Thank You Friends: Omnivore Unveils Record Store Day Slate with Big Star, NRBQ, Art Pepper

March 21, 2017 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

This morning, Omnivore Recordings announced its Record Store Day slate, boasting a trio of limited edition vinyl editions from Big Star, NRBQ and the Art Pepper Quartet. These will be available at your favorite local independent record store on Saturday, April 22 as part of this year’s RSD festivities.

The 1957 album The Art Pepper Quartet, featuring alto saxophonist Pepper, bassist Ben Tucker, pianist Russ Freeman and drummer Gary Frommer, marks its 60th anniversary this year. Omnivore has teamed with Pepper’s wife Laurie to return this seminal jazz classic to vinyl on clear wax in an individually numbered, tip-on jacket. This all-analog edition has been remastered by Kevin Gray from the original mono master tape, and includes an alternate take of “Blues at Twilight” as a bonus track making its vinyl debut. CD and digital editions will follow at a later date.

Last year, Omnivore released High Noon – A 50-Year Retrospective, an acclaimed box set dedicated to the eclectic oeuvre of the longtime musical adventurers in NRBQ. For Record Store Day, that box will be distilled into a limited edition, 2-LP vinyl set. The vinyl edition of High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective will be packaged in a full-color gatefold sleeve with an inner photo layout chronicling the band’s history. In addition to highlights from the original box, it adds a previously unreleased live version of “Keep This Love Goin’.”

Finally, the label offers a slipcase edition of Big Star’s Complete Third – Vol. 3: Final Masters. The remarkable 3-CD box set telling the full story of Big Star’s cult favorite album has been rolled out on vinyl in separate volumes, with Vol. 1: Demos To Sessions To Roughs having arrived in November 2016 and Vol. 2: Roughs To Mixes in February 2017. Now, Vol. 3: Final Masters is here for Record Store Day to complete the set. This 2-LP edition contains every released master recording from every officially released version of Third on three sides of vinyl. The CD set’s hidden track (a previously unissued Vocals/Strings-only Mix of “Thank You Friends”) is included as a special bonus on the laser-etched Side 4. A download card is included (as in all previous volumes), containing the audio for Vol. 3, plus the complete liner notes and booklet as a PDF.

As an added incentive for Record Store Day 2017, Volume 3: Final Masters will be available in a limited-edition slipcase with room for Vols. 1 and 2 (sold separately). It will also contain an exclusive 20-page, full-color, LP-sized booklet with all the notes, photos and commentary from the CD set. While the slipcase edition of Vol. 3 will be a Record Store Day title, the standalone volume will also be released to general retail at a later date.

You can check out the track listings for all three of Omnivore’s RSD exclusives below!

The Art Pepper Quartet: Art’s Opus (Tampa Records LP RS 1001, 1957 – reissued Omnivore, 2017)

I Surrender Dear
Diane
Pepper Pot
Besame Mucho
Blues At Twilight
Val’s Pal
Blues At Twilight (alternate)

NRBQ, High Noon – A 50-Year Retrospective (Vinyl 2-LP Edition) (Omnivore, 2017)

Flat Foot Flewzy
Barbara Carr
Don’t She Look Good
Fergie’s Prayer
C’mon Everybody
Down In My Heart
Captain Lou – with Lou Albano
One Big Parking Lot
I Don’t Think Of…
Me And The Boys
Ridin’ In My Car
Feel You Around Me
Over Your Head (Alternate Version)
Dummy
Love Is Waiting
Wacky Tobacky
Beverly
I’d Like To Know
Terry Got A Muffin
Sweet And Petite
Let Go
Fightin’ Back
Greetings From Delaware
Keep This Love Goin’ (Live, Previously Unreleased)
Ain’t It All Right

Big Star, Complete Third: Vol. 3: Final Masters (Omnivore, 2017)

Downs
Femme Fatale
Thank You Friends
Holocaust
Jesus Christ
Blue Moon
Kizza Me
For You
O, Dana
Nightime
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On
Kanga Roo
Take Care
Big Black Car
Dream Lover
You Can’t Have Me
Till The End Of The Day
Lovely Day
Nature Boy
Thank You Friends (Vocals/Strings-only Mix)

Categories:

News

Formats:

Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop

Tags:

Art Pepper, Big Star, NRBQ, Record Store Day

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 and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

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.