Review: 'The Dance Album of Carl Perkins' Vinyl Reissue

Intervention Records has crafted audiophile reissues of records from the very late sixties through the nineties. For their latest release, the label reaches as far back as it ever has to revive one of the key LPs of rock and roll's earliest days. Originally released in 1957, Carl Perkins's Dance Album lined up a superb set of radio classics, knocking the socks off bobby soxers, greasers, and four Liverpudlian history-changers in the process. But it would do Perkins a disservice to suggest his Dance Album's importance is solely due to The Beatles, as a unit and as solo artists, covering nearly everything on it. Perkins's songwriting stands strong alongside the era's best composers, namely Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry, his "Blue Suede Shoes" easily being one of rock and roll's defining songs and philosophical statements. He also stands out for the crystalline precision of his singing and six-string twanging. 

So The Dance Album of Carl Perkins is a perfect choice to begin Intervention's foray into the fifties, because the clarity of Carl Perkins's performances and recordings are made for audiophile presentation. Figuring out the best way to put together that presentation sounds like it was a particular chore for this album. According to the press release, the tracks had been copied and recopied and recompiled so many times that it was impossible to figure out which of the 1/4" tapes were the original masters. The solution was to listen to them all, and Intervention's Shane Buettner says he was able to suss out which sounded best and built his 180g, 45 rpm, mono reissue from those tapes. 

Despite the various sources and different periods of the recordings, the sound of Intervention's Dance Album is consistent. There is striking clarity and spaciousness across all twelve cuts. Listen to how the snare slaps out of the mix on "Only You". Listen to the warmth and presence of Perkins's voice and the cutting chimes of his guitar. There isn't much in the way of bass, but considering the fifties' tendency to underserve low frequencies, I'm guessing it's all authentic to the original recordings. Perkins voice can distort slightly at the peaks, and the vinyl I received has a few small marks that cause fleeting distortions, but the vinyl is flat, well centered, and free of noise. These recordings sounds incredibly clean for ones put to tape seventy years ago.