Eric Bibb Friends ( HQ 180g vinyl 2LP )

Release date 25-10-2010(Originally released in 2004)

2010 UK  ( HQ 180g vinyl 2LP ) Friends is a unique musical collaborationfeaturing Eric Bibb duetting with friends and musicians he has met on his travels such as Taj Mahal, Odetta Charlie, Musselwhite Guy Davis Mamadou Diabate and Djelimady Toukara.

A worldwide diversity of musical influences is found on this astonishingly varied and ambitious album Bibb's performance is an enriching experience both musically and spiritually. Purveying a beautifully realised and deftly accomplished soulful and gospel infused folkblues Bibb has no problem melding a traditional rootsy American style with a subtle contemporary sensibility, presented in sealed & stickered gatefold sleeve.

Tracks
01 99 1/2 Wont Do
02 Six OClock Blues
03 Goin Down Slow
04 Lovin In My Babys Eyes
05 For You
06 The Cape
07 Taint Such A Much
08 Needed Time
09 If I Stayed
10 Connected
11 Ribbons And Bows
12 Just Look Up
13 Cowgirl Queen
14 Kulanjan/Sebastians Tune
15 Dance Me To The End Of Love

Combine the talents of folk-blues star Eric Bibb with a host of accomplished musical friends and you have the makings of a significant album. No guarantees, mind you, because all-star sessions that are actually worthwhile are rare indeed. However, here, paired with the talents of Taj Mahal, Guy Davis, Odetta, Charlie Musselwhite, Martin Simpson, Harry Manx, Ruthie Foster and a host of others, Bibb is in his element, playing spare blues with a innate understanding of tradition. Songs such as "The Cape," "Taint Such a Much," (with Odetta) and "Dance Me Till the End of Love" (with pianist Jerry Yester) say so much so well that they could be considered hits for Bibb.

Friends also has wonderful sonics. There’s space aplenty, along with tone and timbre that sound real. Most of all, though, there is a sense of presence, the feeling of actually being in the company of the musicians. On the opening of "The Cape," for example, Bibb is in-the-room real, a three-dimensional figure standing slightly in front of the plane of the speakers. His and Martin Simpson's guitars are rendered with incredible detail -- from the sound of the fingers on the strings to how those strings excite the wooden cavity. Female vocals are reproduced just as vividly. Notice, for example, how immediate Ruthie Foster sounds on "For You." This LP issue -– I can’t call it a reissue because this is its debut on vinyl -- is light years ahead of the pale imitation that is the CD. Perhaps the reason is the sparseness of the recording. Most of the tunes employ only two or three musicians tops, all of whom are deftly defined by the LP's inherent high resolution.

Praise also goes to Pure Pleasure Records for deciding to issue this artist's-best recording on what is still the finest readily available music medium extant. Friends is Bibb’s masterpiece, and we are finally able to hear it in sound that will come up short only in comparison to the master tapes.

About Pure Pleasure:
At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.

During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle.

We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.

To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.