Blackwood Brothers on the cutting edge of technology
I was digging around in some old albums tonight, that I recently acquired from my mother and my aunt. I began reading the cover notes and such, and I couldn't help but laugh at this "important notice" that I found printed on the back of a 1961 Blackwood Brothers album. "This is a "New Orthophonic" High Fidelity recording, designed for the phonograph of today or tomorrow. Played on your present machine, it gives you the finest quality of reproduction. Played on a "Stereophonic" machine, it gives even more brilliant true-to-life fidelity. You can buy today, without fear of obsolescence in the future."
I'll bet the Blackwoods never dreamed that one day folks would be downloading their music with a single mouse click and listening to it in MP3 format. So much for the fear of obsolescence! Another amusing thing on the album; on the liner notes it says that the record contains "miracle surface" which has the anti-static agent 317X. Supposedly it helped to keep the record free from dust. I guess it worked pretty good because this old record still sounds good 47-years later! You can read a little history of RCA's Victor Red Seal records HERE. Speaking of the Blackwood Brothers, it was great to hear the new group perform at this year's GOGR here in Knoxville. My aunt Barbara really enjoyed them and she says that Jimmy Blackwood looks and sounds just like his daddy. Check out more pictures HERE.
