The Church Studio

In 1972, Rock and Roll icon Leon Russell returned to his hometown of Tulsa to start a new record company called Shelter Records, which would become the home for not only Leon's music, but also, among others, blues legend Freddie King, and future superstars Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Home base for the new label was a remodeled church built in 1913. The world-famous studio was quickly dubbed The Church Studio. A short four years later, in 1976, Shelter moved to a new home in Hollywood, but left a legacy that remains the high-water mark for all Tulsa recording ventures that have followed. In 1987, Steve Ripley returned from California, where he had been Russell's personal recording engineer and Bob Dylan's guitar player, and together with partner Glen Mitchell, purchased the studio and once again set about the business of making records. The last act to record under Leon's ownership was Tom Petty. The first act to record under the Ripley/Mitchell ownership was none other than Leon Russell himself. After taking possession of the studio, Ripley almost immediately began writing, producing, singing, and recording what would become The Tractors. After selling over two million copies, Ripley and Mitchell set their sights even higher by starting a new record company, in part modeled after Russell's Shelter Records. For the second time, twenty-six years after Shelter's departure, the legendary Church Studio is home base for an internationally distributed record label, Boy Rocking Records.