Features / The Weekend Stream

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. The elder British/Irish rock contingent is alive and well, with new music from U2, Peter Gabriel and Ringo Starr plus new remixes from Sting; there’s also quite a bit of country (from Jim Reeves and Ricky Skaggs to…Disney?) and jazz (Monk, Maynard and more) to go around.

U2, Easter Lily EP (Island) (Apple / Amazon)

More prolific (and present) than they’ve been in a while, U2 have released their second EP of 2026, following February’s Days of Ash. Easter Lily deals with deeply personal topics, including faith, friendship and, on lead track “Song for Hal,” the loss of friend Hal Willner to COVID-19. Jacknife Lee produces, with Brian Eno contributing to closing track “COEXIST (I Will Bless the Lord At All Times).” The band have also released a digital companion issue of their long-running fan club zine Propaganda. The band continues to work on a new full-length album; 2017’s Songs of Experience was their last original LP, with 2023’s Songs of Surrender revisiting previously released material.

Peter Gabriel, “Till Your Mind is Shining” (Dark-Side Mix) (Real World) (Apple / Amazon)

The fourth track on Gabriel’s unfolding new album o\i is “”the closest I get to a pop song on this record,” per the former Genesis frontman. Those who recall his pop highs of the ’80s and ’90s have reason to be excited, then!

Ringo Starr, “Choose Love” (UMe) (Apple / Amazon)

Ringo Starr has released the second single from his upcoming T Bone Burnett-produced album Long Long Road, due on April 24. “Choose Love” revisits the title track of Ringo’s 2005 album in evocative, organic style. The album features collaborations with Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sheryl Crow, and St. Vincent, and includes six songs penned by Burnett along with Starr’s own compositions and a cover of Carl Perkins’ “I Don’t See Me in Your Eyes Anymore” – neatly calling back to the Perkins covers performed by Starr back when he was in a certain Fab Four!

Jimmy Page, “Ten Years Gone” (Home Demo) (YouTube)

Made available only on YouTube this week, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page offered up his old home demo of “Ten Years Gone” as a “footnote” to the 50th anniversary of their 1975 album Physical Graffiti.

Sting, Desert Rose (Revisited) (A&M/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)

More than 25 years after the danceable “Desert Rose” revitalized Sting’s solo career, the song is revisited with three new remixes (in full-length and edited forms) by DJs and producers from the U.S. and Jordan (the duo Bedouin) as well as South Africa (Zakes Bantwini, Darke).

Various Artists, Main Street Country (Walt Disney Records) (Apple / Amazon)

A little bit of Southern musical magic comes to life on this new EP featuring three favorites from ’90s Disney animated films (Kane Brown and his wife Katelyn on “Beauty and the Beast,” BRELAND’s take on Hercules‘ “Go the Distance,” Maddie & Tae’s version of Phil Collins’ Tarzan winner “You’ll Be in My Heart”) and two from ’00s Disney Channel programs (Restless Road on Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana smash “The Climb,” Dasha’s interpretation of “She’s So Gone” from Lemonade Mouth).

Al Jarreau, “Boogie Down” (Extended Version) (Warner) (Apple / Amazon)

A rare 12″ version of Jarreau’s “Boogie Down,” a Top 10 R&B hit from 1983’s Jarreau.

Jim Reeves, God Be with You (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)

Appropriately for Easter weekend, SuperVisible Multi Media and Legacy Recordings continue delivering the catalogue of country gentleman Jim Reeves. Originally released in 1959, God Be with You features a dozen gospel standards, half of which Reeves recorded in a three-hour session the previous fall with one of Nashville’s prime female session musicians, guitarist Velma Williams Smith.

Ricky Skaggs, Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown (Epic) (Apple / Amazon)

Skaggs’ sixth album (and second country No. 1) was released in 1983, at a time when he was moving toward the front of the pack as a country musician. (He’d later transition into more formal bluegrass in the ’90s.) The title track, “Honey (Open That Door)” and “Uncle Pen” were all No. 1 country singles, too, and two tracks feature backing vocals from Dolly Parton, whose White Limozeen (1989) was produced by Skaggs.

Herb Pedersen, Sandman (Epic) (Apple / Amazon)

Before co-founding the Desert Rose Band with Chris Hillman of The Byrds, country multi-instrumentalist Herb Pedersen cut two records for Epic, the second of which is 1977’s Sandman. Produced and arranged by Mike Post, the album features some terrific West Coast session legends and notable players, including bassist Leland Sklar, David Lindley on fiddle, a slide guitar solo by Lowell George, and harmony on the title track by Linda Ronstadt.

Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

True to its name, this 1959 album – recorded in San Francisco’s Fugazi Hall without an audience – was just Monk at his piano, one of his last works for Riverside before moving to the Columbia label.

