TheVinylPress.com

The recent exploration of Canned Heat on TheVinylPress generated some real enthusiasm among readers, one of whom turned out to be Rebecca Davis, the author of “Blind Owl Blues,” an authoritative biography of Alan Wilson. Several readers had asked for a follow up piece on “Hooker ‘n Heat” (which I mentioned only in passing). Rebecca and I also had started to correspond. Who better, I thought, to write about this album than the biographer of Alan Wilson? The album came together in part because of the “Blind Owl’s” love for John Lee Hooker. My thanks to Rebecca Davis for her significant contributions to the body of work on Canned Heat and Alan Wilson. And for her essay on "Hooker ’n Heat," which appears for the first time on TheVinylPress, http://thevinylpress.com/hooker-n-heat-by-rebecca-davis/

Brooks Arthur has engineered and/or produced some incredible records over the course of more than 50 years: Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, as well as Blowin' Your Mind, which featured "Brown-Eyed Girl", some of the best-known early Phil Spector stuff, Springsteen, Dusty, Peggy Lee, Marvin Gaye, Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot, and a long, long list of others.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that I live not far from the little country studio Brooks once had in Rockland County, New York. But it is part of the local lore here- the place where some of the early Springsteen tracks were recorded, among many others.
The choice of the recording we discussed was no coincidence, however: Janis Ian's Between the Lines has been a musical and sonic benchmark for me since its release in 1975. It is neutral but rich sounding, intimate in its focus on Ms. Ian’s songs and voice, but grand and spacious and full of instrumental nuances.
The key people behind this record are still with us today, continuing to make music. Janis Ian still records and performs; Brooks still records, produces and acts as a music director for films; Robert Ludwig, who mastered the record at the time of its original release, is still as prolific as ever. Here's the piece, called
The Art of Recording: A Conversation with Brooks Arthur

Regarding Aqualung, I finally have the Steven Wilson remix and it easily bests the MFSL.

Slaw: It really does bring a different perspective to the recording; I think I also re-ranked the old DCC as a really good listen (but that one is costly). Wilson’s remix of Benefit is also a huge improvement over the original in my estimation. I think Steve Wilson is a genius. (Check out In Absentia, one of his Porcupine Tree albums if you haven’t listened to his own work- it was reissued and is readily available on vinyl).
Don’t know if you saw it, but I recently interviewed Ian Anderson on the early Tull records. And there are more Wilson goodies in the pipeline.
best,

Since my only reference (was) the MFSL, I believe it does bring an obviously different perspective, by comparison. (A while back, I started a thread, about what Aqualung pressings were best. Then, you replied, upon your shoot-out, the SW re-mix was your favorite).

I did not even need to go back to listen to the MOFI. What I hear is the following:
(1) I'm hearing a 40 year old recording that sounds like it was recorded recently.
(2) By comparison, from my memory... the PRAT is much improved. Why? There may have been an original speed inaccuracy, or the fact that everything has been cleaned up so much, that there is the perception of a more "lively" presentation?
(3) Every aspect of this lp is now, sonically correct and I can find no fault with it in my system.

I also think SW is a musical genius and have 95% of PT's output and am building my library of SW's solo works.

I just noticed that you started the Vinyl Press. I will look in to it. Thank you for your dedication to our hobby!