Please note: this a listening session, not a concert!
Johan Heldenberg is best known as actor and singer/guitarist of The Broken Circle Breakdown Bluegrass Band, but he is also a compiler of Closing Time Country on Radio 1 and a great fan and connoisseur of the better bluegrass and country.
As introduction to the concert by The Broken Circle Breakdown Bluegrass Band, he will introduce his favourite bluegrass album.
Manzanita by Tony Rice Unit is considered to be the great breakthrough of for Tony Rice and it caused quite a stir in country circles when it was released because there was not a banjo to be heard on it. Inconceivable in those days.
He gathered a long list of great bluegrass names to accompany himself on the recordings (the likes of Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas).
The album confirmed Rice's virtuosity as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. It is considered to be a genuine classic in its genre and so it's the ideal album to include in the Classic Album Listening Sessions series.
The session will be introduced (in Dutch) by Johan Heldenberg.
33 1/3 – Classic Album Listening Sessions
The idea behind Huis 33 1/3 is as simple as can be: music lovers gathering to listen to a 'classic' album - uninterrupted and in the most ideal circumstances possible (technically, surroundings,..) - always introduced by an adept of the album in question.
The intention of this new series is to offer an alternative to the manner in which the musical experience has evolved over recent years. By listening to strongly compressed MP3s, YouTube films, or to sites like Spotify, with small earphones or via laptop speakers we miss out on essential elements of the music, often without realising it.
Many albums were created as an artwork in themselves and so deserve to be listened to in their entirety. A great deal of attention was often paid to obtaining the best possible sound quality, the artwork, the order of the songs, the mood of the songs and the ‘story’ the artist wanted to involve the listener in. In many cases, no effort was spared to record the albums in the best studios, in order to make use of the best sounding mixing tables, microphones, pre-amps, compressors, reverbs, etc... All of this is completely destroyed in a few mouse-clicks.
During the Huis 33 1/3 sessions we will listen to an album in its entirety – without interruption and with the best possible technical means – and in that way attempt to experience the album in the way originally intended when it was recorded, mastered and released.