Topic: Highest fidelity/quality country blues recordings?

[cc132]

It's no secret that many country blues recordings haven't weathered the years that well.  Cracks, hisses, pops, etc are all common.  There does , though, seem to be the occasional gem that is of exceptional sonic quality compared to the rest.

Blind Willie McTell's last session
Mississippi John Hurt's Library of Congress recordings

What else is out there?

[Mr.OMuck]

Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James' Vanguard records are excellent. Actually all the Vanguard stuff is great including the Blues at Newport series.
Some of the Prestige Buesville records were recorded by Rudy Van Gelder (Gary Davis) and they are wonderful too.

[banjochris]

From the 78 era, I would say off-hand:
Blind Willie McTell's Decca recordings (McTell in general has fared fairly well, sound quality-wise)
Booker White's 1940 recordings
Bo Carter's later recordings
Robert Johnson's recordings

[CF]

Tommy McLennan's recordings sound very good.

[Blind Arthur]

I would think it?s almost always the original labels? fault

So, general guide:
Victor, many Brunswick-Vocalions, almost all Columbia + OKehs = "good"
Paramount, Gennett, ARC labels = "worse"

^^this is from a reissue-only listener?s POV.

Normally I do not care about such categories at all, I would always prefer a mean scratchy new Ramblin? Thomas alternate take on Paramount over the cleanest (enter boring musician here now) recording just because it?s clean.

Yes, it is distracting for hi-fi quality trained ears, and outsiders or newcomers. But would that make me introduce a 1963 MJH LP and not mention his 1928 session...? (question to self)

IMO the hi-fi?est pre war recordings are the 1940+ Victor-Bluebird ones. Of the pre-1934 era, I?d say most Victor, Col, OK artists and many Voc ones.

[oddenda]

McTell's session in 1949 for Atlantic: similar session for Regal. Former on 16" acetates, the latter on tape!

pbl

[frankie]

McTell's session in 1949 for Atlantic

Always loved the sound of that record - in every way.

[dj]

Back in 1997 or so RCA/BMG did a series of reissues of artists who originally recorded for Victor and Bluebird.  While some of these were necessarily taken from records, when possible these were remastered from the original metal masters.  The songs remastered from metal sound simply stunning, by far the best reproduction I've heard of music from the 78 era.  My only regret is that, though it was announced several times, the Willie McTell disc never saw the light of day. 

[LB]

McTell's session in 1949 for Atlantic: similar session for Regal. Former on 16" acetates, the latter on tape!

pbl

That's been my favorite but I think the CD I'm thinking of is Pig and Whistle Red. Curley Weaver's voice on some of those songs just kills me. Like sitting there.

[Michael Cardenas]

Post 1940's recordings in general increase in quality, though not a rule of thumb as country Blues was losing traction. I would reflect OMuck's sentiment regarding labels like Vanguard and Prestige, when someone like Rudy Van Gelder is handling a recording chances are it has to be of some quality and both those labels are responsible for superhero recordings outside of Blues. I also agree that John Hurt might be one of the artists who have a high ratio of above par sound on his records, and although the recordings aren't necessarily pre-war Fred McDowell was given the respect of fidelity in studio more than once.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I find myself falling in with Blind Arthur on this subject, which is to say, don't confuse the fidelity at which a particular performance is available with its musical quality.  There is a lot of indispensable music in this style that is seriously compromised by either the company that it was recorded for and/or the technology available at the time, e.g. Lemon's and Papa Charlie Jackson's recordings, or by the fact that the only one or two known copies of a performance happen to be whupped.  If you need to hear what is on a record, you will figure out a way to do it and interpret what you're able to hear, barring the very extreme cases like a couple of the Ed Bell records, which are not only conventionally whupped but skip and skate as well, effacing major portions of his performance.  It seems to me that a very high percentage of the recorded material in this style can be heard really easily and well.
All best,
Johnm   

[banjochris]

I agree about musical vs. sound quality, but it's amazing sometimes just want a cleaner copy of a 78 will reveal, even a Paramount. For instance, the copy of "Pony" on Yazoo's "Best of Charlie Patton" reveals that he's singing "It is catch my pony..." rather than "Hit-itch up my pony...," which was something of a surprise the first time I heard it.

The recording technology then (as now) was way ahead of playback technology; I'm sure that if we had Paramount metal parts (at least once they went to electrical recordings) rather than whupped substandard-when-new records we'd be surprised.

I still think some of the best-recorded music ever recorded (and just best music, too) has to be the early Victor Jelly Roll Morton Red Hot Peppers recordings -- they sound absolutely amazing.

[Parlor Picker]

McTell's session in 1949 for Atlantic

And the LP has a lovely sleeve! (As do the others in that series - I've got the Jimmy Yancey and the Prof. Longhair).

[Blues Vintage]

what about Big Mama's Door by Alvin Youngblood Hart? Country blues as good as it gets with perfect sound quality.

[Mister Steve]

I came to the conclusion that for musical quality I really preferred MJH's 1928 recording and after that his Live recording on Vanguard.  The studio recordings of MJH seem a little "spacey" to me. For Blind Lemon Jefferson, I do more than alright listening to The Best of BLJ on Yazoo.  Sleepy John Estes's recordings do more than keep me happy as well any variations on Frank Stokes.

My vote for the hands down best studio recording made during the revival of a rediscovered artist: Harlem Street Singer, RGD.

In short, not looking for Windham Hill...not at all.