Vinyl Test Pressing of "Visions of the Country" by Robbie Basho
Vinyl Test Pressing of "Visions of the Country" by Robbie Basho
This is a strictly limited edition of 10 test pressings: 5 from our original 2013 reissue and 5 from our 2020 anniversary edition. Your test pressing comes swathed in an unbleached cardboard, hand letter-pressed and hand numbered jacket created just for these ultra special test pressings.
We are only selling 9 here (4 from 2013, 5 from 2020). A truly rare item, your chance to own a piece of history.
Interested in more Gnome Life test pressings, including out-of-print albums? Visit this page.
Recorded in the height of Robbie Basho's creative career, Visions of the Country was originally released at the end of 1978, slipping quickly out of print and into relative obscurity. The album is comprised of technically superb instrumentation (6 & 12 string guitars and piano); majestic compositions; transcendent singing and whistling; and astonishing lyrical, emotional, and spiritual depths.
It is with a feeling of tremendous honor and joy that we offer this re-issue, which we hope will please existing Basho devotees, and create new acolytes, in equal measure. The feeling is akin to re-introducing an endangered species back into its native habitat, for this album is a precious, mighty, and wild thing. Visions of the Country should not stay cooped-up in expensive e-bay auctions and low quality vinyl-to-Mp3 rips, it needs to soar gloriously in high fidelity through our culture once more!
Visions of the Country is most simply a depiction of the expansive American West, and an ecstatic journey into Basho's equally expansive imagination and mystical approach to creativity... In Basho's own words: "My philosophy is quite simple: soul first, technique later, or 'Better to drink wine from the hands than water from a pretty cup'; of course the ultimate is wine from a pretty cup. Amen."
Visions of the Country is a shining example of what artistic heights can be attained when soul and technique meet on a deep level – in our opinion it is one of the finest albums ever recorded, wine from a very beautiful and magical cup indeed.