Eric Clapton and B.B. King first took the stage together in 1967 - the former a young upstart then serving as one-third of power trio Cream and the latter already a veteran blues master. They didn't record together until 1997 when King called Clapton to guest on his Deuces Wild album of duets, and the experience left both men wanting more. Three years later, Clapton would release Riding with the King, featuring a dozen collaborations between the two guitarists. On June 26, Warner Records and
Review: Jimi Hendrix, “Band of Gypsys [50th Anniversary Edition]”
During his all-too-brief career, Jimi Hendrix navigated an uncharted course, following his muse and his talents wherever they would take him. So much has been said about his guitar technique, his songwriting, and his lyrics. But as I lay listening to the 50th anniversary edition of Band of Gypsys, I realized that Hendrix was also a pioneer of that sometimes-maligned product, the concert recording. At the time of its release in March of 1970, live albums had something of a bad rap. Many were
She Satisfies: Cherry Red Laces Up Shoes’ Elektra Years on Box Set
For more than 40 years, Shoes has been celebrating the art of pop with its compact, melodic nuggets worthy of The Beatles, The Raspberries, or Big Star. Hailing from the town of Zion, Ill. on the banks of Lake Michigan, Shoes was formed by Gary Klebe and brothers John and Jeff Murphy, three kids united in their love of music. Between 1979 and 1982, Shoes - still going strong today, by the way - was signed to Elektra Records where they released three acclaimed albums. Cherry Red has recently
Peggy Lee at 100: Grammy Museum Presents Panel Discussion and Virtual Exhibit; Documentary, CD, and DVD Coming This Summer
100 years ago tomorrow - May 26, 1920 - Norma Deloris Egstrom was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. You know her as Peggy Lee: groundbreaking singer, songwriter, actress, and artist. Though she passed away in 2002, her music is as present today as ever - and her influence just as strong. Peggy's songs have recently scored such television shows as Ryan Murphy's Hollywood and Amy Sherman-Palladino's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and have been heard in commercials promoting Samsung and Tropicana
Emotional Rescue: The Rolling Stones Announce Half-Speed Masters of 10 Classic Albums
In this vacuum that is COVID lockdown, where time seems suspended indefinitely, I was shaken back to reality the other day with the ping of an iPhone notification. "Starting in 7 minutes," the message read, "The Rolling Stones in Nashville." That's where I was supposed to be, half-of-the-nation away for my first trip to Music City and (somehow) my first Rolling Stones show. Well, the oft-repeated lyric felt no more prescient than in that moment: here I was, certainly not getting what I
Release Round-Up: Week of May 22
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Joe Grushecky, Have a Good Time But Get Out Alive! 40th Anniversary Edition (Cleveland International) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers' bar-band classic is returning to print in a newly expanded edition adding a second disc with 16 previously unreleased tracks including demos and rarities. The 40th anniversary edition of Have a Good Time But Get
Boogie Chillen’: Ace Collects John Lee Hooker’s Early Years, Premieres Unreleased Tracks
Ace Records is celebrating the late blues legend John Lee Hooker (1912 or 1917 - 2001) with a historic new box set. Due on May 29, Documenting the Sensation Recordings 1949-1952 accomplishes just that feat. When Ace purchased Sensation Records from Bernard Besman, a number of Hooker sides were among the acquisition. Besman had previously sold some of Hooker's recordings to United Artists and Greene Bottle. Until now, Ace hadn't completed research into the total contents of the acquisition. Over
UPDATE: More Ways To Enjoy Bob Dylan’s Upcoming “Rough and Rowdy Ways”
UPDATED 5/20/20: Bob Dylan has been on a roll, getting us through lockdown with new singles that find him as clever and compelling as ever. On Thursday evening, May 7, the Bob Dylan Twitter account posted another cryptic tweet - complete with a pulp book-inspired illustration and a lyric quote - which had fans everywhere wondering if we might get another treat to tide us over. Well, come midnight that evening, we got our answer as "False Prophet" was released on digital streaming services.
