Yeah, as Tribute already mentioned above, ignore those Amazon prices!! I see this disc surprisingly often, both physically and online. Cheap too! I just wanted to add that in addition to his 1960s recordings, Folkway Records also put out his 1927 and 1929 recordings on both LP and CD. Dock Boggs - Dock Boggs - His Twelve Original Recordings - Amazon.com Music But, just a heads-up that this is a custom made CD-R. This bothers some, so I just thought I'd mention it since Amazon doesn't. Also, the liner notes are included on the CD as a PDF file. Still, it's great to have this music available and Folkways usually put out some great stuff!
True, but unfortunately Folkways CDs often suffer from noise reduction. Why do so many of these reissue labels (other than Yazoo and Blues Images and a few others) think they have to process the music to death...
It's not like Folkways LPs were ever high fidelity to begin with. On top of that, most copies of many Folkways titles tend to be beat to death over their 50-60 year life and used copies are typically missing the booklet. It is nice that the gift of the Folkways archive to the Smithsonian required all titles to be made available forever to the general public. The gift did not require audiophile remasterings. Anyway, most of the original quarter-inch tapes are probably toast by now. They were not done on top-of-the-line studio equipment.
So. in the red corner, we have Yazoo Praise God I'm Satisfied | Blind Willie Johnson and in the blue corner, American Epic American Epic: Blind Willie John... | Blind Willie Johnson | MP3 Downloads | 7digital United States Somebody had the chance to compare the sound?
I'm as big a fan of Yazoo as you'll find. But even Yazoo's now-retired owner Richard Nevins is an enthusiast of the new transfer techniques that John Tefteller and his team have developed. This new Best of BWJ on Third Man Records is done in the new system. I've only heard "Dark Was The Night" in the new process and it blows away the Yazoo, which I've owned for years. I assume the rest of the new compilation album is similarly spectacular.
There's an amazing article about him in the Da Capo's first book on best music writing. I highly suggest checking it out. I ordered tapes from him. He will make a tape of anything from his collection.
I understand the compilations of the individual artists are LP- and streaming or downloading only, no CDs. By the way, there's been some criticism of their new system, including upthread; some people seem to find the sound homogeneous or something like that.
I asked the very same question in the thread below and two forum members still prefer the Yazoo comps. See posts 148 and 149. American Epic - New documentary and music reissue series of 1920s-30s blues and other American music
The thing about Yazoo for me is the vintage style and Robert Crumb art as much as the sound, I can listen through surface noises and limitations, but yeah, this new level of sound is mind blowing at times. Imagine hearing something from a beat Paramount or Black Patti for so long and suddenly it sounds like something done a week ago! I hope they can do something for some of these only known acetate items floating around out there from all kinds of artists into the 1960s, some of that is really good but buried under decades of neglect and abuse. I sort of understand how they can pull the info out now but the wait to hear certain things could be excruciating enough to make you want to try and be happy again about how cool those Yazoo and Stash compilations were.
The new transfer process isn't merely a surface noise reduction. According to Mr. Tefteller, it is a process that is able to extract sonics from the shellac that have always been there in the grooves, but previous technology couldn't capture it. Beyond that, he hasn't offered much for specifics, citing it as a proprietary process. As for preferring the original Yazoos, I understand it, and there are times when I prefer them too. There is something 'magical' about those ancient records and how they sound in the raw. The very premise of this forum is to discuss the sonics of recordings in all their forms. Analogue playback vs. digital playback will always have their plusses and minuses, and a lot of us go back and forth in terms of how we listen to our favorite recordings. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.
Good lord those American Epic sets sound fantastic. I thought the late 2000s Yazoo stuff was good but this is just insane, especially the Paramount sides. So happy they included Banjoreno by the Dixieland Jug Blowers. Loved that track ever since hearing it on Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Dr. Carl Haber, particle physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won a MacArthur Genius Award in 2013 for his sound restoration work. He developed a technique to acquire an 'image' from old recordings which can then be re-created, without the surface noise. He's now working on Wax Cylinders, but hopefully he's been working with old records too........ Waxing Poetic: New Tech Revives Sounds from Past Treasures
Terrific article. It never even occurred to me that cylinders had been used to record now-lost languages. What a priceless piece of history their tech is helping to preserve. On to diamond discs and 78s next!
So, I have become engaged in pre-war blues again. The reissue blues arena is a tough one to figure out. With Blue Note Jazz I can go to Music Matters and be safe. Should I start with any of the Yazoo blues reissue lps? Looking for vinyl mostly, but also any must have great sounding cd boxsets. Thanks for any help outside what has been posted here already.
Cool collectible, and probably worth a bundle today. For those who don't know, these were reissued in Japan 10 years ago. Good luck finding them now at retail....
Does anyone here have all of the Blues Images CDs? I'm looking to purchase a bunch when the next calendar comes out and I have a few questions....
Got my Elusive Disc order today and American Epic... The Best Of The Blues and BO Mississippi John Hurt were in there. Listening now...great! An apology sheet was included with correct track listing as cover listing is wrong. Discs are flat and centered and sound is decent. I got no complaints. With discount they were $15.99....good deal!
Does anyone know if there is a decent transfer of the alternate Paramount take of "Match Box Blues" by Blind Lemon Jefferson? Not the earlier Okeh version but the other version that only seems to turn up in the same transfer from the old Document Vol 2 CD.
I recently bought a copy of the Blind Willie Praise God I'm Satisfied on record and it clicked and popped throughout. What a massive disappointment from this supposedly faultless label. Back it went man. What's the point of comparing the sound if it comes to you on a crappy record? Shocking quality control Mr Yazoo.
I wish they'd open source their software. I know plenty of people who would be interested in building non-contact turntables to capture music from the grooves of a rare, fragile or even cracked 78s. The cameras in a cell phone could do an amazing job of recording the grooves, far more efficiently than the "one pixel" method described - which sounds like a method to consume the maximum amount of grant money per disc or cylinder.