Cypress Records strikes a chord with partygoers

Jacksonville Beach-based recording studio gives guests the star treatment

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If there’s one thing everybody across the world has in common, it’s that they all have a birthday.

That’s how owner of Cypress Records Dave Plummer sees it, and it’s part of the reason why he offers up his studio as a unique celebration location for those looking to create birthday memories with their own sound and style.

Cypress Records, which was founded in 1962, is located at 120 North 5th St., in Jacksonville Beach, and isn’t some tiny, digitally dependent sound booth. It’s a full studio, able to handle a large brass band or a self-conscious soloist hoping to hit all the right notes.

Plummer’s been recording music for more than 40 years — and making it for much longer — but, just a couple of years ago, he decided to offer a piece of that history and musical knowledge to area residents who want to memorialize their birthday, or pretty much any other type of special event, with their own musical journey.

 

Humble, and historic, beginnings

Plummer’s first foray into running a recording studio began in a small, converted tugboat dock in Palm Valley.

Plummer was born the youngest of seven children, and the only boy. His father passed away when he was a baby, and he and his sisters were primarily raised by their grandmother, whose history in Jacksonville Beach began in 1910, when his grandparents came to the area.

Plummer became fascinated with music as a young child after listening to his aunt sing. Though the family didn’t have much money, Plummer was able to take guitar lessons and wrote his first song at age 12.

At age 17, Plummer ended up in Memphis, moving in with his sister, and found himself auditioning at the famed Sun Studio, which is known as the birthplace of Rock & Roll and for kickstarting Elvis Presley’s career. It was there he met Jerry Lee Lewis and Sun Studio’s legendary founder Sam Phillips, who encouraged Plummer to continue his musical career. But, at age 18, homesickness brought him back to the First Coast.

“I got the taste of honey,” Plummer said of seeing a real recording studio.

So, in the swamps of Palm Valley off Roscoe Boulevard (then Oleander Drive), Plummer built his own studio out of that old tugboat structure. At the dock site, Plummer noticed a frosted glass door with gold letter leafing that read Cypress Lodging Co., inspiring the name for his studio.

In that makeshift studio, Plummer fine-tuned his skills and set out to lure in musicians, who, like country singer Jimmy Strickland, sometimes needed convincing.

Plummer recalls an embarrassed Strickland saying, “I can’t go in that shack and record.”

Strickland was encouraged after being told it would be “just a good, old-fashioned jam session,” and the result was magic.

“The only record that ever sold for that man was cut in Palm Valley at Cypress Recording Studios,” Plummer said.

When not working on his music business, Plummer used his building skills to construct houses. He built his first house at age 21 and went on to build many other houses around Northeast Florida.

He was also left some family land in Jacksonville Beach, where his current studio has stood for 43 years.

 

Celebrity clients, contests and converging genres

Aside from Strickland, Cypress Records has hosted several other well-known artists. And Plummer has recorded music for a broad range of genres.

Kenny Price, of “Hee Haw” fame, baritone, jazz and R&B singer Arthur Prysock and rap-rock band Limp Bizkit, which was formed in Jacksonville in 1994 and fronted by star Fred Durst, have all recorded there.

Although many of the artists he’s worked with couldn’t be more different, Plummer said the feedback was the same.

“‘What are you doing in there, no one has ever made me sound like you did,’” Plummer said Price once told him.

Prysock, who had recorded music across the country, said no one had made him sound better, Plummer recalled.

Plummer’s passion for the music business doesn’t end with performing and recording. He also held numerous contests in the area, like 1987’s “Miss Modern Country Music,” which counted Miss America as a guest and drew in a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader as a participant. He’s created local television shows highlighting a range of vocal talents from across all age groups.

Plummer said encouraging musicians and spreading good music fuels his passion.

“I’ve done a lot of things here, and it’s been my life,” he said.

 

Party time and appreciation for the past

Plummer got the suggestion his recording studio might make a great birthday party place when he was out painting his building purple and gold not long ago. He was approached by a woman who asked if he’d ever thought about holding a birthday party there and was interested in doing one for her daughter.

After that, the idea took flight. Birthday party guests of all ages could have something different from the norm, and be the star of their own show. Party guests receive a CD of their studio recordings.    

Plummer appreciates that he can transport guests and artists back to the heyday of the music recording industry, and provide an authenticity not seen much today.

“The recording business isn’t like it used to be,” Plummer said. “Back in those days, we didn’t use gimmicks.”

The current Cypress Records studio is modeled after the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville. Much of his equipment dates back to the 1960s, and while party guests can sing to karaoke track, the studio is anything but karaoke. Plummer says he works with whatever the party guests want musically, but he also allows guests the opportunity to embrace making music the way it was meant to be.

He especially enjoys hosting people who have a genuine love and appreciation for music.

“You can’t teach anybody to sing, and you can’t teach anybody to be a recording engineer,” Plummer said. “It’s gotta be born in their soul.”

Plummer said he still has the same passion for recording music as he always has. He still wants to showcase bands from Americana to folk to bluegrass. Plummer also wants Cypress Records to be the go-to place for a great party, and as he approaches his own birthday, his 77th, he is grateful for the past and optimistic about the future.

“I’ve had a real interesting life, and I’m still standing.” he said.

For more information on Cypress Records, go to www.cypressrecords.com.