loren connors: blues the 'dark paintings' of mark rothko

Blues: The 'Dark Paintings' of Mark Rothko is one of Loren Connors' most cherished and sought after albums. Originally released in a handmade edition of around 300 copies on Connors' own St. Joan label in January 1990 under the name Guitar Roberts -- this album has been unavailable in any form until now. At the time of its release, Connors was still an inscrutable guitarist whose matchless and alien rendering of the blues was just gaining recognition despite more than two dozen solo and collaborative releases since 1978. Connors' classic, song-based In Pittsburgh had only been available for three months when Blues welcomed the new decade. It would be the first of four solo albums issued by Connors that year and distilled the blues form into bleak, minimalist lines and tone; a compound of influences spanning Louisiana guitarist Robert Pete Johnson to painter Mark Rothko. For this reissue, the audi o has been restored to Connors' specifications of how these seven instrumentals were originally intended to sound. Cover art is an untitled 1969 Rothko work -- one of the paintings that influenced Connors to record this album. The original LP art and liner notes are replicated as a full-color inner sleeve. New liner notes by music historian Byron Coley chart Connors development and Rothko's effect on the music. Pressed on pristine 150 gram vinyl by Quality Record Pressing in an edition of 800. LP includes a coupon for a full download.