Hidden Treasure

A great topic! I could name a few hundred, but off the top of my head:

- Julianna Raye: Something peculiar. An album of great pop songs produced by Jeff Lynne. Really cool.

- Michael Kelsh: Well Of Mercy. A great singer/songwriter, produced by Rodney Crowell.

- The Fraternal Order Of The All: Greetings From Planet Love. The group name and album title is a tip-off to the tongue-in-cheek nature of this incredible album. A really well done pastiche’ to the unintentionally laughable late-60’s Psychedelic period of Rock music. Expertly done by Andrew Gold.

- The Flamin’ Groovies: Shake Some Action. Not that obscure, but if you haven’t heard this album, you NEED to! The Groovies combined the basics of 50’s Rock ’n’ Roll and 60’s British Invasion to create a sound all their own. Produced by the incredible Dave Edmunds.

- Speaking of Edmunds, his early albums are insanely great. Rockpile (album title, not his later band with Nick Lowe) is pure 50’s Rock ’n’ Roll, Subtle As A flying Mallet a collection of delicious Pop (and some R & R) produced in Phil Spector Wall-Of-Sound style. His 3rd album---Get It (the title, not an order ;-)---is his masterpiece. Absolutely fantastic, in my Top 10 albums of-all-time list.

- The Dwight Twilley Band: Sincerely. Their debut album, the best melding of Elvis and The Beatles you’ve (probably) never heard. The great trio of Twilley on vocals and rhythm guitar and piano, Phil Seymour on vocals and drums, and Bill Pitcock IV on incendiary lead guitar (playing a Gibson 335 into a pair of Fender Deluxe Reverb’s on 10. FANTASTIC tone!). If you like Tom Petty, you should love this. Tom can be seen playing bass in the videos The DTB made for the album.

I’m not surprised ghosthouse, you’re one hip music lover! Hanging around hi-fi stores as I have since discovering component audio when I was 18 (I met a guy who had a Rek-O-Kut transcription table with a Shure M44 cartridge, H. H. Scott integrated amp and 2-way bookshelf speakers. I put together an AR table with M91e cartridge, Fisher X-100 integrated amp, and AR 4X speaker system), I soon realized that though I shared a passion for the high quality reproduction of music, my taste in music didn’t much align with many of the guys I met in hi-shops. My taste was that of a musician, and none of the players I knew/know gave/give a damn about hi-fi.

For me, the greatest thing about AudiogoN is that it’s participants are not just passionate about the high quality reproduction of music, but also very sophisticated and informed about music itself. I don’t like to see audiophilia referred to as a hobby; high performance gear is---for me at least, the means to an end. The deeper, more profound connection with and appreciation of music, not toys to play with.