Topic: McTell on Yazoo

[Montgomery]

Yazoo's got a new McTell compilation.  The best sound ever for these recordings, as you'd expect...
If you haven't picked up any of these new Yazoo's (The Best of Charlie Patton, especially), you're missing out on the best prewar blues remastering in history...seriously, it's mind-blowing how good they sound, Nevins is a master at remastering.

[uncle bud]

The Blind Lemon is very good as well, with what must have been a newly found copy of 'Lectric Chair Blues that's really cleaned up. Either that or Nevins really is a genius. Good to know the Patton is impressive. How does it compare with the Revenant sound (if you had a chance to compare)?

[frankie]

The Blind Lemon is very good as well, with what must have been a newly found copy of 'Lectric Chair Blues that's really cleaned up. Either that or Nevins really is a genius.

I think it's a combination of a new copy and Nevins' attention to detail and patience with the remastering process.? He doesn't use much in the way of gimmickry, but carefully matches up a 78 with needle that plays best on it, listens carefully...? it's something he does in his spare time, essentially - after the real money making work is done!

The cleaned up recording of 'Lectric Chair Blues is such a revelation...? you can hear his foot tapping and everything - fantastic!

Edited to add:  I'm looking forward to getting the new Yazoo McTell at some point.  I've been listening to him quite a bit lately and it'd be great to hear some of these tunes after RN's treatment.

[Montgomery]

I love Chris King's remastering on the Revenant set, but the latest Patton Yazoo is far and away the best Patton out there.  Too bad it's not the whole catalogue.  Same goes for the new McTell.  It's just amazing the sound he gets out of these 78s. 

[uncle bud]

Can't believe I am now going to go out and buy yet another Patton CD....

[Montgomery]

Bud, I know the feeling...I've got the 2 old Yazoos, the Revenant, the JSP (which is the Revenant with some EQ work to differentiate it), a couple of the Documents, and I had the Catfish set (horrible)...but ever since Yazoo put out "Times Ain't Like They Used To Be" vols. 5 & 6 (at least, that's when I really noticed it), Yazoo's remastering has been several steps above what it was before (and even before, Nevins was the best out there, even better than John R.T. Davies, in my opinion).  On one of their recent releases (I think Times vol.'s 7 & , Nevins notes how they've been using a new remastering process that opens up the high and low frequencies, creating a much richer, fuller sound (and sometimes some extra surface noise).  I can tell you that I noticed this in the music well before I read that.  This holds true for the Patton Yazoo.  You'll notice it within the first 5 seconds.  At first, it's a little disorienting because Patton sounds less bassy than he usually does.  It's really a whole new approach to remastering Patton, and in turn, a much different listening experience.  But you will hear many things you never heard before (sighs, some throat clearing, lots of ghost notes, subtle foot tapping, etc) and I had listened to Patton's recordings hundreds of times before.  So I really can't recommend that CD enough.  The same is true of the McTell.  The tone of his 12-string comes out better than ever before.  I know it sounds like I work for Yazoo or something, but I can assure you I do not.  I just think Yazoo's CDs (in terms of remastering and, for compilations, song selection--not always their artwork and liner notes) are head and shoulders above anything else out there (although I usually have to get other collections for complete works, which Yazoo rarely does).  I hear so much praise for JSP when I find their releases (post-Davies) pretty shoddy--although the price is right, and in comparison to the Documents, JSP usually wins.  The only other label that comes close is Old Hat--but they release 1 CD every 2-3 years...

[uncle bud]

Montgomery - You got me beat on Patton purchases! I agree about Yazoo and even when I've gone and got the Document complete works of CB artist so-and-so, I have kept my Yazoo copies for several reasons: better sound, even in older editions, being the primary one, but also more player/guitar-centric liner notes (as opposed to the cultural anthropology inclinations of some of Document's note writers). Yazoo could do better documenting recording dates, personnel etc., but these are minor quibbles, and frankly it's a shame IMO that they have cut back so drastically on their blues output, because, as you say, they do a great job. I have not bought any of their new compilation CDs like Times Ain't Like They Used to Be, in part because the various series repeat so much of what I already have, but you have got me rethinking this as well. Also agree about Old Hat. Stunning work.

JSP for me is totally about price. A lot of music for the price. Most of the sets are not Davies remastered as far as I know, so what you usually get is a Document ripoff at a (much) cheaper price with different (and occasionally incorrect) liner notes. It would be great to get a Revenant-style reissue of the complete Lemon Jefferson, but I suspect that's not to be. So in the meantime, one might as well buy the JSP, and perhaps top it up with the Yazoo Best of.

