SEATTLE — Even the street signs seem to be part of the conspiracy.
If you’re heading north on Highway 9, a sign says turn right for Maltby Road. But actually, the place on Maltby Road you’re looking for — a beautiful old wooden barn snuggled next to a near-century-old house on 10 acres of pasture and woods — is to the left. Once you get there, you’d never guess that behind those barn doors, in this peaceful glen, James Brown and Eric Clapton once recorded. So did Soundgarden, the Foo Fighters and the Lumineers, whose catchy Top 10 single, “Ho Hey,” snagged a Grammy nomination this year. Last June, Brandi Carlile even named her album after the place, so taken was she by its idyllic atmosphere.
Despite all that — and despite a 35-year history that rings an astonishing number of bells in Seattle’s cultural landscape (those zany old Rainier beer commercials; Kenny G, back when he was Kenny Gorelick; free-form rock station KZAM; neo-folkie local heroes Fleet Foxes) — Bear Creek Studio is one of this region’s best-kept secrets.
“We didn’t really want a lot of people to know we were here,” says mild-mannered Joe Hadlock, half of the husband-and-wife team who founded Bear Creek in 1977.
“We’ve been booked solid for 35 years,” adds Manny, his wife of 42 years.
Through word-of-mouth, on a grapevine that extends across the U.S. and over to the U.K., Bear Creek is known as one of the most desirable recording studios in the world.