Copper


Better Living Through Music!

Issue 98Opening Salvo

First of all, I want to give a huge thank you to our writers, Paul McGowan, Bill Leebens and a special acknowledgment to the wonderful Maggie McFalls for helping me...

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The Sound of My Stereo and the Quality of Cables

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 98MUSIC

I’ve written about the sound of my system before – and how it had devolved from its extraordinary condition of more than 20 years to one which was, in hindsight,...

Russian Composers: Rachmaninov, Medtner and Pro...

Issue 98TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

They were contemporaries. Sergey Rachmaninov (1873–1943) was born seven years earlier than Nicolay Medtner (1880–1951), who arrived a year before Sergey Prokofiev (1881–1953). Rachmaninov studied first at the St. Petersburg...

The Bonzo Dog Band and the House on Daleville Road

Issue 98MUSIC TO MY EARS

I discovered the weirdness of the Bonzo Dog Band in the 1970s when living in a possessed A-frame house that was located at the end of a haunted road. I...

Puerto Rico

Issue 98MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Why are we here?” I asked my host Harry. “Wait, just wait” was his reply. I loved going to Puerto Rico. I would plan these trips in winter when the...

The Multiple Facets of Magnetic Recording: A Br...

Issue 98REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

Grooved media – phonograph cylinders, gramophone records and so on – kickstarted the recording industry and were the dominant commercial recording and playback formats up until the Second World War....

Capital Audiofest 2019 Show Report

Issue 98FEATURED

I’ve known about Capital Audiofest but hadn’t gone until this year. I’d heard it was a small but fun show – not enough to compel me. I didn’t have the...

Hildegard of Bingen

Issue 98SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is one of the most important composers of medieval sacred music, revered today for an unfettered and original style that has little to do with what...

The Pogues

Issue 98OFF THE CHARTS

When a band’s original name – Pogue Mahone – is an English spelling of the Irish for “Kiss My Arse,” you can expect some attitude. The concept was a unique...

Angry Sea

Issue 98PARTING SHOT

Paul and Terri McGowan spent time as leaf peepers this fall in New England. Along the way, we stopped on Maine’s rugged coastline and watched as the angry sea pounded...

Three Hits and a Big Miss!

Issue 98TO BE DETERMINED

The Stooges – The Stooges (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) When the Stooges burst onto the scene in 1969, they had a much-deserved reputation as an incendiary live act. Along with Ron Asheton’s...