It’s the time of year for saving money!
By now anyone who’s into audio knows about HD Tracks but I’d like
to introduce you to another download site, Festival Link.
Festival Link’s mission is, “to capture ‘festival moments’ and make them widely available while the
memories of the show are fresh in your mind.” Most of the music in their
library of performances are from live concerts by the likes of Government Mule,
John Cowan, 20th, 21st, and 22nd Merlefests,
Austin Lounge Lizards, The Avett Brothers, Beausoleil, Carolina Chocolate
Drops, Crooked Still, David Bromberg, Doc Watson, The Duhks, The Greencards,
Hot Tuna, Jerry Douglas, Leftover Salmon, Norman Blake, Suzy Bogguss, Vance
Gilbert, The Waifs, Levon Helm, and The American Beauty Project, and many
others. Recordings are available via download in MP3 or FLAC or by mail via a CD
and run between $13 and $19.
All the Festival
Link FLACs and CDs are full res Redbook spec at 44.1/16 bits. They come with
downloadable cover and insert art as well as reviews of the recordings and
performances by users. C.W said of the Avett Brothers, “The sound is like punk rock played on bluegrass instruments. A very
‘striped-down’ sound, with harsh vocals at times, not bad vocals, just
purposely sung off key.”
The recordings I’ve heard from Festival Link have far better sonic
quality than what you’d hear from an amateur taper. The recording crew, made up
of primarily of folks who work with Airshow Mastering are all seasoned professionals. David Glasser and James Tuttle are both
Grammy-nominated mastering engineers who have been working with acoustic and
rock musicians for many years. Everything from Festival Link is carefully mixed
and mastered at Airshow to insure top quality. It shows on the recordings.
So if you like modern acoustic and roots music played in a live concert
setting you need to log onto Festival Link and begin downloading some fresh and
vibrant new music.
