Analogue Productions Blues 9 Items

Spend any time around Doug MacLeod and the stories from his years of road time with the likes of Big Joe Turner and Pee Wee Crayton start to flow as easily as a brook tickled by a breeze. And you know you're getting to the good part, the climax if you will, when Doug's eyes start to twinkle, his grin grows broader and out of his mouth pop the words »Come to find ...«. MacLeod was a widely acknowledged electric blues guitarist for many years, and the leader of his own band, yielding a number of U.S. and European tours and several albums to his credit. Doug disbanded the group to focus all his energies on his first love, acoustic blues. "Come To Find" is the debut fruit of that effort. And now it's made even more remarkable, with this 45 RPM 200-gram reissue by Analogue Productions. The dead-quiet double-LP, with the music spread over four sides of vinyl, reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately.The pressing sounds spectacular. You're holding a hefty 200-gram masterpiece from our own Quality Record Pressings, our state-of-the-art LP pressing plant. And the gatefold jacket is hard-core, old-school style — thick cardboard, tip-on, with additional photos and liner notes inside. Sweet. "Come To Find" is the sound of a consummate bluesman touching the core of his art in a program featuring ten originals by Doug. He is beautifully supported in this intimate setting by harmonica ace Charlie Musselwhite and the Mighty Flyer rhythm section, Jimi Bott and Bill Stuve. This is the album that deserves a place of honor in the music collections of even casual blues fans. And for those who love blues already, this is one of the best-sounding, most original works you'll ever hear.

The 45rpm Analogue Productions reissue of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Couldn't Stand The Weather" is so good, as are its 45rpm companions — "Texas Flood" and "Soul To Soul" — that they truly represent what Gregg Geller, producer and A&R representative described as »the best replication of the master tapes to date«"
We've already brought you the 33 1/3rpm box set "Texas Hurricane" featuring the greatest Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute ever reissued — six of Vaughan's most classic album titles remastered for ultimate blues and guitar fanatics. We've now taken the extra step and done 45rpm versions of these three standout LPs.
We've used the original 30 inches-per-second, half-inch analog master tapes for all of these albums. Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound cut the lacquers for the LPs using the ultimate VMS 80 cutting lathe. Gary Salstrom handled the plating and the vinyl was pressed of course at our Quality Record Pressings, maker of the world's finest-sounding LPs.
"Couldn’t Stand The Weather" is the remarkable sophomore album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. It follows their critically acclaimed debut, "Texas Flood". Incorporating the same winning formula of musicianship and songwriting, "Couldn’t Stand The Weather" cemented Vaughan’s place as one of music’s greatest. It is their first to earn gold certification and their first platinum-seller. It includes breathtaking renditions of Clark’s “Cold Shot” and Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child”. A staple on the Billboard charts, this definitive masterpiece received praise from Entertainment Weekly, Q, Down Beat and many others.
There's not a link in this production chain that wasn't absolute first-rate. The absolute best that money can buy.
But beyond that we've poured our passion into this project. Acoustic Sounds is a big fan of the blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It's a big dream come true to work on this project and to make these records sound and look the best they ever have.

"Polk Salad Annie" was the song and cadence for delivering White's unmistakable swamp rock sound, which called to mind the sound John Fogerty whipped up on Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bayou Country" and "Green River". Released in 1969, White's album debut "Black And White" contains some of the best swamp-folk-soul-funk of the era. White grew up in the soggy marshlands of Louisiana, his real-deal deep voice sounding like it's dredged from the bottom of the Delta. Rural life in the dirty south provided the inspiration for witty, sometimes funny, and sometimes poignant lyrics (later Tony Joe would pen the smash "Rainy Night In Georgia"). This Analogue Productions edition is the highest-quality reissue of "Black And White" released to date. It was mastered from the original analog tape by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and features unsurpassed plating and pressing on 200-gram heavyweight vinyl by Quality Record Pressings, makers of the finest-sounding LPs in the world. The dead-silent LP playing surface captures White's voice and his strong and funky backing band in true analog majesty. Besides "Annie", side one of "Black And White" includes several other White originals. AllMusic judges the best of these to be "Willie And Laura Mae Jones", a song about race relations with an arrangement similar to "Ballad Of Billie Joe", and "Soul Francisco", a short piece of funky fluff that had been a big hit in Europe in 1968. "Aspen, Colorado" presages the later "Rainy Night in Georgia," a White composition popularized by Brook Benton. The second side of Black and White consists of covers of hits of the era, with the funky "Who's Making Love" and "Scratch My Back" faring better than the slow stuff. Dusty Springfield had a minor hit with "Willie And Laura Mae Jones", and White's songs were recorded by other performers through the years, but "Polk Salad Annie" and the gators that got her granny provided his only march in the American hit parade. Highly recommended for fans of Creedence Clearwater Revival, J.J. Cale, and 1960s soul!

"Hoodoo Man Blues" is not only Junior Wells' initial LP appearance, it is damn near the first LP by a Chicago blues band. This is the album that started the collector blues label trend of the late '60s. Chess and a few other labels had reissued 45's by Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, etc., but virtually no one had tried to capture the Chicago blues sound, free of the juke-box/airplay promotional mediums limitations of the 45. This album features the smoking guitar of the legendary Buddy Guy along with a crack rhythm section.

