Meet Scott Billington, Curator of Craft's New Bluesville Series

Scott is the best qualified person for the job and Craft made the correct call!

Every properly overseen vinyl record reissue series should have a gatekeeper/curator like Blue Note's Tone Poet series Joe Harley. Craft Recordings has brought on board for its new Bluesville series, Scott Billington, clearly the best possible individual for the job.

Scott is a Grammy winning producer, musician, writer and record executive who's produced more than 150 records, even playing on a few. He's produced records by, among others, Charlie Rich, Solomon Burke, Johnny Adams, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Irma Thomas and James Booker. Check out his Wiki page.

The first two titles, available now

I've known Scott since around 1969 first as a customer of New England Music City the Kenmore Square record store he managed back then and later as the producer/voice over artist and writer of the (some say) "legendary" New England Music City/Cheap Thrills record store radio commercials.

Scott and I haven't spoken in decades, though we've occasionally traded emails. We catch up in this Zoom call video. At the end there's an "easter egg" where you can listen to a few of the highly offensive (in today's world) radio commercials I wrote and produced for the chain. Back then listeners would call the stations ( among them progressive rock pioneer WBCN-FM, and Top 40 AM station WRKO) and request the commercials (well some of them).

These two are available for pre-order and are due out September 13th

In this video Scott and I talk about his incredible career and his work curating this Bluesville series, all of which are mastered using the original tapes (AAA) cut my Matthew Lutthans at Blue Heaven Studios on Doug Sax's legendary The Mastering Labs cutting system.

Comments

2024-06-21 07:40:52 PM

Scotty wrote:

I got Burnin' Hell and besides a great choice of a fairly ignored classic from Hooker, the job Matt Lutthans did mastering this stereo version is remarkable. Having heard the original mono, there is something almost magical about the way Hooker's vocals and guitar playing open up on this stereo version (but never too wide). The vocals and guitar do tend to wander a little in stereo, but I sat back a bit, still dead center and the music just wrapped itself around my ears. The jacket looks great and for the price, you have to be impressed with this series. Most likely will get all of them and really looking forward to the Albert King and I'm Jimmy Reed which I heard will be in mono. I have to say Scott Billington, keep these great records coming and a big thanks for bringing these to us! Michael, thanks for giving this new series the attention it deserves!
2024-06-28 08:26:18 AM

Will wrote:

Impressed with Burning Hell!

Also thanks to Mr.B for last years Nanci Griffith set and being involved with the wonderful Ted Hawkins "Watch Your Step" - I know Concord reissued that 6 or 7 years ago, but am let wondering what the Bluesville Acoustic Sounds Team could do to with it.