Copper


Phil Keaggy – A Lifetime of Making Joyful Noise...

Issue 146FEATURED

Part One of this series (Issue 145) covered Phil Keaggy’s early music with hard rock power trio Glass Harp, his experiments with prog rock, jazz fusion, classical and Elizabethan acoustic guitar,...

Martin Theophilus of The Museum of Magnetic Sou...

Issue 146REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

Martin Theophilus is the Executive Director of the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording (MOMSR), a private collection of recording machines, tapes and other materials, along with a companion website. The site contains...

Global Groovin’ with Analog Africa

Issue 146FROM THE SWEET SPOT

“Greetings, funky friends.” So began a recent email announcing the latest release from one of my favorite music labels, Analog Africa. Launched in 2007, AA has so far produced 44 ear-opening reissues...

Back To My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part One

Issue 146NATURAL BORN KESSLER

Returning after a long absence, Contributing Editor Ken Kessler – who started with Copper Issue 2 – provides us with a cautionary study of the open-reel tape revival, an addiction that has...

Al Staehely: Spirit and the Letter of the Law

Issue 146DISCIPLES OF SOUND

In rock and roll you always take the wins where you find them. Al Staehely is the only person who has both played Carnegie Hall and provided legal services for...

Summer Jam at Watkins Glen

Issue 146TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

For a variety of reasons, we left in the late evening of July 27th, 1973. The trip to Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway was about 265 miles. It was going...

Roon Done Right: A User Guide

Issue 146DEEP DIVE

Many people think of Roon as a media player or media server, but it’s neither! Good thing, too, as it would be crazy to spend $120/year renting software to play music you...

Twisted Business: Jay Jay French’s Lessons Lear...

Issue 146FRANKLY SPEAKING

Jay Jay French was the lead guitarist and is the business maven behind Twisted Sister, one of the world’s most successful rock bands with more than 20 million records sold....

Clandestine Amigo Releases Its Second Album, Th...

Issue 146OCTAVE PITCH

Things Worth Remembering is the second album by pop/rock band Clandestine Amigo. Recorded in pure high-resolution Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and mastered using Octave Records’ DSDDirect Mastering process, the album finds...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part Four

Issue 146NEW VISTAS

The first installments of this series appeared in Issues 143, 144 and 145. It was well after midnight by the time I staggered back from downtown Spearfish. I had a hard time locating my...

Jean-Philippe Rameau: A New Take on French Opera

Issue 146SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

If Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 – 1764) had not embarked on a new aspect of his musical career in middle age, the world would be deprived of some very fine operas....

Isaac Hayes: Soul Chef

Issue 146OFF THE CHARTS

Isaac Hayes had an inauspicious start. Born in 1942 in rural Tennessee, he was raised on a farm by his sharecropping grandparents. He would go on to become one of...

The Write Thing

Issue 146Opening Salvo

“Writers write.” – Dave Kindred.“Nuff said.” – Stan Lee. Ken Kessler is back! He started with Copper Issue 2 and returns after a long absence with the beginning of a series on...

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Wizened Tree

Issue 146PARTING SHOT

Near The Valley of Rocks in Lynton, England is a coastal stretch of land that is truly dramatic, with a landscape that has endured intense weathering. Here it is rugged...

Getting to the Point

Issue 145PARTING SHOT

Zabriskie Point, California, in Death Valley National Park.

Suspending Disbelief: The Potential of Acoustic...

Issue 145FROM THE SWEET SPOT

Acoustic manipulation is a technique that can be used in medical applications, such as controlling a miniature camera within a human body, or removing a kidney stone. Call it “acoustic...

Martin Theophilus of The Museum of Magnetic Sou...

Issue 145REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

Martin Theophilus is the Executive Director of the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording (MOMSR), a private collection of recording machines, tapes and other materials, along with a companion website. The site contains a...

Dar Williams: Writing Songs That Matter

Issue 145DISCIPLES OF SOUND

The folk community is quite a bit like the jazz world. You earn respect over time and across a strong body of work. For Dar Williams, the path from debut...

The New New Orleans Sounds

Issue 145WAYNE'S WORDS

Beyond jazz, the music to which the Crescent City gave birth, New Orleans rock and R&B music has always meant something simple and straightforward to me. Piano-based, from the early...

Sweet Summer Songs

Issue 145BE HERE NOW

Welcome to the latest edition of Be Here Now, the column/playlist for folks who would like to discover outstanding contemporary artists but could use a little help navigating all of the...

Raw Power

Issue 145AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

1977 Klipsch Decorator loudspeaker, companion to the one featured in Issue 140. It was a less-expensive version of a finished model. The speakers feature a Richard Modaferri-modified Infinite Slope Crossover. The backs...

The Man with No Name? Michael Baugh Interview, ...

Issue 145THE COPPER INTERVIEW

What do you get when you blend pyrotechnic guitar virtuosity, exceptional composing ability and a passion for all things musical? You get the uber-talented Michael Baugh, film composer, Ernie Ball Music...

Phil Keaggy – A Lifetime of Making Joyful Noise...

Issue 145FEATURED

“Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!” Psalm 33:2, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Guitarists who have developed distinctly separate and unique voices on both the acoustic and electric guitar...

