Copper


Hollis Brown’s In the Aftermath: A New Take on...

Issue 152Disciples of Sound

My friend Ed and I have talked often about how the Rolling Stones have been able to tour for almost fifty years largely on the backs of four albums: Exile on...

Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These: Get ...

Issue 152Featured

Get Back, directed by Peter Jackson Peter Jackson’s Get Back film tries to finesse the Beatles’ break-up while fulfilling the audience’s dream of a fantasy reunion. When the original Let It Be film first appeared...

Dangerfield’s

Issue 152True-Life Rock Tales

Jim Kellem, a talent agent from CMA (Creative Management Associates) and my good buddy, invites me to join him at Patsy’s, where he is having a business dinner with Phil...

Better Sound From My Computer Audio, Part Four:...

Issue 152Streaming Sessions

Who would have thought ten years ago that it would someday be possible to select songs to play back from your online music library simply by voice command? So much...

AES Show Fall 2021 Highlights, Part Two

Issue 152Show Report

As 2021 entered the fourth quarter, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) held its annual fall show online in October, because of the pandemic still being in effect. Thankfully, the show...

The Sounds of Christmas: Batteries Not Included...

Issue 152Music To My Ears

This article originally appeared in Issue 22. It’s a Copper tradition to have a holiday story by WL Woodward at this time of year, so we present it again here...

Burt Bacharach in the 1960s and 1970s: Artists ...

Issue 152Featured

The Burt Bacharach and Hal David songwriting machine was running full speed ahead through the 1960s. While Dionne Warwick was the singer of many of their best tunes, there were...

Adventures in Shopping Badly

Issue 152The Mindful Melophile

‘Tis the season to be shopping and time once again for retailers to be visited by the ghosts of customers past. In the spirit of the holidays, here are several...

Hall and Oates: Hitmakers With Soul

Issue 152Off the Charts

With 16 Top-10 singles, including six that reached No. 1, Daryl Hall and John Oates proved that combining two genres can be a real moneymaker if it’s done right. Their...

Playing at Louie Lee's

Issue 152Parting Shot

Dale Watson, performing at Lee’s Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis (Issue 107's Parting Shot). It was the penultimate show at the venue, now closed. Dale was so fond of Lee's that...

Issue 152

Issue 152Opening Salvo

All of us at Copper once again wish all of you happy holidays. The past two years have been tougher than anyone could have imagined, but this is a season of hope...

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Collector as Minimalist

Issue 152Featured

Before my upcoming trip to the record store, I comb through my collection and pull Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Johnny Cash, Live at San Quentin, Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsies, and the...

Issue 151

Issue 151Opening Salvo

Happy holidays, everyone. We at Copper wish all of you the very best. The past couple of seasons have obviously been tough on everyone, but we also have plenty to be thankful...

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AES Show Fall 2021 Highlights, Part One

Issue 151Show Report

As 2021 entered the fourth quarter, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) held its annual fall show online in October, because of the pandemic still being in effect. Thankfully, the show...

Words and Music by Stephen Sondheim

Issue 151Featured

Readers don’t necessarily rely on Copper for theatrical news, but there is a good reason why the recent passing of Stephen Sondheim (1930 – 2021) should matter to anyone interested in music:...

The Knob With the Misleading Name

Issue 151Featured

Component audio systems were still comparatively rare when my college roommates and I put one together (see my article in Issue 149), but there was at least one other in...

Who Decides What’s Good or Bad? And, Some Mini-...

Issue 151Frankly Speaking

In the process of putting together a list of 150 favorite albums for Issue 150, the thought struck me yet again: what determines whether music is good or bad, anyway? I think...

Our Heads Are Spinning

Issue 151Audio Anthropology

Fit for a King (Marilyn King of the King Sisters, that is): the Roberts 990 stereo tape recorder. Courtesy of the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording. Recording engineer and TEC...

Audiophile Heaven, Revisited

Issue 151FROM THE SWEET SPOT

What will the audiophile section of heaven be like? Andy pondered it briefly in Issue 149, and pays another visit here: There will be a Hawaiian lagoon with PerfectWaves controlled...

Adele: Too Big to Fail

Issue 151Wayne's Words

One of my daughter’s colleagues at work was asked to do a task while on a mini-break, expressing some reluctance as he pulled pods out of his ears. “You’re taking...

Around the World in 80 Lathes, Part One

Issue 151Revolutions Per Minute

Audiophiles and record collectors often obsess about what kind of turntable or tonearm or cartridge works best for a certain record. In the process, they go to great lengths in...

They Don’t Make 'Em Like They Used To…(Part Two)

Issue 151

As I said in Part One (Issue 149), I like physical media. There’s something about having the information and artwork that comes with LPs and CDs that seems essential to...

Scenes From Capital Audiofest 2021, Part Two

Issue 151Show Report

In Part One (Issue 150) we featured write-ups on Capital Audiofest 2021 from Steve Kindig and Harris Fogel. We wrap up our coverage with more photos from the show taken...

