Beverly "Guitar" Watkins passed away in Atlanta on October 1st at age 80. She had a heart attack after previously suffering a stroke. I'd missed the news until reading the obit in today's New York Times. If you've not watched this video posted here and on the AnalogPlanet YouTube channel last fall, do yourself a big favor and watch it now. Here's what was written when the video originally posted:
79 year old Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, unknown to most in the audience, puts on a fiery, funky and fierce standing ovation hour-long performance on the first night of Chad Kassem's "Blues at the Crossroads" Blues Festival Friday October 26th.
The one on the right is part of a set of 4 rollers Audio Desk sells for $99.95. In reality, it's a readily available microfiber mini-paint roller into which someone has drilled a tiny hole that fits into a peg on the machine's spinning mechanism. The one on the left is a 1/4" nap microfiber mini-paint roller purchased at Home Despot. BUT THERE IS ONE KEY DIFFERENCE!
GZ Media, located in Lodenice, Czech Republic ("GZ" stands for Gramofonové Závody [Gramophone Record Factory]), founded in 1951, is the world's largest vinyl record manufacturer. In 2015 GZ produced 65,000 records a day! Today they press even more.
Bad music. We generally try to avoid it, but some is so awful that we just can’t help but listen and laugh. Typically, artists who are self-indulgent, high out of their minds, trying to be profound, and/or unaware of their skill (or drug consumption) limits create the worst music. For my monthly AnalogPlanet playlist feature, I’ve compiled for your pleasure a list of the worst music in the history of mankind. Since some of this music is only available on certain streaming platforms, I’ve included underneath each individual song or album a streaming link. It’s also worth noting the list’s strategic structure: as you keep reading the music gets worse. Read at your own risk, but if you’re willing to subject yourself to the final entry (what I believe to be the absolute worst album ever created by anybody), I guarantee you will have a good laugh. Anyway, let’s get your suffering over with and begin the proceedings right away…
Craft Recordings today announced a November 15th release of a 5 LP Chet Baker box set that includes the four albums the trumpet player released in 1958 and 1959 on Riverside along with a fifth album of outtakes and alternative takes all remastered directly from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed at RTI.
If you've watched the "RMAF Wrap-up" video on the AnalogPlanet YouTube channel (which today hit 30,000 subscribers), you no doubt remember the surprise "name check" encounter with record restoration expert Charles Kirmuss. It wasn't a "set up". I happened to walk into the room where he was restoring records for attendees as he talked about LAST Record Preservative and said "unlike Michael Fremer who...."—well watch the video below.
2012 wasn’t all that long ago and culturally not that much has changed, yet from that year to the September 27th release this year of the 50th anniversary edition of Abbey Road is how long The Beatles made records.
Intervention Records announced today that it has put back in print the quick to sell out all-analog reissue of The Flying Burrito Brothers' debut album.
Yarlung Records has garnered accolades for its innovative series of 45 rpm records that feature a variety of classical and jazz artists. Expectations are bound to be high for its new LP If You Love For Beauty, featuring the talented mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke together with t