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LP
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NN 019LP
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After moving to Denmark in 1972 and abandoning music for a spell, the legendary Spider John Koerner returned to the U.S. in 1974 to record an LP for Dave Ray's Sweet Jane label. The resulting record is one of the finest of his 50-plus-year career. As its title implies, the album displays a conscious move away from the folk-blues stylings of earlier recordings and toward an embrace of traditional American folk music. The enduring quality of its songs is evidenced by their continued inclusion on Koerner's set lists over 40 years later. This first-ever reissue of Some American Folk Songs Like They Used To is the fourth release by Koerner on Nero's Neptune. Available in a limited artist's edition of 300 numbered copies, the record is mastered from remarkably well-preserved first-generation reel-to-reel tapes. The lacquers were cut by Ralph Karsten at Atma-Sphere, and the LP pressed at RTI. There is no digital technology used at any point in the process. Not only is the sound better than on the original 1974 release, but the beautiful, hand-printed covers feature new and improved artwork from a woodblock designed by Nero's Neptune art director and recording artist Paul Metzger.
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LP
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NN 025LP
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This vinyl-only album fills a crucial gap in the evolution of legendary folk artist Spider John Koerner. Recorded in between 1965's Spider Blues and 1969's Running, Jumping, Standing Still (with Willie Murphy, both released on Elektra), Koerner is captured here live and unaccompanied at The Ash Grove in Los Angeles, bringing to light an exciting and previously-undocumented period in the career of Spider John. The excellent recording captures Koerner at the absolute peak of his guitar-playing powers. Rounding out this crucial slab of wax are two songs recorded in 1966 in New York City, previously only available on an elusive British single. Accompanied by Al Kooper on guitar, Felix Pappalardi on bass, and Roy Blumenfeld on drums, "Won't You Give Me Some Love" and "Don't Stop" (the latter with Tony Glover on harp) represent Koerner's first, brief excursion into rock and roll terrain. The results sound not entirely dissimilar to Dylan's Highway 61 period material -- not surprising, given Kooper's presence. This release is not only a fascinating addition to the canon of one of this country's national treasures, but is also one of his strongest overall efforts. Strictly limited vinyl edition of 500 copies.
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CD
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NN 006CD
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A major archival discovery, taped March 24, 1963 for a Milwaukee, Wisconsin radio program, on the eve of the very same day that the seminal Blues, Rags & Hollers LP by Koerner, Ray & Glover was created. Spider John Koerner is the man who first introduced a young Bob Dylan to the 12-string guitar, a bona fide legend who is acknowledged as an influence by artists as diverse as John Lennon, Beck, The Doors & Dylan himself. Nearly 50 years ago, Paul Nelson, writing in the Little Sandy Review and Sing Out respectively, said that "Koerner's art is like Chaplin's, as great and lasting as it is entertaining," while calling him "the most innovatively brilliant acoustic blues musician of his generation." In the year 2010 -- seldom performing and now in his 70s -- the reclusive Koerner is "one of the world's greatest living practitioners of traditional American folk music." It is with enormous pride that Nero's Neptune presents this long-lost piece of American musical history.
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NN 013CD
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Music Is Just A Bunch Of Notes was cut in 1972 in an upstairs storefront building above a coffee house on Minneapolis' West Bank. One of the counterculture's first entirely DIY efforts, it was engineered by 12-string guitar legend Dave "Snaker" Ray and released on his fledgling Sweet Jane label. All of the songs are Koerner originals; the tunes are sequenced with a cinematic eye and interspersed with weird spoken-word bits. The album includes several mainstays of John's repertoire, including the timeless "Everybody's Goin' For The Money," a song that sums up the uniquely Koernerian brand of existentialism as tidily as any. This CD is mastered from the original tapes and is reissued for the first time since the rare 1972 release. The DVD disc features a previously unreleased 16mm movie made by Bruce Rubenstein, David Rubenstein & The Secret Of Sleep. In it, Percival (John Koerner) gets a call in which he's told to go on a mysterious quest. Percy and his buddy (Willie Murphy) wander around in various utopian settings, but in the end, they return to the city to contend with reality. Digitally restored in 2009, released on DVD for the first time, this is a tremendous bit of lost holy grail for Koerner enthusiasts. NTSC region 1 DVD (run time: 60 minutes; audio: mono; black & white; aspect ratio: 4x3 letterbox).
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LP
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NN 006LP
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2022 restock. A major archival discovery, taped March 24, 1963 for a Milwaukee, Wisconsin radio program, on the eve of the very same day that the seminal Blues, Rags & Hollers LP by Koerner, Ray & Glover was created. Spider John Koerner is the man who first introduced a young Bob Dylan to the 12-string guitar, a bona fide legend who is acknowledged as an influence by artists as diverse as John Lennon, Beck, The Doors & Dylan himself. Nearly 50 years ago, Paul Nelson, writing in the Little Sandy Review and Sing Out respectively, said that "Koerner's art is like Chaplin's, as great and lasting as it is entertaining," while calling him "the most innovatively brilliant acoustic blues musician of his generation." In the year 2010 -- seldom performing and now in his 70s -- the reclusive Koerner is "one of the world's greatest living practitioners of traditional American folk music." It is with enormous pride that Nero's Neptune presents this long-lost piece of American musical history. Tip-on sleeves, pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
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