[Montgomery]

I think Yazoo's lack of recording dates, info is a pretty big flaw, though remedied if you have the Dixon&Godrich blues discography and, now, Tony Russell's country discography (which I received yesterday, then promptly dropped, messing up the binding).  Another great, probably essential recent Yazoo release is the 7-disc Kentucky Mountain Music set.  Pretty shoddy packaging, although it includes many great photos and some artifacts, and it does have recording info, although poorly arranged.  The liner notes are informative, if poorly written.  But the music is astounding, and so is the sound.  I wish they would do more sets like this, but with liner notes/photos, etc. in the style of Old Hat's releases.  I heard that Yazoo is doing a big birth-of-jazz type box set, but who knows.  I'm with you on a Revenant-style Lemon set.  I also think it would be great if there was a set that included all of McTell's work, pre- and post-war (I know there would be licensing issues). 
John R.T Davies did a lot of work for JSP until a few years ago.  Now they just seem to be a bootleg company, although I agree that it's impossible to pass up at those prices. 

[waxwing]

UH, OHH! Neil Harpe just posted this over on a similar IGS thread. Hmmm, maybe BLJ next?
All for now.
John C.

[uncle bud]

I like the website intro.

Looks very appealing in many ways.  The complete last sessions will be good to hear. The Ed rhodes interview. Curious about the DVD - not much detail there. The book.

I wonder about the sound. Will it be Columbia style? Also, it seems a shame to go to all that effort of a box set, making a documentary, printing a book, and only include 25 songs other than the Last Session and the Library of Congress session.  Why not do them all?

[uncle bud]

BTW, I did pick up the Yazoo Patton and Montgomery is right, it's great. The best I've ever heard Charlie sound (I haven't heard the Revenant set but will take Monty's word for it ). A nice selection as well, although they should have done all of them. 

[frankie]

Also, it seems a shame to go to all that effort of a box set, making a documentary, printing a book, and only include 25 songs other than the Last Session and the Library of Congress session.

Damn...? I gotta hear that again!

Also, it seems a shame to go to all that effort of a box set, making a documentary, printing a book, and only include 25 songs other than the Last Session and the Library of Congress session.

The intro is certainly slick & glossy...? just the things that appeal to me...? Gee...? I think I feel my hand inching involuntarily toward my credit card.? Makes it so hard to type.

His 25 best sides?? According to whom?? The Ed Rhodes recordings are interesting and poignant, but to include them in their entirety rather than his earlier sides?

Seems like a release infected with Roots-Music-itis...? produced by and especially *for* people who care about blues only insofar as it informs current popular music.

I'll pass, thanks.

I can sort of understand Rich Nevins' MO about not releasing complete works, but to do a box set like this (complete with glossy packaging and, I assume, effusive praise from the mainstream music press) and not release the complete recordings borders on the unconscionable.

And a vinyl of Experience Blues?? I'm sorry - must be a personal thing...? Ruth Willis makes me wanna run screaming into the night!

Just think - all the high-brow Classic-Rock nerds that you know will buy it (being informed to do so from reviews in the NY Times and Rolling Stone) and become egg-spurts on McTell.? Isn't that a pleasant thought?? Then they can tell you all about how The Allman Brothers continued the "evolution" of "Da Blooz" by recording a McTell song.

Not to mention the obligatory ramblings of the Dylan-o-philes.

Zzzzzzzzzz......

[uncle bud]

...to do a box set like this (complete with glossy packaging and, I assume, effusive praise from the mainstream music press) and not release the complete recordings borders on the unconscionable.

But Frank, tell us how you really feel 

And a vinyl of Experience Blues?  I'm sorry - must be a personal thing...  Ruth Willis makes me wanna run screaming into the night!

It's not a personal thing. She is a horror IMO. I have to run to the CD player each time to skip her tracks.

Zzzzzzzzzz......

  

[Montgomery]

Yeah, really bizarre.? This is definitely a hipster set along the lines of Goodbye Babylon.? These things seem to be big lately, but the song selection here--or session selection--borders on incomprehensible, or maybe just idiotic. Maybe they can justify it somehow, just like I'm going to justify somehow buying the set 'cause I'm an idiot.? The 78 of Experience Blues, one of his least essential recordings, is almost like a joke.? What are they thinking?? Maybe Cohn doesn't want to step on his own toes by making his Columbia prewar set obsolete (although it already is).? Weird, weird, weird.? I hope the book has some substance, I'm sure the DVD won't (although I've heard about a McTell doc that's been around for a little while, but I've never been able to track it down--maybe this is it).? I believe Michael Gray is writing a book about McTell, but apparently this isn't? it.? I agree wih Frankie--although I happen to like Dylan, it's infuriating that they have to reference his McTell song every time McTell is mentioned, as if Dylan's approbation is what makes McTell important.? Same with Dylan's Patton song.? I mean, those 2 artists are at least as great as Dylan, if not as "culturally" important.? Then again, apparently Leo Tolstoy needs Oprah Winfrey's approbation to sell his books.? Riding the NY subways now and seeing scores of housewives reading Anna Karenina (with an Oprah "book of the month" sticker on it) is a strange sight indeed.?
(for the record, I like Dylan's McTell song; don't like his Patton song).

[uncle bud]

For 12-string inspiration. I picked up the new Best of Blind Willie McTell on Yazoo, despite having Blind Willie discs up the wazoo. Highly recommended for the new sound, as Montgomery mentions above. Even through my crappy computer speakers at work this sounds great. Willie's never sounded better.