Brown's Recording Studio

Brown's Recording Studio

Sherwood, Arkansas

Recently, I stumbled across a recording studio in Sherwood, Brown's Recording Studio. This name was printed on several 1970s singles and albums with producing credit sometimes going to Maxine Brown. No doubt, this was the same Maxine Brown who was part of the country family group the Browns (along with her sister Bonnie Brown and Jim Ed Brown). The studio was obviously operated by her and possibly by Bonnie Brown as well, who also sometimes appears as a producer.

Early promo picture of the Browns, mid 1950s

Maxine Brown was born in 1931 in Campti, Louisiana, but her family moved to a farm near Sparkman, Arkansas when she was very young. Brown would later call Arkansas her home state. The family later moved to Pine Bluff. In the early 1950s, she and her brother James Edward, nicknamed Jim Ed, started singing, having their first appearance at the Barnyard Frolic in Little Rock, and signed a recording contract with the Fabor label in 1954 as a duo. They enjoyed early success with "Looking Back to See" the same year, then signed with RCA-Victor and, in 1955 with the addition of sister Bonnie, became "The Browns". They appeared on the Louisiana Hayride and the Ozark Jubilee and had more hits throughout the 1950s, most notable "The Three Bells".

After Jim Ed started recording solo, the group disbanded in 1968. Maxine Brown had a brief solo career in the late 1960s, signing with Chart Records and having a hit with "Sugar Cane County". She then recorded for Plantation in 1970 but stopped releasing records afterwards.

There is not but information available on the internet what Brown then did. She returned to Arkansas and obviously started Brown's Recording Studio around 1972 in Sherwood, a city north of Little Rock. The studio had an in-house label, Sherwood Records, which had at least two releases by Harry Blanton and Dan Emory. The label was active in 1974 but there were earlier recordings custom produced for other labels as well (including Charles Saulsberry II, Seventh House, the El Dorados, and the Gospel Tones).

It seems that Brown's Recording Studio was out of business by 1975. Brown went out of the music business and passed away in 2019 in Little Rock. 

Recommended reading

• The Gospel Tones on The Good, Bad & Ugly Gospel Record Barn

Sources

• The Browns and Maxine Brown Wikipedia entries

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas

• Maxine Brown 45cat entry

• Sherwood Records 45cat entry

• Discogs