Topic: Document CDs--availability, sound quality, etc.

[Marshcat]

Thanks, Stuart: nice to know I'm not entirely alone on this!

At the risk of sticking my neck further even into the noose, I also think some of Jelly Roll Anderson's lyrics are sheer poesy:
"If you don't want me woman, you don't have to stall (2)
There's another woman waiting to take up your downfall".
Or:
"Tears runnin' down my cheeks like drops of rain
Big salt tears runnin' down my cheeks like drops of rain
And every tear is an initial of my baby's name."

Along with the Henry Johnson's celeste and Lonnie's inspired guitar on this CD, a mention in dispatches also for James Johnson's piano on two of Anderson's four tracks: he sounds like he's on day release from the in-house chamber orchestra of some Austrian lunatic asylum.

Really, what more could one ask for? 

[Slack]

Perhaps we need a new topic, "Songs That Sound Terrible, But We Love All The Same," or some such thing.

We do have a very closely related topic in: "How did that get recorded?" - which maybe should have been "How in the world did that ever get recorded?"   

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=114&topic=708.0

In fact we may have to merge the topics...

[Stuart]

...We do have a very closely related topic in: "How did that get recorded?" - which maybe should have been "How in the world did that ever get recorded?" 

To which we might add, "but Thank Heavens it did!"

[dj]

I see they have the two Walter Roland disks on sale.  Volume 1 is especially good - a varied, well-performed program.  I wrote a short description/review when this disk went on the Juke.  It's on page 14 of the Weenie Juke Radio Changes/Additions thread.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  If you don't have it, get it!  (That's not an encouragement, it's an order.   )

I'd also recommend the Leroy Carr disks.  I got them in the spring when they first came back into print, and I have to say I've spent the intervening months regularly regretting that I spent the first 40 years of my blues-listening life ignoring Carr, and trying to remedy that fault with frequent listening now.
   

     

[banjochris]

I have wished for a long time that Yazoo would do a best of Leroy Carr CD re-issue. I have the Documents and another reissue on Columbia but have never really been able to get into them because of the sound quality. It's not that they're staticky, they're just flat. When I hear a Carr track in good sound I really enjoy it, though.
Chris

[Bunker Hill]

I have wished for a long time that Yazoo would do a best of Leroy Carr CD re-issue. I have the Documents and another reissue on Columbia but have never really been able to get into them because of the sound quality. It's not that they're staticky, they're just flat. When I hear a Carr track in good sound I really enjoy it, though.

I don't know if the two Magpie CDs are still available but the "remastering" was by John R T Davis and favourably commented upon in reviews. Do you have these MTJ3?

http://www.wirz.de/music/carrfrm.htm

[MTJ3]

I have wished for a long time that Yazoo would do a best of Leroy Carr CD re-issue. I have the Documents and another reissue on Columbia but have never really been able to get into them because of the sound quality. It's not that they're staticky, they're just flat. When I hear a Carr track in good sound I really enjoy it, though.

I don't know if the two Magpie CDs are still available but the "remastering" was by John R T Davis and favourably commented upon in reviews. Do you have these MTJ3?

http://www.wirz.de/music/carrfrm.htm

I regretfully do not have them, BH.  In fact, I have not even seen them on this side of the pond. 

Banjochris, I suspect that you have the Blues Before Sunrise album.  In another post I mentioned that although there is still a lot of snap, crackle and pop on some of the sides, one can hear a lot on the Columbia/Legacy The Best of Leroy Carr: Whiskey Is My Habit, Good Women Is All I Crave that can't be heard on other re-issues of the same sides. I'm not recommending those sides as the "best of" Carr. (Everyone's a critic.  In fairness, it would probably take me hours of hanky twisting to compile my list of the "best of," and it would almost certainly be different the next day.  In truth, I have played that little game with myself, and that is, in fact, exactly what happens.)  You may, however, find an aural dimension there that is otherwise lacking for you in other re-issues (esp. some of the Document re-issues) that you have.

[banjochris]

Thanks MTJ3 -- I do have Blues Before Sunrise in addition to the Documents and I'll give that Columbia/Legacy album a try. Sunrise sounds like it was remastered in an echo chamber.
Chris

[jostber]

This might be an option for good sound too:

http://www.amazon.de/Best-21-Blues-Giants-Leroy-Carr/dp/B0000562BN/ref=sr_1_17/028-7765477-7538138?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1191830403&sr=1-17

[frankie]

Top of my list will be Mississippi String Bands and Associates 1928-1931.

I downloaded the tracks from this that I didn't already have elsewhere a while ago from emusic.  It's dominated by Walter Vincson, Bo Carter and Charlie McCoy, playing as either Sam Hill from Louisville (WV singing) or the Mississippi Blacksnakes (CM or BC singing).  The duets are all pretty good to my tastes, and the players all accompany one another in a "stomp all over you" kind of way, and everybody clearly has their ears on, which is good.  The playing (especially by McCoy) can drift into the noodly, but not overly so.  There's also the sides from the Mississippi Mud-Steppers - exceptionally fine stuff and a good CD overall.

Am curious about  St Louis 1927 - 1933

Stay curious.  Hold out long enough and either you'll find it in the used bin for a buck, or someone will offer you money to take it.

[Marco]

Bought 8 CDs but one - in a few days - is already out of stock: Gus Cannon Vol. 1.

[Cooljack]

Fortunatly I already had Gus cannon's Vol 1 from a while ago, Just bought 11 CD's from the recent sale

[Great Bear]

Bought 8 CDs but one - in a few days - is already out of stock: Gus Cannon Vol. 1.

Almost everything on Gus Cannon volumes 1 & 2 can be found in superior sound on compilations from Yazoo, Old Hat, JSP and Black Swan.

[Cooljack]

I actually find that in quite a few cases Document Records has better quality of sound than that of Yazoo, though if you listen to anything taken from a 78 I don't think sound quality should really be an issue as long as you can atleast vaguly hear the sound. Not to mention the fact that Document Records is much more comprehensive in tracks and bearly ever leaves anything out. I always feel a bit ripped off if theres less than twenty songs on a CD especially if I pay + ?10 for it, it's ok as long as there decent songs I suppose .

(Not to mention the fact that everytime I order from Document I usually get the CD/s between 24 and 72 hours living just down the tracks from scotland)

[dj]

I actually find that in quite a few cases Document Records has better quality of sound than that of Yazoo

It seems logical that the Yazoos should have better sound quality.  But, as Michael Gray said of Blind Willie McTell reissues in the discographic section of Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: "It is recurrently alleged that Yazoo offers better sound quality than Document/Wolf.  I wouldn't rush to say so myself."

Even on the early 90s Bluebird CDs, which for the most part have spectacular sound, there are a few cuts that I don't think measure up sonically to the corresponding Documents.

I still remember enough of the 1960s so that I'm usually just thrilled to think of how much of this music is available these days without worrying excessively about slight variations in sound.  Of course when the variations are huge...