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“A legend recording a legend” – T. Michael Coleman, Bass

The Owsley Stanley Foundation is pleased to present an audiophile release of incendiary performances by the incomparable Doc and Merle Watson, from Bear’s Sonic Journals -Owsley’s storied trove of live concert recordings.

“A legend recording a legend” – T. Michael Coleman, Bass

The Owsley Stanley Foundation is pleased to present an audiophile release of incendiary performances by the incomparable Doc and Merle Watson, from Bear’s Sonic Journals -Owsley’s storied trove of live concert recordings.

It’s not just the energy of youth that shakes me when I listen to these tracks — it’s the musical dialogue that Jack and I shared in these amazing moments. -Jorma Kaukonen

The Owsley Stanley Foundation presents its third chapter: Bear’s Sonic Journals: Before We Were Them, Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady, Veterans Memorial Building, June 28, 1969, available now on CD. This live concert recording features recently discovered and previously unreleased music from Jefferson Airplane’s fabled guitar and bass players before they became known as Hot Tuna.

“A wicked blend of rock, jazz and R&B that created a dynamic, groundbreaking sound.” – John Lynskey , Hittin’ The Note

The Owsley Stanley Foundation and the Allman Brothers Band are pleased to present the latest chapter in Bear’s Sonic Journals: The Allman Brothers Band, Fillmore East, February 1970, available now on CD and audiophile downloads. The CD includes material from three incredible performances early in the Allman Brothers’ career, and the digital downloads provide access to all of Owsley’s Recordings of these shows.
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Bear’s Sonic Journals Presents:

Doc and Merl Watson

Never The Same Way Once

These performances have not been heard since the nights they were played more than 40 years ago !  Professionally recorded by Owsley in 1974, and mastered using today’s most cutting edge technologies, they are exquisite.

4 Nights of Live Music: 

94 tracks reflecting a broad cross-section of musical forms, including bluegrass, blues, folk, country, swing jazz, and rockabilly, among others.

1st ever box set of live concert recordings from Doc & Merle Watson

1st release of Bear’s Sonic Journals from the Owsley Stanley Foundation

Several rare songs Doc Watson never recorded live

16 page booklet containing:
The only known contemporaneous photographs of Doc & Merle Watson

Photos of “Old Hoss”, the Gallagher guitar Doc played from 1968 until the end of this tour in 1974

In depth interview with bassist T. Michael Coleman

An original essay by David Holt, 4-time Grammy winner and longtime Doc collaborator

Original cover art by Mike DuBois based on a drawing by Owsley’s son, Starfinder

Released on all Your Favorite Mediums

Cutting Edge Technology Blurb

Vinyl

Paul Stubblebine created an all-analog master from the original reels. From there, he cut lacquers with 1/2-speed mastering for 45 RPM playback, pressed to 180 gram vinyl

CDs

State-of-the-art Plangent Process transfer techniques were used to remove subtle timing distortions created by the recording and playback devices (wow and flutter), resulting in the most accurate replication of the music.

Reel To Reel

The one inch tape format transfer results in a extremely low loss of information, which we consider more like 1/2 generation than one full generation. These running masters are copied in real time to a bank of finely tweaked Ampex ATR-100 decks, yielding a “1-1/2 generation” copy. 

Digital Download

Lossless audiophile downloads in 192kHz/24bit and 96kHz/24bit FLAC

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Donation Total: $20

The "Save The Music!" campaign seeks to raise money to enable the digitization, preservation, and release of Bear's Sonic Journals, a trove of over a thousand live concert recordings from the heart of the psychedelic era. Donations are much appreciated, and are in fact essential to our ability to preserve and release future recordings!

You can donate via our secure form, or send checks made out to the Owsley Stanley Foundation to: Owsley Stanley Foundation PO Box 625 Occidental, Ca 95465. We were officially granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status by the IRS in December 2012. All donations to the Owsley Stanley Foundation are fully tax deductible.

Project Sponsorship:
For a donation of $500 or more, you can sponsor the production of a release of Bear's Sonic Journals, we usually have about 10 projects or so in the works, and your contribution goes toward the mastering of the music, original cover art, liner notes and related research, booklet design, and manufacturing costs. You will receive a liner notes credit in the OSF release of the project you sponsored.

Contact

Reach out if you have questions, or to see how you can support the Owsley Stanley Foundation.

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