As soon as Young walks on stage and you hear the applause, you’ll know you’re in for a sonic treat. The audience has been carefully miked, which is not always the case with live recordings, even when the stage sound is good. The applause captures the hall space well too.
Billed by his label as a “long lost masterpiece by Neil Young”, referred to by fans as “one of Young’s mysterious, great ‘lost albums’” and described by Young himself as “the one that got away”, Homegrown was recorded mostly between late 1974 and early ’75, with one track from late spring ‘74 and another from late summer of that year.
"Don't want my MP3," Neil Young protests on side two's "Drifting Back (Part 2)".
Young's lifelong obsession with sound quality is well known and of course welcomed around here. He was one of the first musicians to express serious reservations about digital recording and playback. Back in 1993 he appeared on an MTV News piece along with Peter Gabriel and me too. You can watch it here. "We've lost the sound" Neil laments—and that was before the scourge of MP3.
This extraordinary document recorded by Young during a two night stand at small club on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor back in November of 1968 is about as intimate and revealing a performance as you’re likely to find in the singer’s catalog.
This 1973 release, minus saxophonist Phil Shulman who had left the group (leaving but two Shulmans), was rejected by Columbia Records for being "un-commercial" yet it became one of the band's most popular releases. It was available only as an import in America.
Vince Guaraldi Trio’s acclaimed 1962 release Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus finally receives a truly well-deserved 180g 1LP upgrade via Craft Recordings and the company’s acclaimed Small Batch one-step series. Read Mark Smotroff’s detailed review to see if this very special RTI-pressed edition is worthy of your attention, and your wallet. . .
How great is it that jazz pianist Thelonious Monk’s April 1957 breakthrough album Brilliant Corners is the latest entry in Craft Recordings’ notable Small Batch series of limited-edition, definitive, all-analog, audiophile-grade releases? Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if the Small Batch 180g 1LP edition of Brilliant Corners is the right Monk fit for you. . .
The first studio album proper by the duet since 1976's Whistling Down The Wire, Crosby-Nash - a two-CD set - is an interesting, intriguing and overall thoughtful affair. To say something like that it reflects the 'lives in the balance' vibe that we are all surrounded by here in 2004 through the minds of these two firebrands would be accurate, but there's more, much more.
The South African trumpet and flugelhorn player Hugh Masekela first became known to American audiences as a pop star with his 1968 hit “Grazing in the Grass.” He played trumpet on The Byrds' hit “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star,” and among audiophiles, his song “Stimela (Coaltrain),” recorded live, is a sonic standout as well as an inspiring track.
If you are considering buying the new 180g 4LP/1EP Super Deluxe Edition vinyl box set celebrating The Beatles’ landmark August 1966 album Revolver that’s set for release on October 28, then you’ve come to the right place. Read on to discover why this landmark Beatles box set is worth the coin for mono and stereo fans alike. . .
Dept. of Corrections: Due to a miscommunication between myself and Speakers Corner's Kai Seeman, I was led to believe this lush, yet detailed reissue was the first to be mastered by Maarten DeBoer, after the retirement of Willem Makkee at the newly refurbished Berliner Mastering facility in Hanover, Germany.
The precedent for this sprawling, personal three record set might be Joni Mitchell’s Blue but don’t expect to be humming the tunes as you head for the exits.
Newvelle’s Season Five Box is ready, but sorry, we’re behind so here’s coverage of Season Four’s box just in time for the subscription-based label’s Black Friday Record Store Day “open box” specials.
First the specials: eleven individual albums from the label’s first four years, including two from Season Four’s box, will be available exclusively from Wednesday, November 27th to Monday December 2nd, on the Newvelle website. There are albums from familiar names like the late Don Friedman and Ben Allison and others as well including from season four, Billy Lester’s From Scratch and Kenny Werner’s Church on Mars.
In addition, the label is offering during this Wednesday-Monday Black Friday RSD promotion, free shipping when you purchase the
full Season Four box set.