Tony Joe White Homemade Ice Cream 45RPM (2 LP)

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal
180g 45rpm Double LP!
Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from Original Analog Tape!
Plated & Pressed at QRP!
You may or may not know of Tony Joe White, but we all know his two most famous songs - "Polk Salad Annie" and "Rainy Night In Georgia". This record is up to the standards of those great numbers. So soulful, humid, rich and textured. Or as Tony Joe would say, "It's swampy."
And because it's such a classic, such a southern musical touchstone, Analogue Productions have gone and upped the ante - making this standout a 45 RPM double LP release. Veteran audiophiles know and hear the difference. With more LP real estate, inner groove distortion is reduced and tracking by your stereo cartridge is improved. That's a major sonic advantage! Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analog tape, this LP sounds phenomenal from the first note to the last fade out.
The last four songs on side two of this album are going to positively floor you. They are so sparse and bluesy and emotional. And the sound is as good as the music. With this new QRP pressing, the sound is so good it's tape-like. So solid and jet-black is the foundation from which the music just jumps. Ya gotta hear it to understand what we're trying to describe. It's one of those jaw-hit-the-floor, sit-in-stunned-silence, goose-bump-raising, tears-in-your-eyes records. You know, the kind we're all looking for as audiophiles?
Homemade Ice Cream was originally released in 1973 on Warner Bros. and was co-produced by White and legendary Atlantic producer Tom Dowd. It's White's sixth overall record and his third for Warner Bros. This is very much a back porch acoustic affair. The music has the space to breathe, one of the reasons for the life-like sound.
Praise for Analogue Productions' 33 1/3 version:
"Audiophiles, this is a must-have LP. The sound is completely natural with no studio artifacts. What stands out, though, are the timbral qualities of the instruments and White's great voice. Organ, piano and bass are there for harmonic effect, but the sounds of the drums and guitars are some of the best I've heard from my system. Originally recorded in 1973, this reissue LP jumped to the top of my short list for Audiophilia's Star Recordings of the Year, 2013." - Anthony Kershaw, Audiophilia.com, May 2013
"This is, after all, the man who gave 'Polk Salad Annie' to Elvis (although White did hit the charts with it) and 'Rainy Night in Georgia' to Brook Benton, as well as creating hits for Dusty Springfield, Hank Williams Jr. and many others...TJW is swampier than the rest, so this will appeal to anyone who used to read ZigZag." - Ken Kessler, Hi-Fi News, August 2012, Sound Quality 86%
"Not a song on this album is less than compelling and some are downright searing. White's vulnerability and ability to convey heartbreak and hurt put him in Roy Orbison's class, though he expresses these feelings less bombastically...The sound starts out really good but just gets better as it goes, with side two's final four tracks being astonishingly transparent and intimate-sounding - as if you're sitting on the other side of the microphones...The Quality Record Pressings pressing quality is state of the art." - Michael Fremer, MusicAngle.com, March 2012, Music 8/11, Sound 9/11
"... Among the mass of truly memorable and talented songwriters who practiced their craft in the late 1960s and early '70s, Tony Joe White is the quiet master. ... It's slightly mind-twisting to think that the LP reissue movement is now digging deep into major-label catalogs the way CD reissues once did. Dig on!" - Robert Baird, Stereophile, January 2012, Performance 3.5/5, Sonics 4/5

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• 45rpm
• Double LP
• Improved tracking
• High frequency response
• Mastered by Kevin Gray & Zan Zanev at Cohearent Audio from the Original Analog Tape
• Plated & Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Old-style Heavyweight Tip-On Jacket from Stoughton Printing

Selections:

Side A
1. Saturday Night in Oak Grove Louisiana
2. For Ol' Times Sake
3. I Want Love ('Tween You & Me)
Side B
1. Homemade Ice Cream
2. Ol' Mother Earth
3. Lazy
Side C
1. California On My Mind
2. Backwoods Preacher Man
3. Takin' the Midnight Train
Side D
1. No News Is Good News
2. Did Somebody Make a Fool Out of You