A few days ago we received an email from community member Rick Tucker the Owner/Producer of Raw Wood Studios and himself a Vietnam Veteran. Raw Wood Studios is a place that was conceived by Rick to give veterans somewhere to record. He already has support by many of our friends such as Slate, PreSonus and Eventide.

Rick shares his vision;

By pledging to this project, you are helping Raw Wood Studios assist Veterans and others who have no way of paying for studio time to record or even learn how to record their songs. Here we will do both. 

Rick's own story is as follow;

My name is Rick Tucker and I am a US/Vietnam Veteran (1969-1975). This studio has been a dream of mine for many years. I started my music career in 1963 when my parents got me a guitar for Christmas. Then in 1965 we moved to the big city (Canoga Park, CA.)  I had a friend who had a friend, who knew a music producer and as they always say, “The rest is boring”.  I got a record deal at 16 and thought, “can’t get no better than this”. After recording 7 records and having nothing to show for it, (I never made a dime…but the label did) I left the music business and joined the Navy. While in Vietnam I continued to play, write and record. I got to play with some great musicians that, at the time, I didn't know who they were, but they helped me hone my craft along with rejuvenating my love for music.  I continued to write and record but never ventured out again into the music jungle being afraid of the wolves. Then in 2011 while at Guitar Center doing a class on recording, a guy approached me and asked, “What’s your story?” I thought…here we go. So anyway, to make a long story longer, his name was Ed Cohen and we became business partners in Rock Garden Conspiracy LLC. I started my music career again. We formed a Record Label, a Management Company, Publishing Company and a Recording Studio. I had concerns and dreams of what I wanted to do before letting down my walls again. These were that I want to base this company on helping and supporting the Veterans of this country that have given so much and have been forgotten by many. Also I wanted to give a chance to those people who have so much to say but either can’t afford it or are afraid of the unknown in the music business. I wanted to make it a safe haven to come to and still make it as affordable as we could.

Rick approached Pro Tools Expert to help connect him with Avid, but having read his story and seeing the work he is doing we offered to help in our own way. First we sent him $500 to spend on Waves plugins for the studio, secondly we offered to give him help on his web site and third we said we would let others know about his work so they could consider supporting this venture.

In our view supporting veterans is a way of helping those affected by war - in this case those who served and now trying to get through life.

If you want to know more about the work of Raw Wood Studios then visit the website.