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I was twelve when Carly Simon released her third album "No Secrets." Even at that age, I was not into commercial pop music much, so I never owned this album until now.  However, I did not change the channel when Carly Simon came on. She had unmistakable talent; voice and composition. Simon achieved international fame... Read More »

Ólafur Arnalds, Sunrise Session III. Olafur Arnalds, composer and pianist; Sandrayati, RAKEL, Salóme Katrín, vocals; with string quartet. Universal Music (EP, digital only). TT: 12.58. Echoes. Þú ert sólin. Ashes. A Dawning. This is not my usual line of territory: I'm very much a classical guy. But the majors—Universal and Sony/BMG, at least—have been promoting... Read More »

Recently, while doing some research, I discovered the existence of an album that in all my decades of obsessive record collecting I had never seen nor heard of. The album is called Red And Ernie (Decca DL 8298). Not to be confused with Burt and Ernie, Red and Ernie were music legends Red Foley (1910-1968)... Read More »

James Oscar Smith was an American jazz icon who helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, forging a link between jazz and 1960s Soul—or the "urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s," (www.allmusic.com), and the Acoustic Sounds Series reissues from Verve/Universal Music Enterprises delivers his artistry with exceptional fidelity in their 180 gram... Read More »

This was the line-up who was the first to play "electric" at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. This caused quite a disturbance from the folk-purists in the crowd. Especially when members then backed up Dylan for his first electric performance. The Butterfield Blues Band album "East West" of 1966 is one of the earliest... Read More »

I so often bring to you music in ultra-high resolution, but there are so many wonderful recordings not originally recorded in DXD or DSD256. I listen to many of these, but don't regularly write about them because my brief is to focus on the higher resolution recordings so readers can know that they are available.... Read More »

I am frequently overwhelmed, in the most positive way imaginable, by the cornucopia of marvelous releases that appear. Such is the case today as I offer to you my thoughts on eight recent releases available at NativeDSD. They have made my heart sing these past few weeks. Santiago de Masarnau: Piano Works (Vol. 1-3), Claudia... Read More »

No one can deny that Linda Ronstadt has proved to be one of the most talented pop female singers, and has one of the best voices, and offers the most divers of vocal styles in history. She can make you cry and make you rock. Pure and soft, powerful and demanding. Ronstadt's vocal range spans... Read More »

Chrysalis Records continues their superb series of catalog reissues from legendary guitarist Robin Trower, with an expanded edition of his 1976 live album, Robin Trower Live! The new release has arrived as Robin Trower Live! 50th Anniversary Edition, and it documents a spectacular 1975 concert from Stockholm, Sweden, for the first time in its entirety.... Read More »

Today brings reviews of some HDTT releases I've been enjoying: three outstanding RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence albums; one of the great early Decca recordings; and two jazz releases in Pure DSD256 that have been on my Top of the Pile list since last year but just now reviewed.  Richard Strauss, Elektra, Karl... Read More »

Over the past few weeks, my listening has been filled with enjoyable discoveries: four Pure DSD256 releases from Hunnia and Eudora (four!); another excellent LSO Live release with Gianandrea Noseda; a superb performance of Handel's Theodora; a fine new recording from Barry Diament on his Soundkeeper label—who has something to teach popular and folk music... Read More »

The Doobie Brothers' self‑titled 1971 debut barely made a ripple in the record industry. Internally, the band and producer Ted Templeman knew they needed to level- up the songwriting, arrangements, and production to become big artists. Toulouse Street became their turning point. It's the album that effectively "invented" the Doobie Brothers' signature sound.   1972's... Read More »

Many of us know Robin Trower from his years with Procol Harum, but most became aware of the guitarist after he went solo and helped us fill the Hendrix void with his 1974 album Bridge of Sighs. Trower (born March 9, 1945, Catford, London) is one of the most identifiable British guitar stylists to emerge... Read More »

HDTT recently released three historically significant recordings: Maazel's 1964 recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 'Little Russian'; the Van Cliburn-Fritz Reiner 1961 Brahms Concerto No. 2; and Harry Belafonte's The Midnight Special. I've also taken this opportunity to finally write up reviews of three Pure DSD256 albums that I included in last year's Pure DSD256... Read More »

A number of the LPs and CDs I own are by singers and instrumentalists whom I would call fifteen-minute artists. As you would expect, a fifteen-minute artist is a musician, a singer, or a band who I enjoy, but not for much longer than fifteen minutes. Some of them used to be thirty-minute artists, but... Read More »

As I described in the introduction to this column in Part 1 (HERE) I started this project of listening to all my records at least one more time and cataloging them, I realized that this was the second time I have actually done this. The first time in the late 1970s, I only had a... Read More »

Yarlung Records continues to celebrate its Twentieth Anniversary with another superb release from its analog master tape archives. In April 2025, we received the marvelous recording by David Fung, Evening Conversations, about which I wrote HERE.  Now we have another release from Yarlung's archives that has only seen light of day as a CD: Ciaramella's... Read More »

A trove of truly wonderful recordings has appeared in the NativeDSD catalog over recent weeks. Here are eight that caught my immediate attention, with multiple turns in my listening queue. Each is a worthy addition to your music library and will reward over multiple listening sessions. Telemann Ino Cantata and Double Concertos, Ashley Solomon, Rachel... Read More »

Historians refer to Jimmy Wakely (1914-1982) as one of the last of the singing cowboys. Although he wasn't the very last, he was the last to sign with a major record label and produce a steady stream of records. He was, along with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, one of Hollywood's greatest singing cowboys. His... Read More »