Roots Music

Ry Cooder / Jazz

More of the Music of Ry Cooder

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER throughout this vintage copy – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • These are the stampers that always win our shootouts, and when you hear them you will know why – the sound is big, rich and clear
  • A one-time TAS list Super Disc that proves its worth on this superb pressing
  • “The complexity of the material on Jazz, as well as the arrangements by Joseph Byrd, dictate that this is Cooder’s most polished and orchestrated effort to date.”
  • We’ve discovered a number of titles in which one stamper always wins, and here are some others
  • If you’re a fan of Ry Cooder’s, this classic from 1978 belongs in your collection.
  • “The complexity of the material on Jazz, as well as the arrangements by Joseph Byrd, dictate that this is Cooder’s most polished and orchestrated effort to date.”

We’re big fans of Ry Cooder here at Better Records, and it’s always fun to hear the eccentric instruments and arrangements he and his cohorts cook up. Of course, it’s even more fun when you have a great sounding pressing like this one that lets you hear what the musicians were up to. (more…)

Little Feat / Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

More of the Music of Little Feat 

  • Feats Don’t Fail Me Now returns to the site for only the second time in years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on both sides of this vintage Warner Bros. pressing
  • Huge, spacious and three-dimensional with plenty of rich Tubey Magic (particularly on side two) – who knew it could sound this good?
  • Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and Fran Tate (the future Mrs. Billy Payne) contribute the lovely background vocals
  • 4 1/2 stars: “If Dixie Chicken represented a pinnacle of Lowell George as a songwriter and band leader, its sequel Feats Don’t Fail Me Now is the pinnacle of Little Feat as a group, showcasing each member at their finest.”

It’s getting mighty hard to find clean copies of practically all the pre-Waiting For Columbus titles.

The good news we have to offer this time as opposed to last is that we can now clearly say that Feats Don’t Fail Me Now is the best sounding album of the first four the band recorded. We think the songs are great too; we would hope that goes without saying. Waiting For Columbus — their live masterpiece and inarguably the definitive recording statement by the band — has at least one song from this album on each of its four sides. That ought to tell you something. If only we could find good sounding copies! But enough about that album. Let’s talk about this one. (more…)

The Band– Cahoots

More of the Music of The Band

  • The group’s fourth studio album debuts on the site with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom
  • These sides are rich, dynamic and natural sounding with low end weight, midrange smoothness and powerful, punchy bass
  • Forget all those vague, veiled, lifeless, ambience-free Heavy Vinyl pressings – this is the Cahoots that The Band recorded!
  • For those who need more convincing that the best copies sound amazing, here are our notes for this very copy. Hope you can read them!

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The Band – Music From Big Pink

More of the Music of The Band

  • Both sides of this vintage copy of The Band’s 1968 Masterpiece boast superb Double Plus (A++) sound
  • Even one Mint Minus Minus side is rare these days, and two are close to impossible, so consider this copy pretty darn quiet for a Super Hot Big Pink
  • Forget all those vague, veiled, lifeless, ambience-free Heavy Vinyl pressings – this is the Big Pink that The Band recorded!
  • Remember when you used to play the same record over and over, never taking it off the turntable for days at a time?
  • Well here it is – this pressing captures the music in a way that will make repeated plays the joy they used to be
  • 5 stars: “…as soon as ‘The Weight’ became a singles chart entry, the album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, [the album] came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.”

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Little Feat – The Last Record Album

Hot Stamper Pressings of Personal Favorites Available Now

  • Here is a vintage copy with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides – this is the best studio album the band ever recorded
  • The drums are rich and fat and deliciously analog, a perfect match for the sound of the album as a whole
  • Consistently strong songwriting with dramatically more emotionally powerful tracks than their other releases
  • Features great songs like “All That You Dream,” “Long Distance Love,” “Mercenary Territory” and more

The Last Record Album is one of our favorite Little Feat albums. The recording, by the estimable George Massenburg (working with Dave Hassinger), has many outstanding qualities. Among them is amazing bass; the bass goes really deep in places (“Long Distance Love”) and it’s big, punchy, rich and well up in the mix throughout the album.

The problem has always been an overly smooth top end, combined with congestion, smear, and a serious lack of presence. The good news is that if you clean enough copies with the advanced cleaning techniques we’ve developed, and you make enough improvements to your stereo, room, etc, with the right copy you can actually get this album to sound clear and rich.

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Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bayou Country

More of the Music of Creedence Clearwater Revival

  • A Bayou Country like you’ve never heard, with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides
  • “Proud Mary” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” are two of the better sounding tracks found on the album, and you can be sure this amazing side two has them swamp rockin’ like crazy
  • Our pick for the best sounding CCR record – but only if you have a copy with sonics like these
  • 4 1/2 stars: “All the songs add up to a superb statement of purpose, a record that captures Creedence Clearwater Revival’s muscular, spare, deceptively simple sound as an evocative portrait of America.”
  • This is arguably CCR’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best sounding album by an artist or group can be found here.
  • 4 1/2 stars: “All the songs add up to a superb statement of purpose, a record that captures Creedence Clearwater Revival’s muscular, spare, deceptively simple sound as an evocative portrait of America.”

