THROUGH THE LENS: A Roots Music Lovers Guide to Analog, Part 6

In what has become a yearly feature, this week’s column turns its focus to the latest happenings in the wide wide world of analog, and just a bit more.

You don’t have to be an audiophile to fully appreciate well-recorded music available in a variety of formats. While pure analog records remains the gold standard, the record labels who specialize in vinyl more often than not (as noted below) also offer those albums on compact disc and high resolution audio downloads. (High-resolution audio is a term for audio files higher than the CD rate (16-bit audio bit depth and and 44.1 kHz sample rate), commonly referring to files with a 24-bit depth and either a 96 or 192 kHz sample rate. In short, the higher the numbers the greater is the sound fidelity.)

Acony Records & Woodland Studios

Built in 1965, and owned by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings since 2003, Woodland Studios in Nashville has been home to the recording of too many great albums to count. Since 2003 it has not been open to the public, rather Welch and Rawlings record only what they want, which includes albums on their own label, Acony, and very select others, such as Robyn Hitchcock’s Spooked (Yep Roc 2004). 

The studio stands pretty much alone in the roots music world as it is all analog, and as per Welch & Rawlings’ desire, it is dedicated to making the best-sounding recordings humanly possible. That point is made crystal clear in a recent interview with Rawlings by audiophile journalist Michael Fremer. During that interview, Rawlings demonstrates great technical skill, not only in the recording process but also the mastering, cutting, and pressing aspects of record making. You will see Rawlings in a completely new light.

So far, Welch and Rawlings have recorded four of their own albums and one collection, one by Willie Watson, two by Dave Rawlings Machine, and Old Crow Medicine Show’s debut album for LP; and the The Harrow & the Harvest, until it sold out, was available on reel-to-reel tape. Rawlings also said their goal was to have all Acony albums available on vinyl, and as the studio also has tape duplication capability I’d say we’ll also see some on tape as well. Albums on the Acony label are also available on CD and digital download, but if you purchase the LP on their website, there’s a bonus, you also get a free high resolution download.

A Blues Renaissance 

We are in the midst of a blues revival not seen in some 65 years, and Craft Recordings’ Bluesville series of reissues is at the forefront. Having heard them all, these releases are not cultural nostalgia, but rather a deeply satisfying exploration of the many shades of blues music that roots music fans and audiophiles alike should revel in.  Just one year into the series, every release has been significant, but here are three that struck deep chords within me.

1) Gary Davis’ ‘Harlem Street Singer’: was recorded in Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey studio in 1960. While Davis had been playing the Piedmont blues style since the 1930s, he again gained national prominence when he appeared at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959. He recorded a dozen or so studio albums during his lifetime but none more important and influential as this one.

As I wrote in the January 7, 2025 edition of this column, the album “touches every fiber of your being and demonstrates why the Americana Music Association honored him, and his enduring influence, with a 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s my favorite, most played record of the year.” When you put the record on, you can feel his presence in the room. Many of Davis’ students (Rory Block, Stefan Grossman, and Roy Book Binder) continue to play in his style and extol his virtues every time I catch them.

2) Mississippi John Hurt’s ‘Today!’: When I left for college I took only three things, some clothes, a suitcase hi-fi, and a couple dozen records. One of them was The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard 1967), which was released after not long his passing in 1966. I later learned that Hurt began playing in the 1920s and released quite a few 78rpm records in 1928. As those only recordings only sold modestly, Okeh Records dropped him and he returned to farming in Mississippi. 

But fate was kind, when a copy of his “Avalon Blues” was discovered a couple of musicologists tracked him down in 1963 and persuaded him to move to the Washington, DC area to play some shows. Just months later, in July, he appeared at the the Newport Folk Festival, and recorded two albums for a small label. However, it was his 1966 album Today! (Vanguard 1966) that brought him to national attention. Bluesville will reissue that album on March 14, 2025.

With a relaxed, near-conversational style, in both his playing and vocal delivery, Hurt is the epitome of what can be referred a the gentle blues. No doubt, living in the Jim Crow south for nearly his entire life took its toll, but when you listen to him on this record, his great sense of humanity is clear. You feel as though you are cradled in the arms of a master who may have been unaware how much his life and music touched so many people.

3) Lonnie Johnson’s ‘Blues & Ballads’: is one of the most different blues records I have ever heard. Also recorded in 1960 at the Van Gelder studio, the blues portion of the album could be called the “sweet blues” and on the ballad tunes, he sounds like a crooner, in the style, say, of Brook Benton. In doing so, he replicates the subtle yet distinctive guitar playing with a restrained vocal style that made him both influential and popular in the 1920s, and, much like the blues pianist Leroy Carr, eventually fell out of favor. This album will hopefully correct that and serve as a reminder that blues musicians were also entertainers.

The label is also offering its releases on CD, and in a variety of resolution downloads, including high-resolution, thus making these stellar reissues available to everyone regardless of format preference.

Elsewhere, and for the first time, the European label The Lost Recordings will release a blues album, the 2-LP set, American Folk Blues Festival, on February 21, 2025. Recorded in Paris in 1962 and Bremen, Germany in 1963, the album features John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Sonny Terry and many others. The label specializes in tracking down important live European recordings and making them available. Previous releases have been jazz and classical. I have several and as they sound excellent, there’s no reason to think this foray into blues won’t be just as wonderful. As with Bluesville and Acony, the album will also be available on CD and high resolution download.

Deluxe Albums on Vinyl 

While deluxe, or expanded, versions of albums have been around for a very long time, several recent vinyl releases bear mentioning. These include: Stephen Wilson Jr’s often-overlooked 2024 debut album, søn of dad, that was reissued last month in a whopping 4- LP set with music as raw and real as it gets—t’s lonesome, ornery, and mean in parts, and so satisfyingly contemplative in others—I recently saw him perform, and he’s a force to be reckoned with; the recent Grammy-winning Trail of Flowers by Sierra Ferrell, complete with cutout paper dolls; Wilco’s 2004 Grammy winning A Ghost is Born, in several versions; Vinyl Me Please’s  soundtrack to Inside Llewyn Davis, that includes a never before released Dylan track, “Farewell;” and for RSD 2025, and first time on LP, New West Records will offer Emmylou Harris’ 1998 live album Spyboy, along with extra tracks. The album was named after the touring band, including buddy Miller and Brady Blade, she put together to feature songs from Wrecking Ball, the album that pretty much defines Americana. 

While they are not expanded editions, two more outstanding records should be noted. First, on April 4, 2025 Rhino Records will reissue the long out of print, and highly sought after, Tracy Chapman’s Grammy winning self-titled first album from 1988. Long time readers may recall that a March 2021 edition of this column, it was highlighted as an important album in the development of Americana. It should also be noted that Eilen Jewell’s loving 2010 tribute to Loretta Lynn, Butcher Holler, was re-issued late last year for the first time on vinyl. 

Nonesuch Records 

Speaking of Nonesuch, the label, which is home to many roots musicians on vinyl, has quietly begun making high resolution downloads available for some of its records. These include the Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens; Yasmin Williams; Molly Tuttle; Hurray for the Riff Raff; Punch Brothers’ Hell on Church Street, the band’s reimagining of, and homage to, Tony Rice’s Church Street Blues; and Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell’s The Traveling Kind.

Previous ‘Why Vinyl?’ columns

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Photos in the gallery below include many of the artists noted above. Click on any photo to view the gallery as a full-size slideshow.