Stereophile's founder,
J. Gordon Holt, who passed away in July, was also a recording engineer. Here we see one of his projects, a rare 1958 LP of British-born American folk singer, Richard Dyer-Bennet, the "twentieth-century minstrel."
Paul Jenkins's
biography on Dyer-Bennet tells us that JGH helped the singer start Dyer-Bennet Records in the comfort of Dyer-Bennet's Great Barrington, Massachusetts home.
JGH also lived in Great Barrington while an equipment reviewer for
High Fidelity.
Jenkins's
Richard Dyer-Bennet: The Last Minstrel argues that the singer helped produce the folk boom of the 1950s and '60s, but identification with the Communist Party during our country's Second Red Scare prematurely halted his promising career.
One can imagine J. Gordon Holt and Richard Dyer-Bennet getting along just fine, chain-smoking and mixing martinis, while plotting new and exciting ways to stick it to the man.
In
our Gallery, you'll learn a little bit about John Atkinson's experience with this Dyer-Bennet LP ("TENOR accompanying himself on the classic Spanish guitar"), and also get a close-up of
the recording credits.