Maynard Ferguson, Message from Maynard / Maynard ’64 (Roulette/Parlophone)

Message: Apple / Amazon
Maynard ’64: Apple / Amazon

The jazz trumpeter’s last two albums for the Roulette label have been delivered digitally. (Ironically, Maynard ’64 was culled from sessions between 1959 and 1962!)

Various Artists, Jazz Dispensary: Magia Brasileira (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

Ahead of its release on vinyl for Record Store Day, the latest in Craft’s Jazz Dispensary series offers cuts from Cal Tjader, Bola Sete, Paulinho da Costa and others.

Ray Barretto, Hard Hands (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

This 1968 album from the boogaloo master and expert percussionist was only Barretto’s second for Fania; he’d later serve as one of the leaders of the label supergroup, the Fania All-Stars.

The Queen of Versailles (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Masterworks Broadway) (Apple / Amazon)

While the Broadway musical The Queen of Versailles closed at the St. James Theatre last December after just 49 performances, its score by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell) lives on in this new cast recording. Kristin Chenoweth stars as “American royalty” Jackie Siegel, with F. Murray Abraham lending support as her husband, “timeshare king” David Siegel. The album preserves their performances as well as the fine turns by Greg Hildreth, Melody Butiu, Stephen DeRosa, and Isabel Keating among others.

Claybourne Elder, If the Stars Were Mine (Center Stage Records) (Apple / Amazon)

The debut solo album from Broadway heartthrob Claybourne Elder (Company, Bonnie & Clyde, television’s The Gilded Age) hits digital services today, with a CD following next Friday and a vinyl edition slated for later in the year. If the Stars Were Mine finds the singer celebrating many of his favorite songs in a strikingly personal manner. He’s drawn selections from West Side Story (“Something’s Coming”), My Fair Lady (“On the Street Where You Live”), The Music Man (“Till There Was You”), Sunday in the Park with George (“Finishing the Hat”), and Floyd Collins (“How Glory Goes”) as well as from the wider songbook (Whitney Houston hit “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” Melody Gardot’s “If the Stars Were Mine”), reinterpreting them with a rich voice and original sensibility. Elder celebrates the album’s release this month with three concerts at New York’s 54 Below (including dates tonight, April 4, and April 15).

Nicholas Christopher, “Anthem” (from Chess) (Ghostlight Records) (Apple / Amazon)

Next Friday, April 10, Ghostlight Records will release the full cast recording of the current Broadway revival of Tim Rice, Benny Andersson, and Bjorn Ulvaeus’ pop opera Chess – but today, you can preview the album with the second single: Nicholas Christopher’s stirring performance of the (aptly-titled) “Anthem.” Chess is still packing houses at the Imperial Theatre, with Lea Michele (heard as Florence on the lead single, “Nobody’s Side”) playing her final performance on June 21.

PASSINGS

James Gadson (1939-2026) packed a stunning amount of work into his 86 years. A simply peerless drummer, Gadson rose to fame as the backbeat of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, led by singer Charles Wright. Their “Express Yourself” was a smash hit in 1970, opening the door for Gadson’s performances on hits like Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me,” The Jackson 5’s “Dancing Machine,” Marvin Gaye’s I Want You, Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real” and a host of recordings for Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney, D’Angelo, The Temptations, Ray Charles, Donald Fagen, Leonard Cohen, Harry Styles, Florence and The Machine, Beck, Lana Del Ray, Justin Timberlake and literally hundreds of others. May his perfect pockets keep our heads boppin’ and toes tappin’ forever.

Although the majority of her career was situated in her native Israel, Tsurya “Suki” Lahav (1951-2026) made several key contributions over on E Street, briefly playing as a backing violinist for Bruce Springsteen from the fall of 1974 to the spring of 1975. That’s her impassioned solo opening Born to Run closer “Jungleland,” and her high vocals – overdubbed many times – as the makeshift choir on “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”

And though known for the soft rock smashes “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me,” Ambrosia had roots in progressive rock, and was distinguished in part by the work of keyboardist Christopher North (1951-2026). Bassist Joe Puerta recalled seeing North play in a club before Ambrosia formed: “Chris was there, playing the organ with a bottle of wine on the top, smoking a cigarette, and there was a girl massaging his shoulders as he played, so I go, ‘We gotta get this guy in the band.'” He was a key member for most of the band’s initial formation from 1970 to 1982 – taking time off during most of the sessions of Life Beyond L.A., thus not appearing on “How Much I Feel” – and joined them for their 1989 reunion, until recently a mainstay on the road with original members Puerta and aptly-named drummer Burleigh Drummond. North, with his bandmates (including guitarist David Pack), also memorably contributed to “The Raven,” off Tales of Mystery and Imagination, the 1976 debut from the Alan Parsons Project.