The Weekend Stream: March 7, 2026
Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts, plus new works from legacy acts and even some personally curated favorites. There’s new and old works from three of the best British white guys to ever do it, plus a boatload of Hugh Masekela treasures, a legendary punk session and plenty of exciting ’70s country nuggets.
Sting, Mercury Falling (Expanded Edition) (A&M/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)
For the 30th anniversary of Sting’s fifth studio album – a quirkier affair than previous, with tracks like the smooth adult contemporary pop of “You Still Touch Me” and country dabblers like “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying” and “I Hung My Head” – it has, like all the others from the ’80s and ’90s, been digitally expanded with plenty of B-sides, remixes, single edits and live tracks. (We’ll see if, like the others, it gets a physical release in Japan.)
Ringo Starr, “It’s Been Too Long” (UMe) (Apple / Amazon)
Ringo goes country once more on his 22nd studio album, a reunion with producer T Bone Burnett (who collaborated on his last work, Look Up, released only 14 months ago). Long Long Road will feature collaborations with Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Billy Strings and more and will be released on April 24.
Peter Gabriel, “What Lies Ahead (Bright-Side Mix)” (Real World) (Apple / Amazon)
Here comes the third track from Gabriel’s o\i – one he’s performed a bit since the Back to Front and i/o Tours over the last decade.
Hugh Masekela, The Americanization of Ooga-Booga / The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela / Hugh Masekela’s Latest / Is Alive and Well At The Whisky / Masekela / Reconstruction / Hugh Masekela & The Union of South Africa / Masekela Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz / I Am Not Afraid / Colonial Man / You Told Your Mama Not to Worry (UMe)
Americanization: Apple / Amazon
Emancipation: Apple / Amazon
Latest: Apple / Amazon
Alive and Well: Apple / Amazon
Masekela: Apple / Amazon
Reconstruction: Apple / Amazon
Union of South Africa: Apple / Amazon
Hedzoleh Soundz: Apple / Amazon
Not Afraid: Apple / Amazon
Colonial Man: Apple / Amazon
You Told Your Mama: Apple / Amazon
There’s no birth anniversary or anything this week, but nearly a dozen albums from the South African trumpeter and activist – variously released on the MGM, Chisa, Uni, Blue Thumb and Casablanca labels between 1966 and 1977 – have been digitally delivered. We’ll take it!
Fugazi, Albini Sessions (Dischord) (Bandcamp)
A really special find for yesterday’s Bandcamp Friday: the legendary punk band recorded a batch of songs with iconoclastic producer/engineer Steve Albini in 1992, but ended up re-recording the tracks for their breakthrough album, 1993’s In on the Kill Taker. Though the original tracks have been bootlegged for years, Fugazi has made them available officially for the first time as a fundraiser for Letters Charity, a nonprofit Albini worked with in his lifetime.
Wynn Stewart, RCA Singles (RCA/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)
“It’s Such a Pretty World Today” singer Wynn Stewart, an architect of the Bakersfield sound, was primarily known for his work on Capitol Records in the ’60s, but bounced around on labels in the ’70s. SuperVisible Multi Media, having just made available Stewart’s few sides for Atlantic available as a digital EP last week, now works the same magic on 10 tracks recorded and released by RCA Victor in the early ’70s, including the minor hit “It’s Raining in Seattle.”
Willie Colón & Mon Rivera, There Goes the Neighborhood (Remastered 2026) (Fania/Craft) (Apple / Amazon)
The recently-deceased Colón happens to get an album of his newly remastered for digital: a 1975 outing with trombonist and countryman Mon Rivera, originally released on the Fania imprint Vaya.
Godsmack, Awake (25th Anniversary Edition) (Republic/Universal/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)
Post-grunge arena-fillers Godsmack followed up their breakthrough, self-titled sophomore album with 2000’s Awake, their first of six consecutive Top 10 albums. “Sick of Life” and the title track became recognizable from their placement in recruitment commercials for the U.S. Army. This reissue includes several bonus tracks, including a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” – a fitting nod to the group’s presence on the recent Ozzfest festival tour.
