Johnny Cash - Bear’s Sonic Journals: Johnny Cas...

Once again, I’m focusing on a single outstanding record; this time it’s a 1968 Johnny Cash live date in San Francisco that never saw the light of day prior to...

The Case of the Return of NRBQ

I first caught “the Q” in college on a whim. It was a last-minute thing in 1987 and my buddy Matt who was from Hartford was a rabid fan. He...

Are Musicians’ Brains Wired Differently?

It’s not unusual for musicians to be characterized as strange, eccentric and even downright wacky. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to them. I’m fascinated by eccentricity, nonconformity and rebelliousness, traits...

Phil Keaggy: A Lifetime of Joyful Noises, Part ...

In Part One (Issue 145), we looked at Phil Keaggy’s musical beginnings with power trio Glass Harp, and his early solo recordings, which showed his skills expanding beyond hard rock music to...

Tom Waits – Our Beat Storyteller, Part Three

I must apologize to my valiant readers (all four of you) for the time lapse between Part Two (Issue 142) and Part Three. (Part One appeared in Issue 139.) I had a crazy...

Heaven

What will the audiophile section of heaven be like? You’ll have an endless supply of Black Gate capacitors of all types and values. Quads will always go low, play loudly,...

Thriller!

Here’s an eclectic collection of music appropriate for Halloween you might not have heard before or listened to in this context. This assortment ranges from ballet, movie, and orchestral works...

Confessions of a Setup Man, Part 13: Engineerin...

I’m not a degreed engineer. True, I understand and can write about complex concepts. In fact, I’ve edited and rewritten articles by engineers, some of whom are way better at...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part Six

  [The first installments of this series appeared in Issues 143,144, 145, 146 and 147 – Ed.] I started sloshing past the traffic towards the sound of the sirens. Chip, Candy, and KP strolled with me....

Stream of Consciousness: Better Sound From My C...

In Part One (Issue 147), we looked at the value of improving your computer audio sound by routing the output of your source to an external DAC, which can be used not...

The Role of Imagination

Sitting here listening to a Steinway recording – literally, a Steinway recording, as in an album of Ravel by the artist Sean Chen, released by Steinway & Sons records –...

It's A Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fa...

I recently left a music journalism group on social media because the level of resentment towards boomer critics was snowballing from an undertow of irritation to outright hostility. So much...

The DMM Dubplate, Vol. 1 and the Art of Pushing...

In the previous episode (Issue 147) we dived into my past encounter with the name of Günter Pauler, and we now come back to the present event. Which is a shiny new...

You’ll Never Take the Amp Away From Me

I know I’m not the only one who gets that overpowering urge to explore new looks, sounds, and possibilities with a different piece of audio equipment. I spent all of...

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

Ken Kessler recounts the hardware phase of his re-entry into the world of open-reel tape, as a cautionary tale and a guide-of-sorts to help you maintain your sanity. As inveterate...

Burt Bacharach Part Three: Big Screen, Little S...

Like many prolific composers, Burt Bacharach was called upon to compose music for a handful of films and stage productions. Some were fantastic works. One was so notoriously difficult that...

Mumford & Sons: New Folk Revivalists

The term “folk revival” usually conjures up images of Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio in the 1960s, but there’s a much more recent manifestation of folk music making inroads...

Louise Farrenc: Pride of the Paris Conservatory

Born in Paris in 1804, Louise Farrenc grew up in a swirl of artsy types, the true embodiment of the bohemian spirit. Yet she must have been focused and disciplined...

Halloween Spirits

For Halloween, some street art: these ghostly fellas are painted on an alley in Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee, a former mining town, is a remote community where artists have discovered the...

On the Case

We couldn’t find any information on this Telefunken Musikkoffer (music case) ad (from the 1950s or 1960s?), but it was too cool to pass up. And it sounds even better...

The Need for Speed

Noise Reduction