Sean Sullivan

Well, I love a good field trip episode, as you know, especially when it involves driving through the Tennessee countryside.

I found my way to a gravel drive between split rail fences called Happy Valley Road.

This track we've been listening to is actually called Happy Valley.

Mandolin phenom Wyatt Ellis took this as the title for his entire 2024 debut album because it was recorded at the Tractor Shed.

And he was working on some new music there in the days before I arrived.

I pulled in and it was quiet and shaded, a really nice place to think and get work done.

Now while we're out here, I want to get you oriented and make sure you're up to speed on a few names.

You've already met Ferg.

He's important in this story.

Then there's the fellow who owns this property and the studio itself, Mark Howard.

Known mostly to acoustic music insiders, Howard's a versatile session guitar player who's worked over a long career with Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Nancy Griffith, Riders in the Sky, and more.

He built and owned a place called Signal Path Recording in Berry Hill in Nashville before he built out the tractor shed during and after the pandemic.

When Sturgill Simpson made his two-volume Bluegrass collection, Mark Howard played guitar.

I have never met Mark, but he'll come up a lot in this conversation.

And the final offstage figure is Grandpa Jones, the old-time banjo player and Grand Ole Opry star who lived from 1913 to 1998.

You will soon see why he's relevant to this property.

with its contemporary but rustic-feeling log cabin where Mark Howard lives.

What I came to see, though, was one of the buildings out back.

Sean Sullivan welcomed me in and set the scene.

Well, this

building originally was a tractor shed, hence the name, and this property belonged to Grandpa Jones and Mark Howard who lives in the house got this property a little over a decade ago and he's always had studios so he kind of built out a couple rooms and then when I started working here we just kind of grew it's been kind of growing over the past five years and this is kind of set back um Off a gravel road, you know, when you pull in, it's horse pasture on your right and log cabin houses.

But right off a Springfield highway.

So you're not far from civilization, but it feels that way when you're here.

I think it kind of started as a bit of a pandemic project for Mark.

Like he had the building and I think it was just eating away at him not having a studio.