Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! A lighter week nonetheless has some fun new digital debuts, including bonus-packed reissues from Belinda Carlisle and a sequel to a classic live jazz album.
Belinda Carlisle, Heaven on Earth (Deluxe Edition) / Runaway Horses (Deluxe Edition) (MCA/UMe)
Heaven: iTunes / Amazon
Horses: iTunes / Amazon
Expanded by Edsel many years ago, the second and third solo albums by the Go-Go's frontwoman - featuring the hits "Heaven is a Place on Earth," "I Get Weak," "Circle in the Sand" and "Leave a Light On" - are now digitally available with plenty of original single versions and remixes.
Burl Ives, The Versatile Burl Ives! / Sunshine in My Soul: Songs Of Joy / Singin' Easy / Burl / True Love / Sings Pearly Shells and Other Favorites / My Gal Sal / On the Beach At Waikiki (Decca)
Versatile: iTunes / Amazon
Sunshine: iTunes / Amazon
Singin': iTunes / Amazon
Burl: iTunes / Amazon
True Love: iTunes / Amazon
Pearly Shells: iTunes / Amazon
My Gal Sal: iTunes / Amazon
Waikiki: iTunes / Amazon
Burl Ives' affable, sonorous voice was starting to lend itself country music in the early '60s after years of folk repertoire. These eight albums, released between 1961 and 1964, are now available for the first time.
Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco de Lucia, Saturday Night in San Francisco (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)
Recorded live at the Warfield in San Francisco the day after the trio's celebrated 1981 acoustic jazz album, Saturday Night in San Francisco was released physically by Impex earlier this summer, and it's available digitally now.
Home, Pause for a Hoarse Horse (CBS) (iTunes / Amazon)
The 1971 debut album from this British prog group wasn't a strong seller - but after the band's demise, founding member/bassist Cliff Williams soon joined a very different British rock band with a slightly more elevated international profile.
Refugee of the Roads: Joni Mitchell's Latest Archives Box Takes Listeners to the End of the '70s
Release Round-Up: Week of May 3
Leave a Light On: Belinda Carlisle's Third 'Decades' Box Collects Single Mixes, B-Sides and More
Release Round-Up: Week of September 1
Burl Ives is yet another performer whose excellent recordings have been mostly ignored during the digital era. Although his beloved Christmas recordings have been reissued, in multiple versions in some cases, most of the balance of his expansive catalog has been unavailable.
The 2008 Universal Studio vault fire incinerated all of Burl's 1949-1968 Decca master tapes. But thankfully in 1993 Bear Family Records in Germany compiled a Burl Ives 5-CD box set "A Little Bitty Tear: The Nashville Years 1961-1965" [BCD 15667] That set contains all of Burl's non-holiday Decca recordings spanning those years and most likely made the downloads of these eight albums, all contained in that set, possible.
Burl's expressive and unique voice was especially suited to folk and country songs. in 1962 he scored two of his most memorable hits "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way Of Laughin'." Finally his individual albums from the early 1960's are once again available individually.
How in the modern era can masters be damaged/lost in a fire? Have studios/record compaies learnt nothing. After so much precious film was lost in previous fires (Universal/MGM) one would think that those concerned would have protected the gold they possess.