Copper


NAMM: An Audiophile’s Perspective

Issue 103FEATURED

The National Association of Music Merchants has been around in one form or another since 1901. It started as an organization for piano merchants, but soon expanded to include other...

Lou Reed’s Berlin – Its Music from a Fresh Pers...

Issue 103FEATURED

With the exception of Foley artists or people who collect sound effects, I think it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of audiophiles are also music aficionados. As such,...

Nancy Wilson: Eight Great Tracks

Issue 103TRADING EIGHTS

When Nancy Wilson was growing up in Chillicothe, Ohio, in the 1940s, her father bought every Nat “King” Cole and Billy Eckstine album that came out. Besides the record player...

Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part One

Issue 103MUSIC TO MY EARS

In this new three-part series, you and I will explore the life and times of Owsley Stanley, who early on financed the Grateful Dead with money he made as a...

Vacuum Tubes: A Brief History

Issue 103REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

Vacuum tubes, also known as thermionic valves, or just valves in the UK, are electronic devices whose operation is based on thermionic emission. This is defined as the emission of electrons from the surface...

The Rise, Fall and Rise of Rod Stewart

Issue 103OFF THE CHARTS

Born in 1945 in North London, Rod Stewart grew up listening to a variety of music, from Al Jolson to Little Richard. When he got his first guitar at age...

On the Necessity of a Power Plant

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 103MUSIC

I know there’s a policy of having us writers not write about PS Audio products. But sometimes it’s something that’s just screaming at us (well, me) to do. Paul McGowan’s recent video/pod-thingy about...

Steve Waksman, Rock Musicologist: Part Two

Issue 103TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

(Author’s note: In our interview with Steve Waksman in TMT #102, he discussed the shifting social role of the electric guitar in American life; then we talked about Bill Hanley, the...

Mythical Stature: Gentle Giant, Part Two

Issue 103FEATURED

In the first installment of this two-parter, the three Shulman Brothers, along with Gary Green, Kerry Minnear, and John Weathers had completed recording their fourth album, Octopus, in 1972. They began...

BandLab: Reviving Iconic Brands for Musicians

Issue 102FEATURED

When Gibson Guitars was descending into its eventual Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of October, 2017, one of the most demoralizing warning shots was the announcement months earlier that technical support...

Missing the Pazz and Jop Critics Poll

Issue 102FEATURED

What’s Happening to Best Album of the Year Lists For many pop music critics, December was once the most joyous month, and it had nothing to do with holidays. Immediately...

An Ode to Cassette Tape: Part Two

Issue 102REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

When thinking of the ultimate cassette deck, many people think of Nakamichi. The company made some of the most impressive cassette decks ever. They were used by audiophiles and professionals,...

Zaida

Issue 102MUSIC'AL NOTES

The headline in the local Jewish newspaper read, “Orthodox Man Accuses Delicatessen Owner of Cutting Meat With a Knife Used for Cheese.” This heresy of mixing meat with milk was...

CHAM Session

Issue 102TRUE-LIFE RADIO TALES

CHAM, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. My next radio station move was a big one – to another country! A program director I had worked for at WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware was...

“I Got a Fever…”

Issue 102Opening Salvo

It's 102 – I got a fever and the only cure is more music! Announcing a new contributor: Wayne Robins. Wayne is a veteran music critic and journalist, former editor...

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Steve Waksman, Rock Musicologist

Issue 102TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

(Author’s note: Last November at a meeting of the American Musicological Society, Professor Steve Waksman, who holds joint appointments in American Studies and Music at Smith College, gave a fascinating keynote paper, “A...

A Journey Through The Absolute Sound

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 102MUSIC

I discovered high-end audio in 1978. But I always seemed to have a natural inclination towards high quality experience. My father was a largely self-trained EE, who was hired at...

Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Issue 102SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787), today a largely under-appreciated composer, was an important influence on Mozart, primarily because of his approach to writing operas. Happily, some of his works do get...

Patsy Cline: Country Music Groundbreaker

Issue 102OFF THE CHARTS

Country music groundbreaker Patsy Cline was born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932. In fact, her first name was Virginia; family and friends called her Ginny. She was not, however, born...

The Truth Isn't Out There

Issue 102AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

It plays records as intended…always a good thing. From Audio Engineering, May 1953. I actually wore this badge at CES 1995. I wonder if any aliens got into the show?  ...

Some Winners, and a Complete Snooze

Issue 102TO BE DETERMINED

Miles Davis Quintet – The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Miles Davis had been laboring for a number of years in the early fifties, hamstrung under an exclusive contract to Prestige Records. Who...

My Life with Harry Pearson

Issue 102FRANKLY SPEAKING

I worked for Harry Pearson full-time for many years in the late 1980s through early 1990s as technical director, managing editor and pop music reviewer and wrote for The Absolute Sound from...