Cy Coleman, The Party’s on Me (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)
Legacy has finally brought this 1976 curiosity from legendary Broadway tunesmith Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity, City of Angels, The Will Rogers Follies) to digital platforms. The Party’s on Me is Coleman’s “jazz-disco” album (or is it “disco-jazz”?) on which blends his own melodies – including the title song, added to Seesaw for its national tour; and “It’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” from Sweet Charity – with interpretations of then-current pop tunes such as “Love Will Keep Us Together,” “Time in a Bottle” and “Touch Me in the Morning” (the latter of which yields Coleman’s finest piano performance here). Though the settings aren’t nearly as elegant as on Coleman’s sublime 1966 Columbia set If My Friends Could See Me Now, there’s still plenty to savor in his fleet tickling of the ivories and sure melodic sensibility.
Keith David, Between Takes (Roar of the Lion) (Apple / Amazon)
The voice of Keith David is one of stage and screen’s most resonant. Known to many for turns in John Carpenter’s The Thing and They Live, Keith’s voice acting credits are too many to mention, though some favorites are his portrayals of Dr. Facilier in The Princess and The Frog, Husk in Hazbin Hotel, Goliath in Gargoyles, Solovar in The Flash, and Spawn in the series of the same name. (Mr. David also joined the company for the December performance in NYC of Once in a Lifetime: A Sammy Davis, Jr. Centennial Celebration, bringing the house down with “What Kind of Fool Am I.”) Now, Keith has recorded his first album, and it’s every bit as wonderful as one would expect. Supported by a swinging band, he wraps his velvet pipes around such standards as “Old Devil Moon,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Blame It on My Youth,” and “Here’s to Life” before concluding with a stirring rendition of the Ragtime anthem “Make Them Hear You.” A vinyl edition is planned for the near future, continuing a stellar year for the Juilliard graduate, who’ll turn 70 this summer and receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Allan Rich, Glass Heart (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)
The son of country singer Charlie Rich was a pleasant if unheralded rock act in the mid-‘7os, cutting an album for Epic in 1974 and this one for Columbia two years later. Though his songcraft dominates the LP, it’s notable for featuring two intriguing covers. “Fever for the Girl” was a somewhat legendary Bruce Springsteen outtake that gained traction the year before when covered by Bruce’s Jersey shore cohorts Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes under the name “The Fever.” And that is a version of the Bacharach-David standard “Always Something There to Remind Me,” which had gone to No. 1 in the U.K. from singer Sandie Shaw but had yet to impact the American charts until British duo Naked Eyes took the track to the Top 10 in 1983.
Blue Mitchell, Funktion Junction (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)
Jazz trumpeter Blue Mitchell was a frequent presence on the Riverside and Blue Note labels in the late ’50s and throughout the ’60s, both as a bandleader and a sideman to the likes of Horace Silver, Stanley Turrentine and others. Funktion Junction was his second and final LP for RCA and came near the end of his career, three years before his passing from cancer in 1979. It features an all-star session lineup (including trumpeters Jon Faddis and John Gatchall, keyboardist Clarence McDonald and drummer James Gadson) and a slicker, R&B-inspired repertoire, including covers of The Spinners & Dionne Warwick’s “Then Came You” and The Miracles’ “Love Machine.”
Dickey Lee, Angels, Roses, & Rain (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)
A mainstay of moving country-pop fare – including his Top 10 hit “Patches” and the standard “She Thinks I Still Care,” which he co-wrote – Angels, Roses, & Rain was the last album Dickey Lee recorded for RCA Victor, but he went out with a bang: the title track and follow-up “9,999,999 Tears” both reached the Top 10 of the country chart.
Floyd Cramer, Floyd Cramer Country (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)
The standout Nashville sideman turned surprise solo hitmaker (“Last Date,” “On the Rebound”) was still going strong for RCA Victor when Floyd Cramer Country was released in 1976. Largely unconcerned with then-current trends, it features fascinating takes on classic tracks like “Wabash Cannonball” and “Goodnight, Irene,” with a few more recent tracks sprinkled in (Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times,” Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again”).