Outlaw Man: Cherry Red, Morello Collect Four Albums from Singer-Songwriter David Blue
David Blue might be best-known for two things: writing "Outlaw Blues" on Eagles' Desperado album, and being a friend and occasional sidekick of Bob Dylan's. Yet he recorded seven albums (plus a major contribution to an eighth, the 1965 Elektra anthology Singer Songwriter Project) between 1965 and 1976 in addition to making appearances on stage and film before his untimely death in 1982. Cherry Red's Morello imprint has recently celebrated the late folk troubadour with a four-albums-on-two-CDs
State of Independence: Donna Summer’s Live Comes to CD, DVD, LP in July
Following its career-spanning Encore box set celebrating late superstar Donna Summer, Demon Music Group's Driven by the Music imprint will be bringing one of the diva's classic concerts to multiple formats. A Hot Summer Night will be issued on July 10 in both CD/DVD and 2-LP colored vinyl formats. The concert was recorded on August 6, 1983 as part of Summer's Hard for the Money tour. The She Works Hard for the Money album had just been released a couple of months earlier, in June, but Summer
Still Truckin’: Vinyl Me Please Plots “The Story of The Grateful Dead” Anthology 14-LP Box Set
Move over, Herbie Hancock, because the next volume of music subscription service Vinyl Me, Please's celebrated Anthology series will be The Story of The Grateful Dead. The massive 14-LP box set collects four studio albums and four live albums originally released between 1969 and 1990. Among them is Without A Net, the 1990 live collection that makes its first appearance on vinyl since its original release thirty years ago. The new pressings in The Story of The Grateful Dead have been
UPDATE WITH LINKS: Are You Ready? Neil Young Confirms “Homegrown” Release Date and Track Listing, Plots Further Archive Releases
For nearly 45 years, Neil Young fans have been clamoring for Homegrown, the lost album that was nearly released in 1975 and most recently slated for the still-yet-to-happen Record Store Day 2020. Now, it's been announced that the album described by Neil as "the missing link between Harvest, Comes A Time, Old Ways and Harvest Moon" will finally reach fans on June 19. "[Homegrown] is all analog! The purest sound," Young wrote in a post on his Neil Young Archives site. "Hear the vinyl. Get a
I Like Your Kind of Love: Edsel Collects Early Andy Williams on “The Cadence Recordings” Box
By any metric, 2020 has been a challenging year. But fans of Andy Williams have had some rays of sunlight with a number of releases. Demon Music Group's Crimson Productions released the late vocalist's Gold, a 3-CD, career-spanning anthology of many of his finest recordings. Real Gone Music issued Emperor of Easy: The Lost Columbia Masters 1962-72, premiering 20 outtakes and rare singles on CD from Williams' first decade at the label. Now Demon's Edsel label is turning back the clock for a new
Baby He’s a Star: ‘Prince and The Revolution: Live’ Comes To Streaming and Download
The Prince Estate made quarantine a little more tolerable this week when they announced that Prince and The Revolution: Live, the 1985 concert film reissued as part of the Purple Rain deluxe package in 2017, was receiving a limited stream on YouTube, to raise money and awareness for the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Though the concert will eventually disappear from the video service, the memory will live on thanks to a surprise digital-only premiere of the
Release Round-Up: Week of May 15
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Frank Sinatra, Nice 'n' Easy: 60th Anniversary Expanded Edition (Capitol/UMe) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP (Remixed Album Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Capitol Records, Frank Sinatra Enterprises, and UMe have a 60th anniversary edition of Frank Sinatra's classic 1960 album arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. For the occasion, the album has been completely remixed and features three bonus tracks:
Go For It: Real Gone Music Set to Reissues Cult Classics From the ’70s and ’80s in June
Real Gone Music is winding back the clock a few decades with reissues that are sure to please crate-diggers. First, on June 12, the label will release two mid-'80s cult classics - Kleeer's Intimate Connection and the Predator soundtrack. Fiftieth anniversary reissues of Eugene McDaniels' Outlaw and Fanny's self-titled debut will follow on June 26. Long a favorite of electro-funk connoisseurs, New York-based Kleeer recorded half a dozen acclaimed albums for Atlantic. One of their most
LiveandWell: David Bowie Rarity Returns from Parlophone
