At that time, as LPs disappeared from store shelves and were replaced by CD longboxes, everyone in the music industry was predicting that the Compact Disc would kill the long-playing record. “I was there with vinyl when CDs were starting to take over, before all the Johnny-come-latelies,” Kassem told me. That apartment-based business became Acoustic Sounds. In 1985, he began buying collectible LPs and reselling them from his two-bedroom apartment. He’d moved there in 1984 from Louisiana, to enter a halfway house to treat his addiction and substance abuse. Kassem was living in Salina, Kansas, a small city in the north central part of the state. It was probably in the late 1990s, when I picked up a copy of their pressing of You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce! According to the company’s website, Chad Kassem established the label in 1991 as a way to reissue some of his favorite recordings in audiophile-quality sound. Kassem markets his products, as well as recordings from other labels, through his website, Acoustic Sounds.Īs I was getting ready to write this piece, I tried to recall the first time I heard about Analogue Productions. Laine, Weepin’ Willie, Henry Townsend, and many others. The label’s subsidiary, APO Records, releases new music by blues artists Jimmy D. Kassem owns Analogue Productions, which produces exquisitely remastered recordings on vinyl, hybrid SACD/CD, and, beginning recently, high-resolution downloads. That’s what we care about.”Ĭhad Kassem returned to those two passions several times in our phone conversation of a few weeks ago.

“We reinvest in keeping vinyl and the blues alive. 2018-2019 EISA Awards Video Introduction.

Square wooden lattice panels