light in the attic records

The dean of Seattle record producer/engineers passed away peacefully Tuesday at age 81.

Barton spent more than 50 years recording just about anything there was to record here, from jazz and opera to radio shows and commercial jingles. This included several band-released soul 45s from the early 1970s, whose rediscovery spawned the ongoing Wheedle’s Groove project.

But he will be forever known as the “father of the Northwest sound.”

Peter Blecha’s astounding profile of Barton at HistoryLink.org barely scratches the surface of all he did.

For now, let’s just list a few of the many artists with which he worked, many of whose sonic “voices” he’d helped define:

The Kingsmen, Sonics, (Fabulous) Wailers, Frantics, Ventures, Fleetwoods, Little Bill, Don and the Goodtimes, Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, Bonnie Guitar, Stan Boreson, Pat Suzuki, Danny O’Keefe, Brothers Four, Dave Lewis Trio, Dynamics, Galaxies, Daily Flash, Springfield Rifle, Black on White Affair, Lewd, Girls, Young Fresh Fellows, and so many many more.