This release of Lightnin' Hopkins "Soul Blues" completes the series of 25 Prestige label stereo reissues from Analogue Productions. Of the 50 titles (25 stereo, 25 mono) in this reissue series, 49 of them were mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analog tape. For "Soul Blues" Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound created a 24/192K hi-res file from a needle drop on a clean original LP.
This was done because the tape supplied for mastering proved to be from a needle drop itself, not the original, which has been lost since the early 1970s. Smith took the original LP, did a new needle drop and meticulously worked to eliminate the minimal tics and pops that remained. Then he mastered the album for LP and SACD from the hi-res file.

"Lightnin'" is among the rewarding acoustic dates Lightnin' Hopkins delivered in the early '60s. The session has an informal, relaxed quality, and this approach serves a 48-year-old Hopkins impressively well on both originals like "Thinkin' 'Bout An Old Friend" and the familiar "Katie Mae" and enjoyable interpretations of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's "Back To New Orleans" and Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup's "Mean Old Frisco". Hopkins' only accompaniment consists of bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, both of whom play in an understated fashion and do their part to make this intimate setting successful. From the remorseful "Come Back Baby" to more lighthearted, fun numbers like "You Better Watch Yourself" and "Automobile Blues", "Lightnin'" is a lot like being in a small club with Hopkins as he shares his experiences, insights and humor with you.

Mighty Sam is a rhythm and blues legend who shook up the blues world with this 1993 release. The great torch bearer of deep soul is caught in top form on this classic album. And now, this gatefold 45rpm edition presented by Analogue Productions makes the album even greater! The four sides of wider-spaced grooves make for reduced distortion and better high frequency reproduction. It's a 200-gram masterpiece from our own Quality Record Pressings, our state-of-the-art LP pressing plant. And the gatefold jacket is hard-core, old-school style - thick cardboard, tip-on, with additional photos and liner notes inside. Sweet. McClain sings soul with incredible power - he knows when to pull the punches and when to cool it down. "Give It Up to Love", the title track, acknowledges his gospel roots; he performs it as a vocal prayer to God asking for wisdom, love, and strength. Bruce Katz's contributions on B-3 Hammond organ expands McClain's sound, particularly on the "Green Onions" - influenced "What You Want Me to Do". The sparsely effective arrangement on "Here I Go Falling in Love Again" brings McClain up front as he cries of being a soul stripped to the bare bones. Kevin Barry's funky bass blows while McClain declares himself as a child of God in "Child of the Mighty Mighty".

The 45rpm Analogue Productions reissue of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Texas Flood" is so good, as are its 45rpm companions — "Couldn't Stand The Weather" and "Soul To Soul" — that they truly represent what Gregg Geller, producer and A&R representative described as »the best replication of the master tapes to date«.
We've already brought you the 33 1/3rpm box set "Texas Hurricane" featuring the greatest Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute ever reissued — six of Vaughan's most classic album titles remastered for ultimate blues and guitar fanatics. We've now taken the extra step and done 45rpm versions of these three standout LPs.
We've used the original 30 inches-per-second, half-inch analog master tapes for all of these albums. Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound cut the lacquers for the LPs using the ultimate VMS 80 cutting lathe. Gary Salstrom handled the plating and the vinyl was pressed of course at our Quality Record Pressings, maker of the world's finest-sounding LPs.
Stevie Ray Vaughan's 1983 debut album, "Texas Flood", was a phenomenal success, climbing into the Top 40 and spending over half a year on the charts, which was practically unheard of for a blues recording. The record plays like a dynamite club show, filled with crowd-pleasing originals and covers, all performed with unbridled enthusiasm. "Texas Flood" was certified gold on August 13, 1990, and certified platinum on January 22, 1992.
There's not a link in this production chain that wasn't absolute first-rate. The absolute best that money can buy.
But beyond that we've poured our passion into this project. Acoustic Sounds is a big fan of the blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It's a big dream come true to work on this project and to make these records sound and look the best they ever have.

Mississippi's Son House was already legendary for a small collection of live field recordings made by folklorist Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942, and for having taught some important licks to both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters before he was rediscovered by a new generation of college-age fans in 1964.
The 'Father of the Delta Blues' recorded this namesake LP for Columbia Records a year later in 1965. It's become, in the words of Living Blues magazine — »Essential recordings by one of the greatest bluesmen ever.« And now, Analogue Productions presents a reissue unmatched in sonic quality and luxury presentation. For our version we turned to Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound to remaster the recording from the original master tapes. The freshly cut lacquers were then plated and pressed on 200-gram vinyl by our own Quality Record Pressings.
Son was born Eddie James House, Jr., on March 21, 1902, in Riverton, Miss. By the age of 15, he was preaching the gospel in various Baptist churches as the family seemingly wandered from one plantation to the next. He didn't even bother picking up a guitar until he turned 25; to quote House, »I didn't like no guitar when I first heard it; oh gee, I couldn't stand a guy playin' a guitar. I didn't like none of it.« But if his ambivalence to the instrument was obvious, even more obvious was the simple fact that Son hated plantation labor even more and had developed a taste for corn whiskey. After drunkenly launching into a blues at a house frolic in Lyon, Miss., one night and picking up some coin for doing it, the die seemed to be cast; Son House may have been a preacher, but he was part of the blues world now.