Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick was there from the beginning -- actually, from before the beginning. "I met them on their (record company audition) the same week I started at Abbey Road," says the 62-year-old Emerick today.

Although he wouldn't actually begin working with the Fab Four until the mid-'60s -- critically helping to fashion many of the landmark sonic advancements of the group's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band LP -- Emerick remains an integral part of the Beatles' studio history.

Much of that experience is recounted in his 2006 memoir, "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles," co-authored with Howard Massey.

Emerick will be in Memphis on Monday for a Recording Academy-sponsored event titled "A Conversation with Geoff Emerick."

The multimedia discussion/Q&A will take place at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and will be conducted by Massey. It is sold out.

Now living in Los Angeles, Emerick -- whose credits extend beyond the Beatles and Paul McCartney to include Split Enz, Elvis Costello and, more recently, Nellie McKay -- remains busy. In addition to some film music production, he has been supervising a series of Sgt. Pepper tribute concerts by Cheap Trick, one of which -- recorded at the Waldorf Astoria hotel -- will be released as a CD/DVD in the coming months.

Although he pioneered many important recording methods, Emerick says he doesn't listen to much new music -- largely because of the misuse of such in-studio advancements.

"I got in the business for the love of the music, not the technical side of it," he says. "The musical performance comes from the studio floor and not from the control room. But because of the new technology over the years -- being able to retune vocals, that sort of thing -- we're losing that human element in the music and performances."

More honors for MGs, Memphis Horns

Two groups of famed Memphians have been announced among the inductees for the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. Stax Records staples Booker T. & the MGs and The Memphis Horns will be honored Oct. 28 during ceremonies at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.

The Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, established in 2007, recognizes the work of backing musicians; previous inductees include The Memphis Boys, The Tennessee Two, The Funk Brothers and The Wrecking Crew. Inductees are nominated nationally by the Musicians Union, which has more than 90,000 members.

Stax house band and instrumental hitmakers Booker T. & The MGs -- Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn and the late Al Jackson -- have previously been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2007. The Memphis Horns -- Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love -- were also stalwarts of Southern R&B in the '60s and '70s, playing on dozens of hit recordings.

Others being enshrined include The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and Friends, The Crickets, Al Kooper, Billy Sherrill and Duane Eddy. The partially announced lineup of presenters and performers who will appear at the ceremonies includes Percy Sledge, Eddie Floyd, Phil Everly, George Jones and Barbara Mandrell.

To purchase tickets for the event, contact the Schermerhorn box office at (615) 687-6400. For information about the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, go online to musicianshalloffame.com

- Bob Mehr: 529-2517