Shop Class

Issue 151Featured

In my first installment, “When I Was A Boy,” (Issue 150) I spun a yarn of growing up as a budding audiophile by using song titles as references. Many of...

The Nightingale Has Landed

Issue 151Parting Shot

Taken at the Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico. The nightingale is part of a mural depicting the ancient site. The arm and hand are more recently posed!...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part Nine

Issue 151New Vistas

Interstate 90 back to Spearfish was packed with Harleys doing 55 – while sounding like they were going 105. I soon tired of the freight-train pace, waved to the renegades,...

Back To My Reel-To-Reel Roots, Part Four: Makin...

Issue 151Natural Born Kessler

By now it has been established that my renewed interest in reel-to-reel is unnaturally narrow, in that I am not a recordist in any manner. I may be the only...

Burt Bacharach: The A&M Years

Issue 151Deep Dive

Previous installments of our series on Burt Bacharach appeared in Issues 146, 147, 148 and 149. Instrumentally Bacharach As the tail end of the Dionne Warwick era came closer, Burt...

One Size Fits All? Part Two: Mind the Gap

Issue 151Speaker Stories

In our previous article (Issue 150), we discussed the fact that selecting the “small” setting on your receiver or A/V preamp/processor in the speaker setup menu allows you to assign...

Rock and Roll – Missing In Action?

Issue 151Music To My Ears

My wife Diana and I were in the European Café in Colorado Springs a few Saturdays ago when a guy came through the patio door, looked at me and asked,...

Jane Ira Bloom: A Unique Voice on Soprano Sax

Issue 151Trading Eights

Jane Ira Bloom embodies the point where formal academic training and traditional jazz performance meet. With a master’s degree from Yale School of Music, this Grammy-winning composer and soprano saxophonist...

From Rock to Schlock: 150 Desert Island Albums

Issue 150Frankly Speaking

Most “desert island” record articles make the assumption that you can only take a handful of discs with you that you can’t live without. Well, since the concept of being...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part Eight

Issue 150New Vistas

 The first installments of this series appeared in Issues 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148 and 149 – Ed.> “Sit down and have a beer Spider, enjoy the view for...

When I Was a Boy

Issue 150Sitting In

I don’t remember the exact date that I became a budding audiophile, but it all started in 1965 when I was in the seventh grade. My parents were building the...

One Size Fits All? Part One

Issue 150Speaker Stories

Many of us use 2.1-channel or multichannel speaker setups that include subwoofers. In this article, we examine some of the relative merits of setting up your speakers using either the...

Phil Keaggy – A Lifetime Of Joyful Noises, Part...

Issue 150Deep Dive

Parts One, Two, Three and Four of this series appeared in Issues 145, 146, 148 and 149.  In covering the half-century long career of Contemporary Christian music (CCM) pioneer and...

Jazz Lives: Saxophonist Frank Catalano Ascends

Issue 150Frankly Speaking

Last summer I had the honor of playing on a bill with tenor saxophonist Frank Catalano and his quartet, at the Port Palooza festival in Port Jefferson, New York. I’d...

The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women

Issue 150Featured

In 1979, WBCN-FM in Boston offered its listeners a fantastic deal: tell us what you think are the 10 best rock albums of all time, and we’ll tabulate the results...

Gustard’s X16 Digital-to-Analog Converter – My ...

Issue 150To Be Determined

In Copper’s last issue, I talked about possible upcoming changes to my lifestyle and living arrangements that might require me to rethink my large(ish) home stereo setup. In particular, whether...

Some Notable Analog Recordings, Part Three

Issue 150Featured

Part One and Part Two of this series appeared in Issue 141 and Issue 142. I started exploring recordings on labels related to the Decca Record Company of England in Issue...

1960s Music Magic: Revisiting NYC’s Fillmore Ea...

Issue 150Featured

New York’s famed Fillmore East closed 50 years ago this year. It’s hard to believe it was that long ago. Although only operational for a relatively short three-year period (1968...

150: What’s In a Number?

Issue 150Featured

150 is the magic number this month. 150 bi-weekly issues ago, Copper magazine was launched. It got me thinking about the number 150 and its many uses. Here is a...

Shannon Parks and his Magic Puffin

Issue 150The Copper Interview

My Leatherman multi-tool is indispensable. Although I bought it as a knife for opening boxes, I soon discovered I couldn’t go a week without the pliers and screwdrivers. The wire...

150 Years of Aida

Issue 150Something Old / Something New

Like every other writer who appears on these gleaming digital pages, I can’t believe we’ve already reached Copper’s 150th issue. I’ve been here almost since the beginning, having contributed over 200...

The Many Facets of David Bowie

Issue 150Off the Charts

From the gaunt, alien Ziggy Stardust through solid-colored, big-shouldered suits on MTV to a philosophical album about death at the end of his life, David Bowie had so many personas...

Milestones

Issue 150Opening Salvo

This is the 150th issue of Copper! We are thrilled to have reached this milestone. It would not have been possible without our exceptional staff. I am honored and more than a little...

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