Parlophone Records has announced that three rare David Bowie live releases from the 1990s will all be returning to streaming formats in the months ahead. Tomorrow, May 15, the first of these titles will arrive on digital platforms. Liveandwell.com was made available as a limited edition CD release in 2000 to BowieNet subscribers. It typically fetches high sums secondhand. For this streaming reissue, it has been expanded with two bonus tracks: "Pallas Athena" and "V-2 Schneider," the former
Review: The Flying Burrito Bros., “Burrito Deluxe” on Hybrid SACD
For years now, we've touted Intervention Records' superlative work in the vinyl reissue front. The team's attention to detail, impeccable artwork, and stellar sonics across genres have given them a reputation in the reissue world as one of the best. Their established quality in the LP world happily extends to the digital realm, as well. Intervention recently released a stereo-only hybrid SACD of The Flying Burrito Bros.' Burrito Deluxe - one of the formative albums of the country-rock genre
Sing a Rainbow: Four More Cilla Black Albums Go Deluxe from Cherry Red, SFE
Cherry Red's Strike Force Entertainment (SFE) imprint has released another pair of two-for-one titles in its definitive reissue series dedicated to the late superstar Cilla Black. 1966's Cilla Sings a Rainbow, the best-selling album of her career, has been paired with 1973's Day by Day with Cilla, her final LP produced by Sir George Martin; the latter makes its first appearance on CD. It's been joined by 1970's Sweet Inspiration with 1971's Images. As with past volumes in this series, these
Sweeter Than Ever: Nick Kamen’s Discography Compiled By Cherry Pop
Cherry Pop will compile the works of U.K. model-turned-singer Nick Kamen this summer. Available July 24, the 6CD The Complete Collection offers remastered versions all four albums Kamen recorded for Warner Music between 1987 and 1992, plus dozens of bonus tracks and remixes, many of them previously unreleased or new to CD. (The label notes that 20 mixes are previously unreleased, though we suspect this number is higher.) Two never-before-heard tracks are also available: covers of The Everly
Stone Crush on You: Light in the Attic Collects Memphis Soul from 1977-1987
Light in the Attic is at it again with another exercise vault-digging that may well be the definitive word on Memphis' soul scene of the late-'70s and '80s. Stone Crush: Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987 is now available in an array of configurations. Each documents the modern soul scene of Bluff City's post-Stax years. Available on CD, double vinyl, or a special 2LP/7" set, Stone Crush is a labor of love from collectors/DJs Daniel Mathis and Chad Weekly that's over a decade in the
Book Review: “Along Comes The Association: Beyond Folk Rock and Three-Piece Suits” by Russ Giguere
"Well, I'm a comer and a goer in a six man band," went the lyrics to The Association's 1968 semi-autobiographical single "Six Man Band." Now, founding member Russ Giguere has reflected on his comings and goings in a new book that serves as both a personal memoir and a history of the band. Along Comes The Association: Beyond Folk Rock and Three-Piece Suits, written with Ashley Wren Collins, is a compelling look back at a colorful life in the group that gave the world such enduring hits as "Along
Happy Together: The Zappa Trust Winds Back the Clock 50 Years With ‘The Mothers 1970’ Box Set
On Friday, Zappa Records/UMe announced its latest archival release. The Mothers 1970, a 4-CD box set, is due on June 26. Like previous Zappa archive projects such as last year's 50th anniversary edition of Hot Rats, this one has been produced by Ahmet Zappa and "Vaultmeister" Joe Travers to provide a look at a heralded period of creativity. The short-lived Mothers of Invention iteration heard on these discs featured Aynsley Dunbar (drums), George Duke (piano/keys/trombone), Ian Underwood
In Memoriam: Little Richard (1932-2020)
The stupid but true thing to start off with is there was nothing "little" about him. I was born in 1987, a year after Richard Penniman was officially canonized as one of rock and roll's true pioneers, inducted into the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From that point through the early '90s, he got to enjoy some unlikely fruits of becoming an elder statesman that aren't typically afforded to many at this stage in their careers. In 1986, his song "Great Gosh A'Mighty," from the
Something To See: Bob Dylan Announces New Album “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” Shares New Single
Bob Dylan has been on a roll, getting us through lockdown with new singles that find him as clever and compelling as ever. On Thursday evening, May 7, the Bob Dylan Twitter account posted another cryptic tweet - complete with a pulp book-inspired illustration and a lyric quote - which had fans everywhere wondering if we might get another treat to tide us over. Well, come midnight, we got our answer as "False Prophet" was released on digital streaming services. The third surprise single in
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