As I mentioned in my last post, I ordered up a selection of promising looking records from Acoustic Sounds, and so I've been spending an enjoyable afternoon listening to those black magic licorice disks!
The first record I put on my VPI Classic & EMT TSD 15 combo out of my new batch of records was 'Lou Pallo of Les Paul's Trio with Special Guests', Thank You Les, which is a tribute album to Les Paul, and an amazing album!
If you love the music of Les Paul in particular, or jazz generally, you'll love this album - I do!
The line-up of special guests is impressive: Frank Vignola, Steve Miller, Nokie Edwards, Lexie & Arlen Roth, Keith Richards, Eddie Brigati Jr. & Bucky Pizzarelli, Jose Feliciano, Slash, Nicki Parrott, Billy F Gibbons, Johnny A, and Blondie Chaplin.
The first song of the album (Avalon) with Frank Vignola as special guest will make you think that Les and the 'Trio have just dropped by your living room for a house concert - man, it's awesome!
In fact, I think every song on this album is amazing in its own right, and there's a number of them that really bowled me over, like Vaya Con Dios (Go With God) with special guests Lexie and Arlen Roth. Beautiful vocals, amazing guitar playing, fantastic recording, it is enough to make you cry tears of joy!
It's Been A Long Long Time with special guest Keith Richards is also gem, again with beautiful vocals and musicianship, and an awesome recording. I'm in awe!
Bésame Mucho with José Feliciano is also amazing ... and on, and on! By the way, this album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Ben Elliott at Showplace Studios on analog tape, and he did an awesome job! The album has great sound, incredible musicianship, which makes this is a great album to listen to on your hi-fi rig! Get this album for sure, it'll be a wonderful addition to you music library!
Michael Fremer did a really nice review of this album here, so be sure to give it a read for more information on this superb album.
As an aside, music has been sounding absolutely mesmerizing through my hi-fi rig, with vintage McIntosh electronics providing the amplification (MX110Z preamplifier-tuner & MC30 mono amps at the moment), Sablon Audio Panatela providing the connections, and my Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers with their outboard Duelund CAST crossovers (with their newly installed Duelund Silver CAST 6.8uF caps in the C1 position), delivering the music in an incredibly mellifluous presentation that never ceases to amaze and excite me!
In that context I put on the next album from my new batch of records, Neil Young's Live At The Cellar Door, which incidentally is the first time this album has been released on vinyl.
This album is spectacular too, being fantastic music that is very up close and personal in the way it is presented, along with being a great recording too.
My record had a couple of spots where it had some crackling going on, so I ran it through my VPI record cleaner, and then treated it with the Acoustic Revive RL-30 Mark III Analogue Disc Demagnetizer. When I put the record back on I was impressed how much better it sounded after cleaning and treatment with the Acoustic Revive RL-30, but alas, the crackling had not completely disappeared, even though it was reduced significantly.
Note to self: Let that serve as a reminder how important it is to clean & treat vinyl with the VPI & Acoustic Revive RL-30 combo, it really makes a huge difference even with brand new vinyl. Oh it is so easy to get complacent! Kudos to VPI and Acoustic Revive for making such awesome vinyl cleaning and treatment products!
Neil Young has never sounded as good on an album as he does here in Live At The Cellar Door, and I've never heard the timbre of guitar and piano sound as naturally accurate, cannily realistic, and oh so present. Man what a treat!
I'm not going to say much about this album other than it is fantastic, with incredible musicianship, impeccable recording quality, making it a must have for my record collection. It is a little bit of a bummer that there's one track with some crackling going on in a couple of spots, but its not enough to put me off this album. And maybe yours will be completely noise free.
For an excellent in depth review of this album read Michael Fremer's review here.
Ok, that's it for now.
Thanks for stopping by!
