For a lot of us who live here, Norman Petty Studios is one of those places you drive past on West 7th and mean to visit "sometime." That sometime got more interesting this year. In March, Charley Crockett walked into 1313 West 7th with a band, spent six days at the same board Buddy Holly used, and walked out with an album he named after the town. He released it April 28, then re-released it July 3 after some contract drama that Rolling Stone bothered to cover.
If you have lived in Clovis for more than a couple of years, you already know the outline of the Buddy Holly story. What you may not know is that the studio is still a working room, that a tour is easier to book than most residents assume, and that the three addresses tied to the Clovis Sound sit within a fifteen-minute loop downtown. This post is a practical read for locals who want to finally do the thing, or take a visiting cousin somewhere better than the mall.
What Actually Happened At 1313 West 7th In March
The March 2026 session was the first commercial recording at the original Petty studio in roughly thirty years. Petty himself stopped using the 7th Street room in 1969, when he moved operations to a 24-track setup he built inside the old Mesa Theater downtown. Since then the 7th Street building has been preserved as a museum, with tours by appointment and the original equipment left where Petty put it.
Crockett recorded the whole album in six days. He named it Clovis. Between the April 28 release, a brief pull from streaming, and the July 3 re-release, the record put more national ink on the studio than it has seen in a long time.
The thing to understand as a resident: this was not a heritage stunt. It was a working session in a working room. The Hammond B-3, the Baldwin grand, the celeste that plays the hook on Holly's "Everyday," the Telefunken and RCA microphones, the echo chamber Petty built above his father's garage down the street, all of it is still in place and still runs. Visitors on tour get to sit in the control room chair, listen to playbacks through the original monitoring, and, if the timing lines up, hear David Bigham of The Roses sing along with his own backing vocal parts on "It's So Easy" and "Think It Over."
The Booking Mechanic Nobody Explains Clearly
The single biggest reason residents never go is that they think it works like a regular museum. It does not. Here is the actual sequence.
- Contact Ken Broad, the studio's owner and curator, either directly or through the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber will connect you.
- Give at least two weeks of notice. The studio's own tour request page says two weeks is the minimum preferred lead time. Same-week requests sometimes work, but do not plan on it.
- There is no ticket price. Tours run on a free-will offering. Bring cash. Be generous. The building is maintained on donations.
- Tours are given as a courtesy and are not guaranteed. Broad is the sole guide most days, and life events on his end can move things around.
That last point is the one that catches people. This is not a staffed attraction. It is one man opening up a preserved room for you. Plan accordingly, arrive on time, and do not expect a gift shop.
"You will see the inner workings of the studio, the equipment, instruments and spaces used to make the many hit records that came from what has been called the most authentic vintage recording studio in the world." — Norman Petty Studios tour page
Three Addresses, One Story
Most out-of-town coverage treats the studio as the whole story. It is not. There are three connected sites in Clovis, and knowing how they differ saves you from doubling back.
| Site | Address | What It Is | How To Get In |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norman Petty Studios | 1313 W. 7th St. | The original 1954-56 room where Holly, Orbison, Knox, the Fireballs and Jennings recorded. Preserved with original equipment. | Appointment only through Ken Broad or the Chamber. Two weeks notice. Donation. |
| Norman and Vi Petty Rock & Roll Museum | Basement of the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce | Instruments, memorabilia, a recreated diner display and a small analog studio recreation. Volunteer-staffed. | Walk-in during Chamber hours. |
| Norman and Vi Petty Performing Arts Center | The former Mesa Theater, downtown | Petty's later 24-track studio, restored in partnership with Clovis Community College and now used as a live performance venue. | Check event calendars. |
The Performing Arts Center is the piece most residents miss. When Petty outgrew 7th Street in 1969, he bought the Mesa and built a bigger studio inside it. Broad partnered with Clovis Community College to restore the building, and it now carries the Petty name as a performance space. If your interest is more "hear live music in a historic room" than "sit in Buddy Holly's chair," that is your address.
Who You Might Actually Meet
The names to know, so a tour does not blur together:
Ken Broad. Owner and curator of the studio since Petty's death in 1984. A Minnesota native and nondenominational minister who moved to Portales in 1969, worked as Vi Petty's business manager until her death in 1992, and has run tours ever since. He is the person Norman personally asked to look after the place.
David Bigham. Of The Roses, the backing vocal group Petty recruited after Roy Orbison brought them from Texas. Bigham sang on many of the sessions the studio is famous for. He sometimes drops in on tours and, if he is in the mood, will sing his old parts live along with the playback.
Nick Mondragon, Jay, and Amy. The volunteers you are most likely to meet at the museum in the Chamber basement. The museum is small enough that whoever is behind the counter is also your guide.
Pairing It With The Rest Of A Saturday
A studio tour runs anywhere from forty-five minutes to well over an hour depending on Broad's mood and how many stories the group draws out of him. That leaves most of a day. A reasonable loop for a resident hosting visitors:
- Morning: Museum in the Chamber basement first. It gives you the story arc before you see the room, which makes the studio hit harder.
- Late morning: Studio tour at 1313 W. 7th. Bring cash.
- Lunch: Foxy Drive-In, the diner that Holly and his contemporaries actually ate at during recording weeks. It is not a themed restaurant, it is just a drive-in that happens to have been there the whole time. That is the point.
- Afternoon: Check whether anything is on the calendar at the Norman and Vi Petty Performing Arts Center.
If you want to build a bigger weekend around music, the Clovis Music Festival is the annual anchor. The 2026 edition ran April 10 and 11 at the Citizen's Bank of Clovis Events Center on East Brady. The festival has been running since 1987 and exists specifically to honor the Clovis Sound and the musicians who recorded at Petty's rooms. Watch for the 2027 dates around late winter.
Why Any Of This Matters If You Already Live Here
Two reasons.
The first is the visitor problem. If you have family flying into Amarillo or Lubbock and driving over, "let's do the Norman Petty tour" is a better Saturday than another loop through the North Plains Mall. It also puts you in the small group of residents who can actually explain what the Clovis Sound was, which is a decent thing to be able to do for people who traveled to see you.
The second is that the Crockett session changed the tense of the story. For thirty years the studio was past-tense: a preserved thing, a memorial. A working session in March 2026 puts it back in the present. That is a different building to live down the street from. It is one thing to drive by a museum. It is another to drive by a room where somebody just made a record.
For most of us the practical takeaway is small. Text the Chamber. Give two weeks. Bring cash. Show up.
At Sagebrush Real Estate, we spend a lot of time talking about what makes Clovis worth staying in, not just moving to. The music history is one of those things that rewards residents who actually engage with it. If you are thinking about your own next move in Clovis, whether that is buying, selling, or renting out the house you already own, schedule a free consultation and we will talk through what makes sense for you.
