But his spin on the VoiceMasters products is deliberately misleading.
For example, in regard to "Jim Reeves Rare & Unreleased" he reports "Tracks are NOT so rare and NOTHING previously UNRELEASED. Once again more hype than content from the PRODUCER! THIS IS A CDR NOT A CD."
These are outright lies.
The CD does indeed contain 5 demos that have never been commercially released. Where, for example, have you ever heard Bobby Dyson sing "Thanks For Calling" with Jim singing the intro and back-up? This is the first time Reeves has ever done that! Furthermore, it contains 21 NEW OVERDUBS that you could not hear until this product was issued. To say nothing of the vastly improved sound quality.
The knock on this being a CD-R is silly, as are the allegations I'm sitting around burning disks in my home computer. Even major record labels (partnering with Amazon for the CreateSpace program, for example, or CD-on-demand), avail themselves of state-of-the-art duplication technology rather than creating glass masters for replication. It's cost effective and as Amazon itself points out, there is no qualitative difference in sound quality. These are NOT on a par with the cheapo CD-Rs you buy at your local discount store. I guarantee that EVERYBODY who buys CDs owns duplicated disks as they are one of two widely used formats for sound reproduction.
Eimbert then tries to discourage sales of the newest release, "Jim Reeves And Friends Live From Nashville" by proclaiming "it carries a warning that the last 2 tracks might not play on certain CD players!"
Despite him getting his panties in a knot over that one, he knows very well that for DECADES, the INDUSTRY STANDARD MAXIMUM LENGTH FOR A CD IS 80 MINUTES. The new release runs 77 minutes -- well within the timeframe the vast majority of CD players can accommodate. However, there are a few people out there who have never bothered to replace their CD players for the past 30 years and SOME of those old machines can't play beyond 74 minutes. Surely record labels don't have to restrict the running time on their releases merely to satisfy people who haven't upgraded their equipment!
However, in the interest of being perfectly honest about our products, we merely added what is probably an unnecessary note pointing out the running time. And then people like Eimbert, who are always looking for an excuse to bash one of our releases, seizes upon this to try to make fans believe there is something defective about our product. There isn't.
As for "The Great Jim Reeves Anthology DVD" 2014 edition, which contains 30 live video performances by Jim plus bonus video features, Eimbert claims it contains "nothing that you cannot view on YOU TUBE for FREE."
Let me put it this way: If any fan out there finds that someone has posted the entirety of this DVD on YouTube, please email me at: lnjordan@mac.com and I guarantee you a copyright infringement claim will be brought against that user posthaste. If you doubt that Eimbert, ask your friend Bob in the UK.
Furthermore, our DVD is in DOLBY STEREO (while YouTube degrades audio and video quality), plus there are bonus features on the DVD that were custom-made for this product. I also wrote new 12-page liner notes for a booklet that accompanies it. Again, the aim is clear: He's trying to discourage sales by misleading fans.
As for "The Great Jim Reeves": 8 CD box set -- you know, the one with 176 tracks and from which I got Jim TWO Top Ten songs in Europe this summer, including a NUMBER ONE -- Eimbert says it "contains NO NEW SONGS."
This is a trick of semantics on his part to deceive fans into believing there's no new material. But there IS. Even if you purchased every prior release, you would still find 42 NEW OVERDUBS of Jim Reeves RCA masters that you'd never heard before.
There are 92 overdubs total, and EVERY song has been beautifully remastered such that fans are ecstatic about the clarity and richness of Reeves' voice. Even Psycho Peter has praised the remastering.
Furthermore, there IS new music in the sense that the accompaniment also includes contrapuntal melody lines that embellish and enrich the original arrangements.
If Eimbert's true goal was to inform fans as to new material on Jim Reeves that they could enjoy, he would have pointed out that there were over 30 world-class musicians, background singers, orchestrators and top-shelf engineers involved in this project, and that it also contains a 48-page full color booklet that describes each song.
The line-up of musicians I used includes current members of the Grand Ole Opry band and guys with impressive pedigrees who have played for major artists like Aretha Franklin. Why doesn't Eimbert report this?
Furthermore, as to the matter of "new songs" -- and I know this concept is too sophisticated for simple minds to grasp -- "The Great Jim Reeves" 8 CD set is NOT a "niche product" like the Abbott retreads. It's not aimed at the diehard collectors who have a lot of Reeves recordings in their collections. I've made that clear from the outset.
Instead, the silver trimmed, unique and very elegant presentation case that is book-like in design makes it obvious this is a MASS MARKET PRODUCT. Therefore, the vast majority of fans have NOT heard most of these tracks. To them, MANY of them will be "new." All of our claims regarding this 8 CD set have been okayed by the Advertising Standards office in the EU and TV and radio ads are airing everywhere making these bonafide claims.
So I ask you: who is more trustworthy and credible? Eimbert or the officials who routinely scrutinize advertising claims to make sure they are valid?
I must conclude from the way in which these very unique VoiceMasters productions are denigrated by Eimbert amidst the tired old retreads from other labels which he strangely extols, that there is a deliberate effort on the part of this webmaster to deceive unsuspecting fans into believing that these products don't live up to the hype.
That's a really cruel thing to do to one's fellow fans, because potentially there are people who won't acquire one of these wonderful products on the mistaken belief it is not worthwhile.
I find all this paradoxical and hypocritical because if anything doesn't warrant further promotion, it is the crass exploitation of Jim's catalog by an endless parade of labels that re-release vastly inferior audio on him, thus besmirching his reputation and undermining his incredible vocal talent. To say nothing of using the same old time-worn photos of him, no matter how unflattering.
But that seems to be the aim behind Eimbert Van Den Oetelaar's website. That and defending the personal attacks against us by his friend Peter.
I couldn't care less what these guys think of my releases, but they at least should be honest when listing them. Is that too much for fans to expect? These characters presume to hold me to the highest possible standards of honesty and candor and yet they descend into the depths of deception and misdirection. Rich, isn't it?
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