Tapes Recollected

judsonw

Super Member
This is not a score. This is me finally taking these reels from my parents' garage (after I did maintenance on the Teac A-2300SD). Of course, now I realize I have no idea where my take up reel went...

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Can you tell us more about the KFAT interview with Guy Clark and John Stewart? Recorded off air? Who was the interviewer?
 
I have not listened to it yet. Almost all of them are things that my dad recorded off of the radio. When he saw me looking at the box, he commented that they were good interviews though. I am ordering a take up reel now, and when I have it and listen, I will let you know more.
 
A air recording from KFAT from the 70's is pretty cool. Please do update us when you listen to it.

Any other off air recordings?
 
I could have sworn that I typed this up Sunday, but apparently I did not actually post the list. What I found digging through there was a lot of copies of albums, but the following are what appear to be recordings off radio or TV:

Emmy Lou Harris "Live From Chicago", recorded from PBS
John McEllen "Austin City Limits", recorded from PBS
Bob Dylan "Live from KMET" (two reels)
Kingston Trio "Live", recorded from PBS
White House Jazz Festival, recorded from KUOP
"Benefit at Juicy John Pink's", recorded from KUOP
Hoyt Axton "Live", recorded from KFAT
The Statler Brothers "Live", recorded from KFAT
John Stewart Interview, recorded from KFAT
Guy Clark Interview, recorded from KFAT
Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger: Live at Wolf Trap, recorded from KUOP
Hoyt Axton "Live at the Great American Music Hall" recorded from KFAT
George Gerdes "Live from the Bottom Line", recorded from NPR (I think?)
John Hartford "Live from the Bottom Line", recorded from NPR
Tom Waits "Live on Austin City Limits" recorded from PBS
Jimmy Buffet "Special" recorded from KMPC

There is on that is John Prine: "Live at the 7th Annual Banjo & Guitar Festival at Long Beach State" which looks like it was recorded off radio, but I will have to wait until to tomorrow to confirm. It does not have a station listed, but it also does not have the record label, catalog number, and year like all of the copied album reels have.
 
Take up reel arrives in the mail today. After work, I will test one of the mix tape reels to make sure nothing is wrong before listening to what I would consider more significant stuff.
 
The KFAT interviews could be very fun listening. Especially if he let the tape roll and recorded the breaks. KFAT's 1970's fake commercials are legendary. The apex of FM radio.
 
I have now listened to the KFAT interviews. Unfortunately, there is some damage to the tape at times. The John Stewart song starts with a sample of "Fire in the Wind". While there was no formal intro (it might have been missed) from what I could tell I think it was Sully Roddy and Gordy doing the interview for John Stewart. Sully had some critiques of the songs and sparred with John a bit. Gordy had a mild critique and backed away when challenged.

The Guy Clark one is less of an interview and more having him play a couple songs and talk about where he has played and where he is playing that night. I could not catch who was 'interviewing'
 
If you digitize it I would be interested in hearing it.

I worked with Gordy in the early 1980s at another radio station. I have always been a fan of California progressive FM. Learned a ton from Gordon B. KFAT and Gavin Reports was beginning of the Americana radio format.

John Stewart's 1969 California Bloodlines was a staple of the format, I think Bombs Away Dream Babies (1978) was a disapointment , and thus the critique. Late 1970's was the beginning of the demise of free form FM radio.

How about the Guy Clark?

Anyway, your reel is an interesting piece of radio history. Thanks so much.
 
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Small updates:

1. I was sampling tapes in boxes that had no labels, hoping to find a blank one. Instead of blanks I found recordings of an old Prairie Home Companion Christmas special, an old CarTalk special, and some John Prine live special (I did not give them a proper listen since I was mainly looking to see if the tape was blank, if not, what was on it, and if I was willing to tape over it).

2. I orders a Behringer UCA-202, so hopefully I can get some of these tapes digitized. It was supposed to arrive today, but now the post office is saying Monday. If I get it today, I will probably spend some time tomorrow digitizing some reels (starting with the John Stewart interview).
 
I have the John Stewart and Guy Clark Interviews ripped to FLAC (16/48khz). Not sure if this is the best place for posting it but here is the dropbox link to the two files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6uh6a2r3no21ypg/AAD3rfWfJL00soASvW0sBGBza?dl=0

I also warn that no editing has been done to these. I did my best to make sure the right and left channel signals were equal, but on the Guy Clark one I noticed they shifted through the tape. Also, for the John Stewart one, there is a pop or noise of some sort around halfway through and then distortion for about 10 seconds. The talking is audible but there is noise with it.

Both of them kind of just start and miss some degree of the opening of the show, but this is what was on the tape so I cannot help that.
 
The content is fantastic. Thanks so much for transferring these. Love the live songs by Guy. I am going to experiment with pitch shifting down a bit. Minor issue! Great job, thanks.
 
I could have sworn that I typed this up Sunday, but apparently I did not actually post the list. What I found digging through there was a lot of copies of albums, but the following are what appear to be recordings off radio or TV:

Tom Waits "Live on Austin City Limits" recorded from PBS

Interesting group of tapes, the Tom Waits caught my eye.
 
You are welcome. Since I still have the raw Audacity files, I can always revisit them and try tweaking them (pitch adjustment seems easy enough, I am just not presently sure how much to adjust it, but will look into it later). I also ripped NPR's Jazz Alive's highlights of the White House Jazz Festival. It is only about an hour and forty minutes long... (When I feel up to it, I may try splitting it up into tracks for easier enjoyment). I can put that up when I get home from work.
 
The bit with Gordy telling Stewart that his song is 'over-produced' is hysterical. Gordy was a bit difficult to deal with at times.
 
Interesting group of tapes, the Tom Waits caught my eye.

That one caught my eye as well, and might be the next one I digitize.

The bit with Gordy telling Stewart that his song is 'over-produced' is hysterical. Gordy was a bit difficult to deal with at times.

I did like how Sully had a lengthy back and forth with John about what she did not like about the song, and then Gordy made the critique that a song was 'over-produced' and then almost immediately backtracked as John disagreed.

I think I may make a separate thread for posting links to the digitized live content of these tapes (as I work my way through them).
 
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