Domestic Harmony

Issue 101AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

Les Paul and Mary Ford in their native habitat. Audio Engineering, May 1953

John Meyer Interview, Part Three

Issue 101THE COPPER INTERVIEW

To recap from Part One (Issue 99) and Part Two (Issue 100): John Meyer is a pioneer in the field of sound reinforcement. Meyer Sound equipment is used by a who’s who of artists,...

My C-24, Redux

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 101MUSIC

In one of his Paul’s Posts (“Capturing Air”), Paul McGowan mentioned my AKG C-24, and I thought I would try to describe the mic, and how it’s been changed. First of all:...

In and Out at WAMS and Getting WARM

Issue 101TRUE-LIFE RADIO TALES

Station Seven: WAMS-AM The seventh radio station in my career was back at WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware where I had been previously successful. What a homecoming. I loved the beautiful...

James Lee Stanley: Musical Survivor

Issue 101FRANKLY SPEAKING

Every now and then I’m going to write about artists who deserve wider recognition. I can think of no one more deserving than James Lee Stanley. Since 1972 the singer-songwriter-producer-recording-engineer-actor...

Queen of the Salons

Issue 101FEATURED

A Paris Salon, drawing by Adrien Moreau (1843-1906) She was considered to be the Queen of the Salons; a great beauty and the “unchallenged sovereign of sophisticated Paris…the most distinguished...

Re-Examining Pink Floyd in the Post-Roger Water...

Issue 101TO BE DETERMINED

This issue, I’m focusing on a single release, Pink Floyd’s The Later Years, which is a sprawling 18-disc box set that covers the band in the years following the departure of...

Sublime Moments

Issue 101FROM THE SWEET SPOT

I was cutting into a mango last night – it was a small variety known as Champagne, one that I have been smitten by for years. Its curvy shape can...

Mythical Stature: Gentle Giant, Part One

Issue 101FEATURED

Gentle Giant, possibly the most musically and instrumentally diverse group in all of progressive rock, actually had its roots in rhythm and blues. Like so many UK youth in the...

An Ode to Cassette Tape - Part One

Issue 101REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

I still remember how, as a very young boy, I had to handle a 7-inch record with both hands and I still could barely manage to put it on the...

Beethoven Plus One: Songs

Issue 101TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, the single most influential figure in the history of Western music. His intense focus on individual expression and...

Hugh Masekela, Jazz Legend

Issue 101TRADING EIGHTS

Some artists get a helping hand exactly when it’s needed. Hugh Masekela, a black South African, was given a trumpet at age 14 by Rev. Trevor Huddleston, who taught at...

Tina Turner: Finding Her Own Voice

Issue 101OFF THE CHARTS

Tina Turner is a textbook case of a talented woman finding her own voice by freeing herself from an abusive man. Born in 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, she became an...

Seeing Stars

Issue 101PARTING SHOT

The Star Wars Death Star looming? Fear not, it's just the top of a pressure-treated fence post. Photo courtesy of Rich Isaacs.

Happy Musical New Year!

Issue 101Opening Salvo

Numbers have been on my mind lately: 97, 98, 99, 100 and now Issue 101. Yet I’d been completely nearsighted about the fact that 2020, just around the corner, is...

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Thoughts on Hi-Res Music and Audio – An Insider...

Issue 101FEATURED

Let me start by saying I have deep respect for all music and audio lovers and their various points of view. There is nothing in my experience more personal or...

Celebrating Cartoon Bob

Issue 100FEATURED

Our Bob D’Amico aka Cartoon Bob has been with Copper since the first issue was minted. He was profiled in Issue 27 and in addition to being a wonderful artist is, like most of...

The Sound of Microphones, Redux

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 100MUSIC

Specifically, Neumann LDCs, or large diaphragm condensers. You know how they sound. Everybody knows how they sound. They’re the most ubiquitous recording mics there are. But just in case: You...

Erna

Issue 100MUSIC'AL NOTES

As some readers may have noticed, the tales I write are stories of my life. Some of them, including the one below, are about my family history. My father, born...

Jewel of California

Issue 100PARTING SHOT

La Jolla Cove, California. B. Jan Montana drove his 1931 Cadillac V-16 here during the 2019 Concours d'Elegance.

Bob Dylan at the Beacon Theater, November 27, 2019

Issue 100TWISTED SYSTEMS

All Along the MayflowerBob Dylan at the Beacon Theater, November 27, 2019 I am still on a writing sabbatical because I have to finish my first book [about the rock...

Rarities and Remembrances

Issue 100TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

This TMT will appear in Copper #100 on December 16, 2019. Happy Anniversary to Copper and to all the fine people who make it happen! What you’re reading is not my 100th column for Copper; I started...

Talking Heads: This Ain't No Fooling Around

Issue 100OFF THE CHARTS

Recently I had the pleasure of seeing the live show David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway (more on that later), and it gave me the urge to revisit the weird and wonderful...

Guillaume Dufay

Issue 100SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

In the days when Jan Van Eyck and his ilk were painting lush portraits and still lifes in the Netherlands, the same patrons who supported visual arts also poured their...