Great country recording

Johnny Cash, I Walk the Line. As bare bones a production that has ever come down. Perhaps a hint of brightness and occasional microphone grit from Cash’s vocals, but my now 30 year old plus vinyl remains a treat to listen to.


Emmylou Harris’ Luxury Liner is a bit slickly produced, but it is utterly lovely in every respect. Her Roses in the Snow record, recorded live & un-overdubbed in a Nashville studio, is perhaps a bit dry but maybe it would come alive on a better system than I have.

You got me doing random needle drops.  Nothing, sorry to say, was of true audiophile quality.  The Will the Circle Be Unbroken LPs were particularly disappointing   First pressings.  Got 'em the week they came out.  Scratchy vocals.  Instrumental tonality could be good, but the overall sense was that the producers never quite found a magical microphone placement.  Ergo, soundstaging was never more than decent. 

Shockingly, probably my best-sounding record was Portrait of Patsy Cline, a greatest hits compilation on what is obviously an MCA reissue.  The backup instrumentals were largely locked either to the left or right but they had good tonality & reasonable dynamics.  Patsy, meantime, sounded clean and lovely at her solo mike.  I reiterate, too, that my Johnny Cash record sounds pretty good.

And oh yeah, I've probably mentioned this a dozen times here, but I play guitar, banjo, fiddle and piano.  My wife plays guitar & banjo, and does more than her share of vocalizing.