Extremely interesting early blues recordings.
These recordings are mono - recordings have been transferred to vinyl to be as true to the original recordings as possible (at the time)
The Story Of The Blues
Avan-Guard Music
Cat# VS2LP 2006
1972
Australian release
SPECIAL NOTES REGARDING THE COVER
Back in 2015 we experienced a very bad storm, some vinyl was affected - this is one of them.
The cover was all but destroyed inside because the gatefold stuck together. I have salvaged the front and rear outer covers ONLY. There is no inside pages from the gatefold. To assist the listener to this music, I am including printed sheets of the track listings.
New inner plastic sleeves
VINYL SPECIAL NOTES
Prior to inspection and playing these vinyl's, they have been give a very careful and thorough professional "wet wash"
Both vinyl were first visually inspected under a white halogen light source and are in very good condition, barely any marks can be seen at all. However just looking at the vinyl is not good enough, I then played all four sides.
First thing I noticed is that the record level is quite low compared to contemporary recordings. This is not a great thing because the surface noise to signal ratio is very low, which means that to enjoy the music you need to wind up the volume but at the same time you will also increase the level of the surface noise.
Clicks/pops are NOT an issue but there is a low level surface noise (made worse because the volume has to be turned up) constantly. The surface noise does not bury the music but it is noticeable.
Side A until about half way through has slightly higher surface noise than the remainder of Side A and Side B is also of a lower surface noise level throughout.
Record #2 has seen more play time than Record #1 - love that Leroy Carr "Midnight Hour Blues" but to be truthful, love them all on Record 2 in particular! So this means there are more clicks/pops on Record #2 (not placing the tonearm in the right spot when selecting songs) but still a very good play
This album would be a good candidate for further cleaning and/or restoration using good noise reduction hardware or software.
Don't misunderstand me here, the play is good - very good but I am pretty sure the surface noise can be reduced further.
Overall though, the recordings are special and very interesting, very early blues
New outer protective sleeve
CONTENT:
