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SUMMARY
This direct-to-disc release, recorded in the church sanctuary of Blue Heaven Studios, is so fresh and pure... Talk about up to audiophile standards! The immediacy, the dynamics - slam and delicacy alike - are just so startlingly real. There's nothing lost. It's positively lifelike.
Cutting engineer Kevin Gray, using Blue Heaven's Neumann VMS 70 lathe with an Ortofon cutter head and amplifiers, and recording engineer Katsu Naito have made available for your playback the closest thing possible to a live, in-person performance. With direct-to-disc recording, the signal from the microphone is transmitted directly to the cutter head, which then cuts the grooves into a raw lacquer. There's no middleman. No tape. No tape hiss. No distortion or other artifacts inherent in any other type of recording.
And the music? It's killer! The session was recorded the weekend of the 12th annual Blues Masters at the Crossroads in October 2009.
One of the most exciting young blues players to emerge in quite some time, Marquise Knox embodies the soul and essence of a seasoned veteran, with a command of guitar, harmonica, vocals, songwriting and showmanship that belie his 18 years of age.
From St. Louis, Knox grew up listening to B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Albert King, and, despite the neighborhood influences of his peers, has yet to stray from deep-rooted traditional blues. He's already performed with legends like Henry Townsend, Honeyboy Edwards, Robert Lockwood Jr., Bob Margolin, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Louisiana Red, Lazy Lester and Sam Lay.
And he's an original. The original songs recorded here were written by Knox literally within a day of this recording.
Knox has performed on the past three Blues Masters at the Crossroads bills. As the youngest performer on lineups chock full of legends, he's still prevailed as one of each year's most obvious favorites.
Now 18 years old, this is an inner-city kid who somehow has decided to become a dead-serious bluesman of the old-school variety. That just doesn't happen anymore. Marquise Knox is a certified throwback.
REVIEWS
"...That this music is getting recorded and released is by itself a good thing, but the fact that it comes out on audiophile vinyl is a whole lot of icing on the cake. As for the sound, this was analog like I remembered it (minus the hiss, wow, and flutter), with a warm, in-the-room feel from the drums, bass, and acoustic piano and a rich, full sound from acoustic guitars." - Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound, April/May 2010
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1. High Class Woman
2. Tend To Yo Business
3. Through The Pain
4. You Better Pray
5. Last Letter Home
6. Mr. Charlie
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