Album Reviews

I’ll throw my two cents into the “greatest rock vocalists” ring: Steve Marriott. He’s the one for me. His work with the original Small Faces stands above all else, but later Marriott joined Peter Frampton and the two formed Humble Pie with bassist Greg Ridley and drummer Jerry Shirley.

Former Image Hi-Fi magazine editor Dirk Sommer and his wife Birgit Hammer-Sommer recorded and produced this solo double bass performance by Dieter Ilg using a purist analog chain direct to ¼” analog audio tape. Compression was neither contemplated nor used, nor was there any filtering or equalization of any kind.

Note: since this review was originally posted February of 2009, we have learned of the existence of a flat transfer made from the now missing master tape. The version reviewed here was almost certainly mastered from a digital transfer done using some analog "work parts" and some digital sources not clearly identified in Capitol's original CD reissue series.

Version #1:

The first Blood, Sweat and Tears group led by Al Kooper and including his former Blues Project bandmate Steve Katz, was the sophisticated assemblage that produced but one album. This one.

Jim O’Rourke’s latest solo release, his first in nearly a decade, is a bold act in today’s dumbed down, sonically parched musical environment.

Far from the sad, wobbly finale you might be expecting, these last to be released Johnny Cash recordings are uplifting, inspirational and resolutely purposeful thanks to both Cash’s searing artistry and the sensitivity of the A&R work.