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So disappointed in today's Americana

I make it a habit of getting the Grammy nominated Americana albums from the library each year. Past years have introduced me to much new music, some good, some bad, some treasures (TajMo for example). This year I just listened to Brandi Carlile's cd 'By the way I forgive you', nominated for best Americana roots album. OMG it is unlistenable! You would think singer / songwriters would strive for a pristine recording that highlights their lyrics and mostly acoustic arrangements. No - it is a sonic mess, compressed all to hell. To quote my wife "Turn that crap off". End of rant. 
mcondo
gpgr4blu
810 posts
 
Hi Slaw:
Hope you enjoy it. It is my personal fave from Brandi. There is also an album of other artists performing the songs on "The Story" which has some great performances and some not so great performances. It's called "Cover Stories" and the funds from sales go to a War Child charity fund.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
Good one whart! David Lindley is a monster lap steel player, with a style employing, unlike most steel players, lots of sustain and over-driven tube distortion. He's great live, and his first two solo albums (he was in the late-60's band Kaleidoscope, and on many L.A. recordings of Jackson Browne and other singer/songwriters) are not just musically excellent, but also unusually good sounding for Rock 'n' Roll records. I have long used the first (which includes David's fantastic version of "Mercury Blues") for hi-fi evaluations.
mckinneymike
29 posts
 
whart1 ,

  Really appreciate the suggestion of The National Reserve!  I like them a lot.
reubent
3,587 posts
 
Listening to "by the way, I forgive you" on vinyl right now. Musically, I really like the album. However, it does suffer from SQ issues, probably compression. Too bad, as it is really good. Makes me wonder how much more I might enjoy it if it was recorded differently.

Question for those who understand recorded music production: "Who is responsible for the amount of compression used? Is it the recording engineer, producer, mastering technician, etc.? Who makes the decision about the amount of compression used? 
whart's avatar
whart
1,930 posts
 
@bdp24 - you and i have gotten to the point where we can just say something in code and we both go on a roll- remember the old joke about telling jokes using numbers?
I think El-Rayo-X is being remastered on vinyl by one of the audiophile reissue labels. I have an early copy somewhere here, i’ll have to pull it out and play it.
Here it is: http://www.speakerscornerrecords.com/products/details/524/david-lindley-el-rayo-x?sort=release-date%7Cdesc&display=grid
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