The sound is big and open with real weight to the bottom. The top end has a much more natural extension than most, and much less of the harshly brightened-up upper midrange you might be familiar with. On side two you can even pick out the piano in “Good Golly Miss Molly,” which is barely audible on most pressings.

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The Blasters – Self-Titled

More Roots Rock

  • An original Slash pressing of The Blasters’ sophomore LP (and only the second copy to ever hit the site) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • These two sides are bigger and richer than most of what we played, and they also have more vocal presence and hard-rockin’ energy, two qualities that we found to be key to the better sounding pressings
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The Blasters wasn’t the only great album this group would make, but it was certainly their best, catching them when they were still fresh but with just enough seasoning to bring out their best performances; it’s practically impossible to imagine the roots rock scene of the 80s and onward existing without this album as a roadmap.”

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Little Feat – Waiting For Columbus

More Little Feat

  • A vintage copy of Waiting For Columbus with seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on all FOUR sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Some of the best sounding live rock and roll sound you will ever hear outside of a concert venue (particularly on sides one, two, and four)
  • If you want to understand the unique appeal of the band, there’s no better place to start than right here
  • One of our all-time favorite live recordings and their single best release – a true Masterpiece
  • 4 1/2 stars: “There’s much to savor on Waiting For Columbus, one of the great live albums of its era, thanks to rich performances that prove Little Feat were one of the great live bands of their time.”
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” but with less of an accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Waiting for Columbus is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but should.

This is an amazingly well-recorded concert, and what’s more, the versions the band does of their earlier material are much better than the studio album versions of those same songs in every case.

Fat Man In A Bathtub on this album is out of this world, but you could easily say that about a dozen or more of the tracks on this double album. Which simply means that you will have a very hard time listening to any of the studio versions of these songs once you’ve heard them performed with the kind of energy, enthusiasm and technical virtuosity Little Feat brought to this live show. (I saw them twice with Lowell and they were amazing both times.)

This is some of the best sounding live rock and roll sound you will ever hear outside of a concert venue. In fact, on a great copy, it’s just about as good as live rock’n’roll sound gets.

Here is a link to take you to more letters, commentaries and reviews for Waiting for Columbus.

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Dr. John – Dr. John’s Gumbo

More Roots Rock

  • Dr. John’s Gumbo returns to the site for only the second time in years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides of this original Atco pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Full, lively, and solid, this copy has just the right sound for this collection of quintessential New Orleans Rhythm and Blues tracks
  • The superbly talented Keith Olsen engineered – just one year later he would record Buckingham-Nicks, and two years after that Fleetwood Mac
  • 4 1/2 Stars: “Dr. John’s Gumbo bridged the gap between post-hippie rock and early rock & roll, blues, and R&B… that sly fusion of styles makes Dr. John’s Gumbo one of Dr. John’s finest albums.”

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Little Feat / Dixie Chicken

More Little Feat

  • Here is a vintage Green Label pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in more years than anyone can remember) that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • You get lovely extension up top, good weight down low, as well as remarkable transparency in the midrange, all qualities that were much less evident on the average copy we played
  • It’s the rare copy that’s this lively, solid and rich… drop the needle on any track and you’ll see what we mean
  • No Burbank label copy earned a better grade than 1.5+, and even most of those fell short, not to mention the truly awful later label
  • 5 stars: “It all adds up to a nearly irresistible record, filled with great songwriting, sultry grooves, and virtuosic performances that never are flashy. Little Feat, along with many jam bands that followed, tried to top this album, but they never managed to make a record this understated, appealing and fine.”

Hot Stamper sound on both sides — yes, it is possible, and this very copy is Proof with a capitol “P.” Most copies of this album sound like cardboard, especially the later pressings on the Palm Tree and tan labels. To get the best sound, you need originals of this album, and Warner Brothers Green Label originals are getting pretty darn hard to find as more and more collectors and audiophiles are coming to the realization that the unending stream of Heavy Vinyl reissues flooding the market leaves a lot to be desired. (Our desire for them is at zero, as we no longer bother to order the stuff.)

Folks, this is no Demo Disc by any means, but the later pressings strip away the two qualities that really make this music work and bring it to life: Tubey Magic and big bass. This copy has both in spades.

Listen to how breathy and transparent the chorus is on the first track. Now layer that sound on top of a fat and punchy bottom end and you have the formula for Little Feat Magic at its funky best. This is the sound they heard in the control room, of that I have no doubt, and it is all over this copy.

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