Photo: Mad Dog Ranch (from their website) (full photo description at end) | By Sarah Kuta, 5280 Magazine | On a rainy Wednesday evening earlier this summer, a handful of people piled into a cozy, cabin-like recording studio at Mad Dog Ranch and Studios in Snowmass. They watched and listened from a plush navy blue couch as, just a few feet in front of them, local Roaring Fork Valley musicians Adam McCabe and Larry Good strummed their acoustic guitars and launched into a clever, upbeat song called “My Five-Beer Plan.”
McCabe and Good performed their intimate concert, part of a summer event series hosted by Mad Dog and Aspen’s Little Nell hotel, against a backdrop of framed album covers from Glenn Frey, Jimmy Buffett, and the Eagles. Nearby, a small stuffed bear sat perched atop a large piano made from rich, dark brown wood with a sign that read: “Glenn Frey’s piano for sale—inquire within.” With its vaulted ceilings, exposed blonde wood beams, soft area rug, and snug window nook for sound equipment, Studio B feels more like an inviting living room than a recording studio.
After sitting quiet for the better part of a decade, music has returned to Mad Dog. The wooded, creekside Rocky Mountain compound was once owned by Buffett and, later, Frey, who both regularly visited Aspen for rest and artistic inspiration beginning in the late 1970s. Mad Dog’s new owner, Julie Garside, has completed an ambitious renovation of the property’s main house (where she lives), small guest cabin, and two outbuildings that Buffett and Frey used as private recording studios.
She’s preserved the storied ranch’s charm and history while simultaneously upgrading the recording studios with state-of-the-art equipment that she hopes will help launch the next generation of legendary musicians. “I really want to share it with everyone because it’s such an awesome place,” Garside says. “I’d like it to be a creative, inspiring, safe space for artists who come here to create and find unique inspiration, collaborative moments.”
Buffett bought the property in 1976, then sold it to his good friend Frey in 1990. Frey converted two log-cabin outbuildings into small recording studios, where he recorded his album Strange Weather and mixed the Eagles’ live album Hell Freezes Over. Buffett, too, produced some creative works here, writing the songs “Son of a Son of a Sailor,” “Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes,” “Gypsies in the Palace,” and two children’s books. According to Garside, the ranch also hosted some raucous, celebrity-filled parties in its heyday (naturally).
Read the whole story here:
https://www.5280.com/2021/09/the-music-is-back-at-jimmy-buffett-and-glenn-freys-former-retreat/
[Thank you to Alex Teitz, http://www.femmusic.com, for contributing this article.]
Photo: Mad Dog Ranch (courtesy of Mad Dog Ranch & Studios) Jimmy Buffett and Glenn Frey’s former retreat in Snowmass. Image courtesy of Mad Dog Ranch and Studios