PERSON OF INTEREST
BY ANNA PAIGE I PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES WOODCOCK
Rock On! bill culhane The year: 1976 The club: New York’s legendary CBGB, the birthplace of American punk. The scene: Bill Culhane receives a call from a friend urging him to return to New York. Culhane, who is in California taking a break from a hectic life on the road of mixing live sound for traveling bands, needs a strong reason to leave the sunny coast. His friend is insistent. “You can pick any band you want,” he said. “Just get out here!” Few elements characterize the late 1960s and early 70s more comprehensively than rock and roll. The music so embodies that era, that a few simple tunes can immediately transport a listener to Woodstock or a Grateful Dead concert. Like a perfect storm, the changes in how music was recorded and released collided with the emergence of touring bands. Sound engineer Bill Culhane was situated directly in the middle. Top: Bill Culhane in his music room in Billings. Left inset: Miles Davis, left, in rehearsal with saxophone player Kenny Garrett and Quincy Jones, right, at Montreux in ‘91. Photo Courtesy of Bill Culhane.
Finding his rhythm
Culhane got his start in the music business in the 1960s. On a whim after college, he followed friend and folk violinist Jay Unger, who had landed a recording contract, to New York City.
Unger’s roommate worked as a sound engineer, and Culhane followed suit. He started work at RLA Studios, a small studio with a notorious reputation. Bands such as the Mothers of Invention and the Fugs, poet Allen Ginsberg and other eclectic artists of the ‘60s passed through this studio—the ultimate melting pot of progressive thought. Through various connections in the New York music scene, Culhane transitioned from RLA Studios to Electric Lady Studios, where he worked as a junior engineer for the late great Jimi Hendrix. “It was a fascinating time,” Culhane said. “I kept wondering how the hell I got there.”
MAGIC CITY MAGAZINE I MAY 2013 I 17