Video: Music Still Important Part of Life: Inside Look at Edmonson Voice Founder's Recording Studio

Darren Doyle in his office.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
I was hesitant to write this article because some might perceive it as boastful, but several friends have asked me about doing this for several years. And the fact is, if I came across someone else in Edmonson County with the same experience and opportunities, I would definitely want to do an article on them. So, reluctantly, I'm writing this for human interest sake.

Coming from a musical family tree, making, sharing, and enjoying music has always been a very central part of my life. Both my Dad and my Mom's sides of the family were (and still are) filled with talented people that passed that enjoyment down to me. My baby brother, Dustin, is the most well known musician in our family, as he sings lead for one of southern gospel's top male quartets, Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. His travels have taken him all over the world.

I showed a gift for music at an early age, growing up with a Dad that played guitar, just like his Dad did. My parents sang together and both sides of the family shared music with others, whether it was in church, in the living room, or around the family piano.

My office is not your typical one. In the back corner of my recording and production studio sits my desk along all the other items my lovely wife Debbie, won't allow in the house. Most offices are decorated with accolades, framed photos of acclaimed people, or boring framed prints from Home Interior. Not here.

The first thing you'll see is a portion of my guitar collection that I've worked on throughout my entire life. Several of them have been passed down from the aforementioned family; most at average value but all with special places in my life. I've got a few framed photos, mostly of my wife and kids, along with a few work related things, but it's mostly an eclectic collection of things only nerds have.

There are many folks that I work with through the Edmonson Voice that don't know about my musical background. I was certainly never a celebrity, but music gave me opportunities that most people don't get. Right out of high school, I began singing with a regional gospel quartet called The Crossmen, from Morgantown, KY. This of course, came after I sang with my parents and family in different combinations in church throughout my childhood years. The Crossmen was a crucial point in my life that set the tone going forward.

While in the group, in addition to making some of my greatest friends, I was blessed to perform 13 different times on the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville, TN, where I met some of the greatest artists in country music history. We shared the stage with Porter Waggoner, Grandpa Jones, and Hank Snow, just to name a few.

When folks come to visit me for a meeting at my office for the first time, they normally take a second look at the wall of guitars and then they ask me the dumbest question in the world: "Do you play guitar?"

I always answer with, "No, I just collect them but I'm thinking about taking lessons," and then I never mention it again. And somehow, people believe that answer every. single. time.

The Crossmen at the Grand Ole Opry, January 1995.

After The Crossmen was my first professional gig where I traveled with the late Jeff Stice, another Edmonson County native, in Perfect Heart. Even though this southern gospel quartet peaked before my arrival, it allowed me to travel the rest of the country while earning a paycheck doing so. The hectic touring schedule of 250 concerts per year was enough to prove to me that I needed to stay closer to home, so after a few years I changed gears again and started an alternative country/americana band with some local buddies, called Dry Land Fish.

It was fun while it lasted, but as a naive kid from Edmonson County, I quickly learned that lifestyle wasn't for me so I stopped touring altogether and began focusing on recording music. I did that for several years until the industry changed with YouTube and social media. Those platforms allowed artists to be discovered without the need for studio-produced demos and albums, and the small mom and pop recording studios began to fade away, along with mine.

However, during that time period, I learned that if I didn't have to hire a bunch of musicians to play on recordings, and do those jobs myself, I didn't have to pay all that labor, and keep it for myself. Those years are when I really concentrated on becoming a better musician and learning how to produce and play on recording sessions. It was common for me to produce entire albums with me playing all the live instruments, including guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, and a few other odds and ends.

DLF 2003: L-R, Darren Doyle, Josh Hampton, Mark Whitley, Jonathan Hodges, Keith Hurt.

L-R: DLF, 1999: Kevin Johnson, Darren, Joey Webb, Josh Hampton.

After a completed album, folks would always ask me, "how do you play all the instruments on a recording?" And I would always reply, "one at a time." If I could play them all at once I probably wouldn't be in the news business, but it's actually very simple. I just chart out everything on paper so I can see where everything is supposed to go, and then I simply record one instrument at a time. Of course, I make plenty of mistakes and have to do multiple takes, but technology has come so far in making music and it's very easy to correct those mistakes.

I stopped recording music full time in 2014, just before I started the Edmonson Voice. While that keeps me very busy these days, I still love and appreciate all kinds of good music. A few years ago, I reunited with some of my old Crossmen buddies and formed a new gospel quartet, just to scratch an itch every now and again. You can find United Quartet here and there, but we stay pretty close to home and only sing a few times a year, and that's plenty for a bunch of old guys with jobs, families, and other responsibilities.

United Quartet, 2019.

So, in case you're wondering how one guy can produce an entire song by himself, it's still a fairly simple process; it's one thing at a time. The YouTube video above shows you just how I do it from start to finish. The song is called "One Man Band," and it's a simple instrumental tune where I play all the instruments.

I'm not interested in making money off of music and I've certainly grown past the phase of wanting to be a famous musician. I still get to record for all the Edmonson Voice production work, specifically when it comes to creating soundtracks to commercials and video production for WildcatsLive. Honestly, I just love picking up an instrument and making a few decent sounds or humming a tune. It's a great way to relieve some stress or just to take a little break in between phone calls or publishing content.

Hopefully, this will shed a little light on all the stuff you'll see as you walk through the studio to my office, but when folks ask me "do you play guitar?" I'm still going to reply with "no, I just collect them, but I'm thinking about taking some lessons."