Steve Ripley (MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World)
By Jennifer Chancellor
World Scene Writer
PAWNEE, Okla. -- Before he sold his legendary Church Studio and moved home to the country, Steve Ripley recorded one last album.
His voice softly echoed off the wood floors of his Pawnee home as he spoke of his lifelong desire to meld the new with the old.
"This album marks the end of one era — and bridges the chasm into a new one," Ripley said. "It joins two worlds."
For more than three decades, Ripley's worked with the best of the best: Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, J.J. Cale, Roy Clark and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. He built guitars for Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Buffett, Ry Cooder, Steve Lukather and John Hiatt.
In 1994, his band, the Tractors' self-titled debut album for Arista records sold more than 2 million copies. It earned a Grammy nomination and became the fastest-selling country group debut in music history.
Ripley sat in the chill of his new air-conditioned studio, built mere feet from the tiny, 1930s-era home he grew up in. An electronic Wurlitzer piano sat idle along one wall. A computer fan quietly hummed. A Leon Russell bobblehead doll kept watch over a monster mixing board, covered in parts by a Rick Nelson box set, an autographed baseball, an inexpensive and well-worn mandolin and a stack of CDs.
Read the full story and interview -- and all about his latest album, radio show and more -- at tulsaworld.com, 
here.
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