What are you listening to? May 2024

Status
Not open for further replies.
Paul Revere & The Raiders - In The Beginning (1963, Jerden reissue 1966)

NC00MjgwLmpwZWc.jpeg


Vinyl Spin of the Day.

Like The Beatles, Paul Revere & The Raiders paid a lot of dues before they hit the big time. Portland, Oregon was their Hamburg: night after grueling night of playing covers for rowdy teenagers.

I bought this copy from the cutout bin after seeing PR&TR on "Where The Action Is". This was a straight reissue of their second long player, recorded two years before they signed with Columbia. To my great surprise, the sound was driven by the wailing sax and leering vocals of Mark Lindsay, nothing like their later sanitized carriage house* hits.

* that's an upscale garage to you non-architects

:4.5: on the Sam-O-Meter. It still sounds great today, but I'm sad that I never got invited to a Crisco party. :(

 
Hank Williams - Wait For The Light To Shine (1960)

My02NjAyLmpwZWc.jpeg


Vinyl Spin of the Day.

The death of Hank Williams on New Year's Day of 1953 did not halt the flood of music unleashed by his label, MGM Records. Seven years later, they dug out some demos Hank had recorded with his guitar and overdubbed them with a full band. This album was the result, and its a lot better than you might think. The musicians do a very respectable job evoking the sound of Hank's Drifting Cowboys. With the vocals buried low in the mix, the less than stellar quality of the source material is tolerable on most of the songs. At the time, any new Hank Williams material was cause for celebration and this one is still enjoyable today.
 
Various Artists - Swede Home Chicago (rec. 1923-27, Archeophone comp. 2021)

1715988890771.png

"Chicago, the most populous Swedish city after Stockholm, was also home to the first record label founded by a Nordic immigrant to the United States. Gustaf Waldemar Wallin, a former crofter from Sweden’s rocky western coast, owned a music shop and launched Wallin’s Svenska Records, issuing 28 ten-inch shellac discs (56 tracks) from 1923 to 1927. Performers ran the era’s gamut: raucous vaudevillians; operatic tenors; accordion dance bands intermingling venerable folk tunes with hot jazz; sedate classical duos and novelty bell ringers; rousing vocal quartets and massed choirs; seasoned professionals and moonlighting amateurs."
 
Various Artists - The T.E. Lawrence Music Library: The Gramophone Recordings At Clouds Hill (2016)

1716082342987.png

Jonny and the gang at Trunk Records assembled this five volume collection which they describe as "the records from the T.E. Lawrence record collection left at Clouds Hill in Dorset. These are the exact recordings (i.e. the correct recordings by the correct artists from the correct dates) that he had."

1716083139490.png

Apparently when he wasn't out traipsing the desert for God and King, Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935) sat around his modest cottage in Dorset listening to rather somber classical music. The collection skews toward solo and chamber instrumental performances from the continental crowd (Beethoven. Brahms, etc.) and as well as contemporary Brits like Delius and Elgar. The artists are not revealed, perhaps for licensing reasons but all are uniformly excellent. Taken together, the five volumes definitely put one in a suitably contemplative mood for the years between the Wars.

1716083068858.png
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top