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Raven Has Folk and Funk With Melanie and Mother's Finest

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Melanie - RavenRaven Records' most recent pair of CDs certainly showcase the label's eclectic leanings!  From singer-songwriter Melanie Safka, the label has a three-for-one release of her much-loved albums Candles in the Rain, Leftover Wine and Gather Me.  The Melanie release is joined by a four-for-one title from pioneering funk-rockers Mother's Finest collecting the band's self-titled LP plus Mother's Finest Live, Another Mother Further and Mother Factor.

Raven's release from Melanie follows the Morello label's recent reissues of four albums originally issued on her Neighborhood Records label.  Candles in the Rain arrived on Buddah Records in April 1970 as Melanie's third album.  As with her previous albums, it was produced by her husband Peter Schekeryk.  Its stirring title track, inspired by Melanie's experience performing at Woodstock and featuring The Edwin Hawkins Singers, became her first Top 10 Pop hit, while the album's inspired cover of The Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" earned her a Top 10 single in the U.K., as well.  To this collection of mainly original songs (which also features a rendition of James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind") Raven has also added the full-length version of "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)."

Melanie's next album, Leftover Wine, is split between Discs One and Two here.  A live album recorded at Carnegie Hall, it was released in September 1970 and showcased the intimate side of the performer, with just voice and guitar.  The timely studio recording "Peace Will Come (According to Plan)" was appended to the live recording and here, as on the original release, closes out the set.  Raven has jumped over Melanie's next album, The Good Book, in favor of Gather Me which introduced her biggest hit, the playful "Brand New Key."  Gather Me was the first album released on Neighborhood Records, beginning the next chapter of Melanie's career.  Raven's compilation has a 12-page full-color booklet featuring new liner notes by Ian McFarlane, and the three albums have been newly remastered by Warren Barnett.

Mother's Finest - RavenAtlanta, Georgia's Mother's Finest was founded by the duo of Joyce "Baby Jean" Kennedy (vocals and percussion) and Glenn "Doc" Murdock (vocals and percussion), together with Gary "Moses Mo" Moore (guitar and background vocals), Mike Keck (keyboards and percussion), Jerry "Wyzard" Seay (bass and background vocals) and Donny Vosburgh (drums), in 1970.  Combining rock and funk, the group attracted the attention of RCA Records.  But the relationship was not to last, and Mother's Finest moved onto the Epic Records label with the personnel change of Sanford "Pepe" Daniels on drums.  (Daniels played on the album sessions, but by the time of the album's release, he, too, had departed, to be replaced by Barry "B.B. Queen" Borden.)  The band's Epic debut, titled Mother's Finest like the RCA album, is the first album of the four on Raven's 2-CD set collecting the band's 1976-1979 Epic years.  Produced by Tom Werman at Miami's famed Criteria Studios, it set the stage for 1977's Another Mother Further, presented out of chronological order here on Disc Two and featuring hard-edged renditions of familiar songs like "Mickey's Monkey" (rendered in metal style) and "Burning Love."  (Despite the Motown pedigree of "Mickey's Monkey," the band's "Baby Love" is not the Supremes song!)

1978's Mother Factor, produced and including songs by R&B great Skip Scarborough, de-emphasized the group's rock influences in favor of slick disco-funk.  They then teamed with Blood Sweat and Tears' Bobby Colomby and Jimmy Iovine.  The duo produced 1979's Mother's Finest Live with its covers of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" and Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" while reprising "Mickey's Monkey" and other past favorites.  Live concluded Mother's Finest's Epic tenure, and they soon resurfaced at Atlantic with a return to rock, Iron Age.  The band still tours today with original members Kennedy, Murdock, Seay and Moore.  Raven's release has a 12-page full-color booklet with Ian McFarlane's notes, and Warren Barnett has again remastered.

Both collections from Raven are available now at the links below!

Melanie, Candles in the Rain/Leftover Wine/Gather Me (Raven RVCD-393, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

  1. Candles in the Rain
  2. Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)
  3. Carolina in My Mind
  4. Citiest People
  5. What Have They Done to My Song, Ma
  6. Alexander Beetle
  7. The Good Guys
  8. Lovin' Baby Girl
  9. Ruby Tuesday
  10. Leftover Wine
  11. Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) (Full-Length Version)
  12. Close to It All
  13. Uptown and Down
  14. Momma, Momma
  15. The Saddest Thing
  16. Beautiful People
  17. Animal Crackers

CD 2

  1. I Don't Eat Animals
  2. Happy Birthday (Talk)
  3. Happy Birthday (Song)
  4. Tuning My Guitar
  5. Psychotherapy
  6. Leftover Wine
  7. Peace Will Come (According to Plan)
  8. Little Bit of Me
  9. Some Day I'll Be a Farmer
  10. Steppin'
  11. Brand New Key
  12. Ring Around the Moon
  13. Ring the Living Bell, Shine the Living Light
  14. Railroad
  15. Kansas
  16. Some Say (I Got Devil)
  17. Center of the Circle
  18. What Wondrous Love
  19. Baby Day
  20. Tell Me Why

CD 1, Tracks 1-10 from Candles in the Rain, Buddah BDS 5060, 1970
CD 1, Track 11 full-length version of song from above
CD 1, Tracks 12-17 & CD 2, Tracks 1-7 from Leftover Wine, Buddah BDS 5066, 1970
CD 2, Tracks 8-20 from Gather Me, Neighborhood NRS 47001, 1971

Mother's Finest, Mother's Finest/Another Mother Further/Mother Factor/Live (Raven RVCD-394, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

  1. Fire
  2. Give You All the Love (Inside of Me)
  3. N-gg-zz Can't Sang Rock and Roll
  4. My Baby
  5. Fly with Me (Feel the Love)
  6. Dontcha Wanna Love Me
  7. Rain
  8. Somebody to Love
  9. Fire
  10. Mickey's Monkey
  11. Give You All the Love
  12. Baby Love
  13. Magic Carpet Ride
  14. Love Changes
  15. Watch My Stylin'

CD 2

  1. Don't Wanna Come Back
  2. Mickey's Monkey
  3. Baby Love
  4. Thank You for the Love
  5. Piece of the Rock
  6. Truth'll Set You Free
  7. Burning Love
  8. Dis Go Dis Way, Dis Go Dat Way
  9. Hard Rock Lover
  10. Can't Fight the Feeling
  11. Tell Me
  12. Watch My Stylin'
  13. Love Changes
  14. Don't Wanna Come Back
  15. Give It Up
  16. Goodbar
  17. I Can't Believe
  18. More and More

CD 1, Tracks 1-7 from Mother's Finest, Epic 34179, 1976
CD 1, Tracks 8-15 & CD 2, Track 1 from Mother's Finest Live, Epic 35976, 1979
CD 2, Tracks 2-9 from Another Mother Further, Epic 34699, 1977
CD 2, Tracks 10-18 from Mother Factor, Epic 35546, 1978

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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