Every now and then, I come across a really excellent sounding bootleg from the early 1960s. I treasure these, because they're like little miracles, since so little was recorded well and survived from back then (outside a few big names, especially the Beatles and Bob Dylan). I've posted a few like that, such as recordings from Jorma Kaukonen in 1964 and Jackie DeShannon in 1963. Here's another one like that. It's singer-songwriter Tim Hardin performing solo acoustic for a radio show in the Boston area called "Balladeers."
Hardin started his career as a folksinger in 1961, mostly living in New York City or Boston. He slowly established himself, but he wouldn't release his first studio album until 1966. However, some early recordings would later be released after he got famous as the albums "Tim Hardin 4" and "This Is Time Hardin." There's a lot of overlap between the songs on those albums and the ones performed here, but some differences too, with some unique songs here.
Most of the songs are covers, and they're generally more bluesy than his originals that made him famous (like "Reason to Believe" and "If I Were a Carpenter"). But there are a few originals here too, such as "Danville Dame," "Whiskey, Whiskey," and "Go Bum Again." By the way, "Go Bum Again" is one of those here that don't seem to have ever been officially released in any form.
There was one problem with this bootleg recording when I found it, and that was lot of hiss. Lots and lots. But I managed to get rid of nearly all of that, thanks to the MVSEP program. Now, this sounds almost as good as those other early recordings that got officially released, such as "Tim Hardin 4."
As far as I can tell, everything here remains officially unreleased. However, there are some "grey market" release of this performance (meaning bootlegs sold as if they were legit releases) under names like "In Session 1963" and "The Early Blues."
This album is 36 minutes long.
01 You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover (Tim Hardin)
02 Hesitation Blues (Tim Hardin)
03 talk (Tim Hardin)
04 Danville Dame (Tim Hardin)
05 Crossroads Blues (Tim Hardin)
06 Hoochie Coochie Man (Tim Hardin)
07 House of the Rising Sun (Tim Hardin)
08 talk (Tim Hardin)
09 Whiskey, Whiskey (Tim Hardin)
10 Instrumental (Tim Hardin)
11 Railroad Worksong - When You Hear the Cuckoos Hollerin' (Tim Hardin)
12 Go Bum Again (Tim Hardin)
13 Rocky Mountain Woman Blues (Tim Hardin)
14 Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad (Tim Hardin)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/sTcnwmsi
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/6J1lRA32WLVMkbI/file
The cover image shows Hardin in a recording studio around 1965 or 1966. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it.
You often talk about MVSEP. When I went to look for it, I see multiple different sites/packages, some of which look sketchy as hell. Please strongly consider writing up an article or two about which one you use, your favorite tools within it, and so on. I know a bunch of people with old tapes of themselves who would be interested.
ReplyDeleteHere's the basics. I use the free version online. However, I do sign up. There's no cost and you don't have to give any personal info. But once you sign up you only have short waits between songs. You get 50 uses a day.
DeleteSome of my favorite tools are splitting the vocals from the instruments using the BS Roformer filter. Then I increase or decrease the volume of one or the other in Audacity, and put them back together.
I use the one called MVSep Crowd Removal all the time. It splits the song into crowd noise and everything else. In Audacity, I usually remove the crowd noise through the middle of the song, but I sometimes keep the cheering at the end.
Reverb Removal and Denoise are great too. Scroll way down the options list to find those. Your friends with old tapes might want to use Denoise to get rid of hiss. There's an "aggressive" sub option I usually use with that one.
You can all kinds of other things too. Want to get rid of a horn section, or make it louder? Just find the right filter. Experiment around. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks! Which "free version online"? There are a few in my searches.
ReplyDeleteI only know of one:
Deletehttps://mvsep.com/en/home
I'd be curious about the others you say you found.
Thanks for the direct pointer; that is indeed the one that appeared at the top of the Kagi search. For examples of others, there is one at i10x[dot]ai
ReplyDeleteWow this Hardin is quite the find--thanks!
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Excellent, Excellent! Thank you so much!
ReplyDelete