Denny Davis & The Nashville Brass, Texas (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)
Billed as “a prime collection of musical selections favored by many of Texas’ sons and daughters from the early days of music to the present time,” this 1976 release featured Davis and his CMA-winning Nashville Brass on favorites like “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and (naturally) “Yellow Rose of Texas,” all in their inimitable style.
The Choice Four, On Top of Clear (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)
Washington, D.C.-vocal group The Choice Four was masterminded by producer Van McCoy, but even his studio wizardry couldn’t secure them much notice from mainstream listeners. (Their take on McCoy’s “When You’re Young and in Love” had the misfortune of being released simultaneously as a version from Good Times actor Ralph Carter.) Lead single “Hey, What’s That Dance You’re Doing” became a minor R&B hit and that was largely it for the group.
The Goo Goo Dolls & Steve Aoki, “Iris” (Warner) (Apple / Amazon)
An amped-up EDM reimagining of The Goo Goo Dolls’ seminal ’90s rock hit? Okay!
PASSINGS
A seminal behind the scenes figure in hip-hop, Bob Power (1952-2026) was a celebrated engineer who refined the sound of the East Coast scene as the ’90s dawned. A go-to collaborator for acts in the Native Tongues collective, including De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers and more, Power would later work on The Roots’ Do You Want More?!!!??!, D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar (co-producing half the album) and Erykah Badu’s Baduizm. His ability to integrate samples beyond simple loops and into unusual textures made him an original, and he logged time later in life as a respected educator at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute. “You could NOT encounter a more engaging, enthusiastic, laser focused craftsman of sound and Sonics,” The Roots’ drummer Questlove remembered in an Instagram post.
Songwriter Tom Bahler (1943-2026) cut his teeth as a session singer for The Partridge Family before transitioning to songwriting. He penned hits for Bobby Sherman (the Top 5 “Julie, Do Ya Love Me”) and Cher (“Living in a House Divided”) but is best known for a song he wrote after a painful breakup (widely but erroneously believed to be about Karen Carpenter). Producer Quincy Jones intended to give it to Frank Sinatra, but instead felt it would be a worthy addition to Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, his first solo album as an adult. The track caused Jackson to break down in tears by the last chorus, which one can hear on the final mix; “She’s Out of My Life” became Off the Wall‘s unprecedented fourth Top 10 hit, and set Jackson up for even more unbelievable success in the decade to follow.
Even those in the footnotes of music history deserve a mention. Len Garry (1942-2026) was, like so many, part of a band in his secondary school days, a tea-chest bassist in a mid-’50s skiffle group. Of course, this group was somewhat different: Liverpool’s The Quarrymen (named after Quarry Bank High School, which all members except Garry attended) were fronted by a teenager named John Lennon. Garry was with them for about a year – including their first performance at a local venue called The Cavern Club – until he caught tubercular meningitis and stepped away for good. But he’d already welcomed some new members, including a boyish-faced songwriter named Paul McCartney and an even younger guitarist named George Harrison. The Quarrymen would abandon skiffle by the time they changed their name to The Beatles in 1960. Garry became an architect but later made his way back to the surviving early members of the band, recording three albums with them between 1997 and 2012. McCartney took a moment to remember him this week, and so, too, do we.
Thanks again for spotlighting country releases. Had TWS not highlighted the new Dickey Lee Angels, Roses & Rain digital reissue I would not have discovered that ALL seven of his original RCA Victor albums are now digitally available!
The Real Gone 2013 CD compilation Original Greatest Hits with Dickey’s RCA Victor singles is also digitally available from Legacy Recordings. That set features 19 country chart singles plus one B side, Dickey’s recording of his song She Thinks I Still Care. That song was a 1962 #1 hit for George Jones, the tag-along B side for Elvis’ 1977 #1 hit Moody Blue and Anne Murray’s 1974 gender-flipping #1 hit HE Thinks I Still Care.
Following his tenure at RCA, Dickey released three Mercury albums in 1979, 1980 & 1981. So far none have had a digital reissue.