We are thrilled to announce the return of Patti, Louie and Nipper!
While we’ve been digging the artistic covers over the last several issues, readers have missed
Copper’s mascots (named for Patti Smith, Lou Reed and, well...Nipper) and we confess, so have we. That charming canine, his fun-loving owners and Bob D’Amico aka
Cartoon Bob, the artist who brings them to life, lend
Copper a distinctive identity. Well, they're back and here to stay. Just like the rest of us, who knows what further musical and audio adventures the tenacious trio might encounter?

Cartoon Bob in his native habitat.
In this issue: Professor Larry Schenbeck remembers
Mahler, and asks:
why collect physical media anymore? Anne E. Johnson covers
Mendelssohn’s piano and violin concertos and the
Strokes, including their latest,
The New Abnormal. Bob Wood takes 50 years to get an
audio system he’s satisfied with. WL Woodward traces the career of bassist and studio cat extraordinaire
Lee Sklar. John Seetoo concludes his series,
Songs of Praise from Unlikely Artists. J.I. Agnew tells us
how not to fix things.
Tom Gibbs checks out
new releases from Norah Jones, John Scofield, Steve Hackett and Brad Mehldau. In
Confessions of a Setup Man I encounter some sinister stairways. Wayne Robins digs Dion’s new
Blues with Friends album. Rudy Radelic wraps up his
Tales of an Audio Forum Administrator series. Don Kaplan appreciates
women composers of early music. Jay Jay French goes
from hippie to glam rocker, and Ken Sander hangs with
War and Wet Willie during a landmark event. We conclude with
the new normal, a
music-loving butterfly and an
audio love supreme.