Originally released on CD in 2011 this recorded-to-tape Gillian Welch gem finally has an AAA vinyl release. Welch explains the motivation for the vinyl version in a Washington Post profile .

What else needs to be said?

How best to sell to the Dylan-loving fanbase his "Jesus period"? That was the question Columbia Records/Legacy Records asked itself and had to answer in order to present to the public this new set available in a deluxe 8 CD/1 DVD Box Set that's also available as a 2 CD and 4 LP configuration consisting of the Deluxe Box's first two discs.

Sorry about starting an "Analog" column with an HDCD recommendation, but I was going through a pile of new CDs when the sound of one---Evolution, from Modern Jazz Quartet veteran John Lewis on Atlantic---almost immobilized me. The sonic presentation on this solo-piano set, recorded in January 1999, is exceptionally natural: a well-organized, harmonically and physically convincing, three-dimensional picture of a piano within the reverberant field of a real performance space. Clearly, a minimally miked analog job, and spectacular in its simplicity.

Register to win a copy of Murray Head's Nigel Lived 2-Disc 45 RPM Set from Intervention Records (retail value $38) we are giving away.

According to the company:

"Murray Head's Nigel Lived is a groundbreaking classic and one of the boldest, most daring and inventive albums of all time. Recorded by the great recording engineer Phill Brown, Nigel Lived is from the golden era of all-analog recording, a sonic and musical masterpiece that every music lover and audiophile simply must have."

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

Craft Recordings (a Concord Records imprint), which recently issued the 3 LP Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings just announced the Stax 7 Box Set, the first release in a year long celebration of the storied label's 60th anniversary.

Third Man Records today released three key Muddy Waters Chess singles originally released on 78rpm shellac. The three are "Rollin' Stone" b/w "Walkin' Blues", "She's All Right" b/w "Sad, Sad Day" and "Mannish Boy" b/w "Young Fashioned Ways".

21st Century Procol Harum neglect is one of our time's most serious musical scandals if you axe me. That it took until now to get a high quality reissue of this most excellent album, while other less stellar records are one their 3rd or 4th reissue is a leading indicator of the neglect and lack of appreciation for this super group.

Bassist, group leader and composer Stephan Crump assembled Rhombal, a two-horn, bass and drums quartet to explore a series of compositions he’d written for his late brother. “…it’s a commemoration of a death well-confronted, of a spiritual evolution I witnessed in my brother during out last days together, and of how close we left each other after what had been, for many years, a very troubled relationship.”

It took a trip to the Hi-Fi News and Record Review Hi-Fi Show at the Novotel London West this past September to remind me that hi-fi is, above all else, a hobby. We're music lovers (hopefully!), but what separates us from the rest of the music-loving pack is our passion for the visceral pleasure of sound---something that has never translated to the average consumer, and probably never will. And that's fine; most are happy to hear just the bare outlines of the music. As Joni Mitchell sang, "Some get the gravy and some get the gristle."