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Some of the Bluesway pressings we've auditioned have had exceptionally big, rich, lively sound, and that's the way we like to hear our music. There are plenty of dogs in the King canon, especially in the '70s, so you have to be somewhat careful with the man's recordings, but good titles in the '60s with excellent sound can still be found if you're willing to do the work (or you're willing to let us do it for you). Watch for more B. B. King albums coming to the site soon.
Tubey Magic Is Key
This original pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records cannot even begin to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn't showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing into a recording, actually being able to "see" the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It's what vintage all analog recordings are known for - this sound.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it -- not often, and certainly not always -- but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.
There were some gritty, thin copies in our shootout that took all the fun out of the music, but fortunately, we found this killer pressing that had us really enjoying this batch of songs from The Master of the Blues himself, Mr. B.B. King.
Electric Blues with Brass
What the best sides of this album have to offer is not hard to hear:
The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1969
Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
Natural tonality in the midrange -- with the guitars and drums having the correct sound for this kind of recording
Transparency, resolution and freedom from smear
No doubt there's more but we hope that should do for starters
Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
Size
One of the qualities that we don't talk about on the site nearly enough is the size of the record's presentation. Some copies of the album just sound small -- they don't extend all the way to the outside edges of the speakers, and they don't seem to take up all the space from the floor to the ceiling. In addition, the sound can often be recessed, with a lack of presence and immediacy in the center.
Other copies -- my notes for these copies often read "BIG and BOLD" -- create a huge soundfield, with the music positively jumping out of the speakers. They're not brighter, they're not more aggressive, they're not hyped-up in any way, they're just bigger and clearer.
And most of the time those very special pressings just plain rock harder. When you hear a copy that does all that, it's an entirely different listening experience.
