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Great country recording

Hi all, I am looking for some great country recording albums by various artists. Really like the sound of steel guitar, acoustic guitar, fiddle, and of course vocals. Any recommendations? Thanks
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bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,821 posts
 

I used Iris Dement's My Life album as source material at one CES Vegas. Sounded great on Crosby-modified QUAD 63's. Stuart Duncan, a great fiddle player, is one of the superb musicians on the album.

Chris Hillman's (The Byrds bassist) albums on Sugar Hill records possess great sound quality, and are musically great (a nice "bonus" ;-), His albums as a member of The Desert Rose Band as fantastic as well. His latest album was produced by Mike Campbell of Petty's Heartbreakers.

T Bone Burnett's (producer of the O' Brother soundtrack, as well as The New Basement Tapes) Truth Decay album (originally on Takoma, a label known for good sound and artists) sounds REALLY good.

I'll think of some more if you want.

thepigdog's avatar
thepigdog
257 posts
 
Jerry Douglass is a mighty fine dobro player.
Eilen Jewell. 
pehare's avatar
pehare
835 posts
 
Love this kind of music and have spent a great portion of my life enjoying it.  Great recommendations above from everyone so I'll toss a couple logs onto the fire...

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken albums volumes 2 & 3 (2 different albums) which feature all most of the greats mentioned above....enjoy!
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
A lot of what's been suggested above falls under what I'd consider more Americana than country but it's also what I happen to prefer.  Yes, much modern Americana is recorded well - especially folks like Rawlings and Welch and Jason Isbell.  From back in the 70s I felt that Gram Parsons's debut solo album GP was recorded very nicely not to mention it's brilliant.
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
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.
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