And the hits just keep on comin'! Record Store Day is almost upon us - Saturday, April 13 - and Omnivore Recordings isn't going to miss out on all the fun. The label has just announced a quartet of titles set to reach your local independent record store. The label's four new vinyl titles include I Don't Like the Way This World's A-Treatin' Me, a four-song tribute to Woody Guthrie featuring a rare Guthrie demo plus Jeff Tweedy, Ryan Harvey with Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello, and U.S. Elevator; Lone Justice's previously unreleased Live at the Palomino, 1983; Culture's The Nighthawk Recordings, a seven-song EP featuring four unreleased songs; and the vinyl premiere of Dennis Quaid & the Sharks' Out of the Box. (More interested in CDs? Omnivore has you covered. CDs of the Culture and Lone Justice releases will be issued one day before Record Store Day, on Friday, April 12.)
Below, you'll find more information on all four titles, with descriptions provided by Omnivore.
Woody Guthrie, I Don't Like The Way This World's A-Treatin' Me (10-inch EP) (1,500 copies)
There are few names more tightly woven into the fabric of American music, politics and history than the name Woody Guthrie.
In 1952, Guthrie wrote and recorded a song at home titled "I Don't Like the Way This World's A-Treatin' Me." The track appears on vinyl for the first time on a limited edition 10" of the same name for Record Store Day. Also found on this special release is a second version of the demo with new accompaniment from Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, who, along with Billy Bragg and Wilco, released a series of acclaimed albums featuring their interpretations of unearthed Guthrie lyrics. Mermaid Avenue, the first in the series, was nominated for a Grammy in 2000.
If those two tracks weren't enough, I Don't Like The Way This World's A-Treatin' Me includes two versions of "Beech Haven Ain't My Home" (a.k.a. "Old Man Trump"), whose lyrics were discovered within the Woody Guthrie Archives and chronicle the time the Guthrie family lived under landlord Fred Trump. As two drafts of the lyrics exist, the Riot-Folk Musician's Collective's Ryan Harvey combined them. This release contains a version by Harvey featuring Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave), and another from Irion's band U.S. Elevator.
Available exclusively for Record Store Day as a 10" EP, I Don't Like the Way This World's A-Treatin' Me is not only an historic, but also a musical document, released in conjunction and with full cooperation from the Woody Guthrie Archives. As stated in the album's notes: "These songs were mostly written well over half a century ago, but they are songs for our times to be sure."
Lone Justice, Live at the Palomino, 1983 (1 LP) (1,700 copies)
Located in North Hollywood, Calif., the famed Palomino club hosted Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, and many more classic country acts in the '50s and '60s. Later, George Harrison, Elvis Costello, and Green Day played there. It was featured in movies including Every Which Way But Loose and Hooper, and even TV shows such as CHiPs. And in the early '80s, it was a haven for "cow-punk" acts like Lone Justice.
Live at the Palomino, 1983 features 12 tracks from the early Lone Justice lineup consisting of Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni, and Don Willens. Songs from their yet-to-be-issued debut are here along with classic country covers and tracks that have appeared on various collections throughout the years -- but never with the live power the band showed at this L.A. landmark.
Packaging features new notes from Etzioni and Hedgecock, and is issued with full cooperation from the band. Step back into the time when Lone Justice was the band to see, way out in the dusty Valley. A timeless performance from a band that helped define a genre. They still are the light.
Culture, The Nighthawk Recordings (1 LP) (1,000 copies)
Nighthawk Recordings' founder Leroy Jodie Pierson explains it best: "[Legendary reggae band] Culture began recording in 1976 with an early cut of 'This Time,' which was only released on an obscure Jamaican single. Composed in response to the state of emergency declared by the Jamaican government in that year, the early recording is a tame and lyrically altered version of the original song as finally presented on this album. ["We couldn't do it in dem time, We gonna give you the real 'This Time.'"] During the late 1970s Culture recorded seven fine albums, three for Joe Gibbs, three for Sonia Pottinger, and one issued in America by April Records, which [founding member] Joseph Hill regarded as a bootleg. Culture was truly in their prime when they recorded the material included on this album. The first three tracks were recorded in 1981 with backing by the Roots Radics. The remaining tracks were taped in 1983 with backup by the Wailers band."
"Calling Rastafari," "Dem a Payaka," and "This Time" were all originally included on the 1982 Nighthawk compilation album Calling Rastafari. Most of the tracks released on the classic roots-reggae compilation were recorded during a three-day session in 1981 at the Harry J studio in Jamaica. The Culture songs appeared alongside tracks by Gladiators, Mighty Diamonds, Wailing Souls and others, with most of the songs being unique to the album including those by Culture.
"Can They Run" and "Mister Music" and their respective Versions were recorded two years after Calling Rastafari was issued and languished in the Nighthawk vaults until the release of this special, limited-edition EP. Omnivore Recordings is proud to present these historic recordings (on three different Jamaican flag-inspired vinyl colors) to honor the legacy of Culture on this Record Store Day.
Dennis Quaid & the Sharks, Out of the Box (1 LP) (1,000 copies)
Dennis Quaid & the Sharks' origins can be traced to a night when Quaid went to see actor Harry Dean Stanton and his longtime band perform in Los Angeles. Quaid was invited to join them onstage. At first reluctant, because of his decade-long layoff from music, Quaid finally acquiesced, and his performance sparked a musical kinship between Jamie James -- guitar player in Stanton's band and the Kingbees' front man -- and Quaid that led to them forming their own band.
James quickly began recruiting others and it wasn't long before Dennis Quaid & the Sharks were performing on the L.A. club circuit. Quaid was certainly no stranger to either the recording studio or the stage; as a seasoned actor he'd cut songs for soundtracks to his movies dating back to the '80s, among them The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, Tough Enough, and The Big Easy.
Music had always been important to Quaid: "As far back as I can remember, music has always been a big part of my life. My third cousin was Gene Autry, the original Western movie singing cowboy. My grandmother played piano and sang songs from the '20s, songs from her youth. My dad played piano and crooned like Bing Crosby and looked a little like Dean Martin."
Among Quaid's musical heroes you'll find Buddy Holly, Hank Williams, Willie & Waylon, Johnny Cash, the Beatles, the Doors, James Brown, and more. With influences like those, it's no surprise that members of the Sharks have serious musical pedigrees of their own: Jamie James leads the Kingbees and the Sharks; Tom Mancillas, Ken Stange, and Tom Walsh have worked over the years with artists as varied as Harry Dean Stanton, Roger Miller, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Supertramp, America, and more!
In 2018 Dennis Quaid & the Sharks made the first studio album of their 18-year history, Out of the Box, now available on vinyl for Record Store Day. On it you'll find they specialize in "rock 'n' roll and country-soul," or as Quaid calls it, "a junkyard of American music." The album, cut at the legendary Village Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Quaid and James, is filled with original songs by Quaid plus a rousing cover of Larry Williams' "Slow Down." The band tours as often as Quaid's schedule will allow and he says the shows are as much fun for those in attendance as they are for the band.
Grumpy Ed says
GAAAAAAA! How will I make it through RSD without a NEW BIG STAR RELEASE from Omnivore?