Moving to Computer Audio: A Comprehensive Overv...

Issue 145DEEP DIVE

In Part One (Issue 144) we looked at the fundamental considerations in building a computer-based high-resolution audio system, creating a music library, DACs and how to best implement them, and audiophile computers...

Whistling While You Work

Issue 145TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

As I step off my elevator, I hear music coming from my end of the hallway. It’s really loud and I soon realize that it is coming from my apartment....

Every Picture Tells A Story, Or, How I Recreate...

Issue 145FEATURED

Today’s renaissance of vinyl as a chosen physical music format represents an opportunity for baby boomers to recapture their collective youth. In the 1970s, record stores were the place to hang out...

Self-Help Before YouTube: More Records to Impro...

Issue 145FEATURED

Have you ever wondered how we learned to do things (repair/install/build/develop skills, etc.) before smartphones and YouTube came along?  Well, back in ancient times, before “there’s an app for that,”...

Mister Mister and the Misses

Issue 145THE MINDFUL MELOPHILE

This month the Melophile suggests music by composers who either deserve better recognition or are already well-known but have written major works that were overshadowed by their own “biggest hits.”...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part Three

Issue 145NEW VISTAS

  Part One and Part Two of this series appeared in Issue 143 and Issue 144. I felt emancipated as I pulled into the highway and away from the renegades. I’d miss Candy...

Lyle Mays – Composer, Arranger, Producer and Ke...

Issue 145FEATURED

Part One (Issue 144) covered Lyle Mays’ recordings as a leader and as part of the Pat Metheny Group. The series concludes here. In the last installment, we looked at Lyle...

Lefty Frizzell: Country Music Bedrock

Issue 145OFF THE CHARTS

Everybody knows who Hank Williams is, but somehow Lefty Frizzell is not a household name. In the early days of country music, however, the two men were equally important in...

Stuff Smith: Black Violin

Issue 145TRADING EIGHTS

Leroy “Stuff” Smith, born in 1909, helped turn the violin into a jazz instrument. His dad taught him classical violin when he was growing up in Ohio, but when Louis...

An I²S Follow Up…And More Steven Wilson Remix/R...

Issue 145TO BE DETERMINED

In my article in Copper Issue 141 I talked about my new setup using a Douk Audio USB digital interface to get an I²S output signal fed to my PS Audio GainCell...

Issue 145

Issue 145Opening Salvo

Recently we received an e-mail stating that “Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) as we have all known it will be no more.” I felt sadder and more disappointed than I...

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Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part Two

Issue 144New Vistas

Part One of the story appeared in Issue 143. Recap By the time I got my helmet and jacket off, the warlord was standing next to me – a big...

What Exactly is Classic Rock? Part Two

Issue 144Twisted Systems

In Part One (Issue 143), Jay Jay talked with FM DJ Joe Rock of Long Island’s radio station WBAB, and asked the question: just how, exactly, do we define classic...

Moving to Computer Audio: A Comprehensive Overv...

Issue 144

An Individual Approach to Computer Audio Mention the words “computer audio” and it is likely to mean different things to different people. To traditional audiophiles, it could mean convenient access...

Martin Theophilus of The Museum of Magnetic Sou...

Issue 144Revolutions per minute

Martin Theophilus is the Executive Director of the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording (MOMSR), a private collection of recording machines, tapes and other materials, along with a companion website. The...

Diamonds and Rust

Issue 144Audio Anthropology

Point taken: yes, you could get a Grado XTE+1 cartridge for $19.95 in the 1970s ("the free nickel bag of high-end audio," as my late friend Bob Reina called it),...

The Psychedelic Supermarket

Issue 144True-Life Rock Tales

In issue 141, Issue 142 and Issue 143 Ken wrote about his late 1960s relocation from New York to California. The story continues here. At this point I was over...

Magic and Loss

Issue 144Opening Salvo

I and so many of us are saddened by the passing of Nanci Griffith at 68. Some singers are good, some are truly great, and the rare few can move...

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The Future of Jazz Clubs: a Crossroads and a Co...

Issue 144Featured

For some time, many music industry critics and pundits have postulated that jazz is dead. Even the great Wynton Marsalis wrote a song called “The Death of Jazz.” Some of...

More SACD Reviews of New Releases

Issue 144To be Determined

The Doobie Brothers – What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits I’ve always had this kind of love/hate relationship with the Mobile Fidelity record label, and that goes all the way back...

Nanci Griffith: Sometimes a Rare Music

Issue 144Sitting In

A master of songcraft is silent now, passing on Friday, August 13, 2021. Nanci Griffith, singer, songwriter and proponent of “folkabilly”: her unique combination of folk and country is gone at 68. Griffith was born in...

Lyle Mays – Composer, Arranger, Producer and Ke...

Issue 144Featured

It’s been a year and a half since we lost the brilliant composer, arranger and keyboardist Lyle Mays. While he had avoided the limelight during the last phase of his...

Some Notable Analog Recordings, Part Three

Issue 144Featured

As I mentioned in my previous article (Issue 142), I recently installed a new cartridge. Even though it is the exact same model as the cartridge I had used for...