based bandleader Derek Brown was jamming inside Mad Dog with a crew of local musicians who included guitarist David Harding and drummer Pete Durrance, as spandex-clad cyclists arrived for the Little Nell dinner and tour, crossing the tin-roofed footbridge over Snowmass Creek.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole music community, up and down the valley, is here,\u201d Brown said between songs.<\/p>\n
Under Word\u2019s management, the studio has become a sort of clubhouse for Roaring Fork Valley musicians. Over the past two years, a who\u2019s who of local musicans have recorded at Mad Dog, from Bobby Mason to Hap Harriman, Jon Michel and Michael Jude to Suzanne Paris and Bo Hale.<\/p>\n
The reborn studio was designed by Mad Dog partner and house engineer Ralph Pitt, a music industry veteran who designed Belly Up Aspen\u2019s sound system and oversaw it for years. He was working the boards as Brown and company jammed.<\/p>\n
Along with the Nell events and professional recording sessions, Mad Dog is hosting songwriting retreats for veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder, in partnership with the nonprofit Challenge America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to open our doors to philanthropies we feel are truly making an impact,\u201d said Word.<\/p>\n
She said Buffett also returned to the studio in August to see what the new owners have done with the place, and spent time on site reminiscing with Word and the Mad Dog crew about his days there a with Frey.<\/p>\n
The main house includes Eagles memorabilia, like a collection of framed Frey guitar picks, and artistic touches like a hand-carved bathroom door (by some accounts fashioned from the wood of a Buffett boat). The true musical treasure of the property is a collection of 40 reel-to-reel tapes of Frey recordings that he left behind at Mad Dog. They\u2019re fragile due to their age and Brown said the contents are unknown. Frey\u2019s wife, Cynthia, he said, has instructed the studio to hang on to them and preserve them until they can attempt to play or transfer them to digital files.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the history vault,\u201d Brown said of the tapes. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to do with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nell\u2019s Ride + Dine group biked roughly 15 miles from lower gondola plaza in Aspen to Mad Dog on Snowmass Creek Road. The Ride + Dine program sends cyclists on a guided ride to a destination where they\u2019re treated to an opulent al fresco Nell-catered dinner, in this case on the porch at Mad Dog. The series\u2019 second and final 2019 Ride + Dine runs on Tuesday, with a return ride to Mad Dog.<\/p>\n
The August ride was guided by Little Nell general manager Jonathan Fillman, who led a peloton of cyclists and e-cyclists down the Rio Grande Trail to Old Snowmass and up Snowmass Creek Road to the idyllic riverside studio and compound.<\/p>\n
The Nell events are among the first times the general public has been welcomed onto the property and into the studio, which may be the beginnings of a more robust event business there for creative retreats as well as parties and weddings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a cool environment,\u201d said Brown. \u201cAnd people who aren\u2019t musicians would never get to see it. So we\u2019re excited to share it.\u201d<\/p>\n