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. Some classic and modern women heroes of country start things off, along with some rare alt-rock, an expanded classic of metal and more.

Brenda Lee, Too Many Rivers / New Sunrise / L.A. Sessions / Even Better (MCA Nashville)

Rivers: Apple / Amazon
Sunrise: Apple / Amazon
L.A. Sessions: Apple / Amazon
Even Better: Apple / Amazon

UMe successfully took advantage of the seasonal popularity of Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in recent years, helping it become one of the few holiday recurrents to top the Billboard Hot 100 (by occasionally outcharting Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” it’s the single with the longest journey to the top of the charts in music history). Now, they’re applying some shine and polish to the rest of her catalogue: more than a dozen out-of-print albums will take a digital bow this year, starting with a quartet marked for marketing under Decades Vol. 1 but available individually. Too Many Rivers, a 1965 album of pop standards and covers; the country Top 10 album New Sunrise (1973); 1976’s L.A. Sessions and 1980’s Even Better, featuring the Top 10 country hits “Tell Me What It’s Like” and “The Cowgirl and the Dandy.”

The Highwomen, Live At The Gorge 2023 (self-released) (Apple / Amazon)

Country music’s premiere female supergroup formed back in 2019, with Amanda Shires, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby teaming up to great effect on their self-titled Top 10 album (which even offered an updated take on Jimmy Webb’s “Highwayman,” which gave the team-up of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson their name decades ago). The group has only performed in concert sporadically, but a 2023 set at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington was a pretty strong picture of what they’re capable of, with guest appearances by collaborator Brittney Spencer and Tanya Tucker and some killer covers mixed with their original repertoire (Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” country standards like “Always on My Mind” and “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”). This surprise release precedes two performances this summer: one this Sunday at the same venue (as part of the Echoes Through the Canyon Festival), and a July date as guests of Morris, who’ll be performing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Ariana Grande, Dangerous Woman (Tenth Anniversary Edition) (Republic) (Apple / Amazon)

Ari’s third album, released in 2016, continued her hot streak as one of pop’s big new voices thanks to hits like the title track, the raunchy Top 10 “Side to Side” (featuring Nicki Minaj) and the breezy “Into You.” Though her eighth album petal is due out this July (with lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me” dropping only yesterday), she’s celebrating a decade of Dangerous with a new digital and vinyl edition that includes seven bonus tracks – most from deluxe and Target-exclusive editions, plus the unreleased “Knew Better Part Two.”

The Alan Parsons Project, Pyramid (Sessions) (Cooking Vinyl) (Apple / Amazon)

The scores of bonus material released on Cooking Vinyl’s 2024 box set of The Alan Parsons Project’s third album – a concept record about the pyramids of Giza – is now available digitally.

Don Williams, Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes (Craft) (Apple / Amazon)

The gentle giant of country music who scored hits with songs like “Tulsa Time,” “It Must Be Love” and “I Believe in You” gifts fans an album from the beyond. Nearly nine years after his passing, Craft Recordings has assembled a collection of a dozen unheard songs recorded in the late ’70s and early ’80s, recently discovered in the basement of the family home and completed with a host of Williams’ old studio collaborators.

Various Artists, Lynn Blakey – Dreams Are Lovers: A Retrospective (Yep Roc) (Apple / Amazon)

A fixture of the North Carolina indie rock scene, Lynn Blakey boasted credits on releases by Let’s Active and Oh-OK as well as her own ensembles Tres Chicas and the supergroup Salt Collective. (She was also Paul Westerberg’s inspiration for The Replacements’ immortal “Left of the Dial.”) Months after her tragic passing from cancer earlier this year, this 18-track anthology brings together an overview of her celebrated career.

John Ford, “Walls” (Iconoclassic) (Apple / Amazon)

A British rock veteran with influential tenures in the Strawbs and The Monks (to name just two), John Ford prepares for the release of his new solo album on Iconoclassic, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, with the lead single, a cover of Tom Petty’s “Walls.”

Slayer, Hell Awaits (40th Anniversary Edition) (Metal Blade) (Apple / Amazon)

While Slayer’s 1983 debut Show No Mercy became the best-selling album in Metal Blade’s history at the time, 1985 follow-up Hell Awaits was considered a leap forward in every way, from songwriting to production. It’s still considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time, and it’s been remastered physically (on CD and vinyl) and digitally alongside an unreleased concert from Bochum, Germany.

Camper Van Beethoven, II & III + Live in Nebraska 1986 (40th Anniversary Edition) (Cooking Vinyl) (Apple / Amazon)

Another expanded sophomore release with an unreleased live set, this one comes from genre-bending alt-rockers Camper Van Beethoven, who pair a remastered II & III with a bonus collection of live tracks from the group’s tour with R.E.M. in support of Lifes Rich Pageant. (It’s also available on CD and vinyl!)

Clodagh Rodgers, You Are My Music (RCA/Sony Music U.K.) (Apple / Amazon)

Legacy wraps up its series reissuing Clodagh Rodgers’ five RCA albums with 1972’s You Are My Music. Arranged and produced by Keith Mansfield, the LP includes fine renditions of tunes by Bacharach and David (“All Kinds of People”), Stephen Schwartz (“Day by Day”), Thom Bell and Linda Creed (“Betcha by Golly Wow”) and Carly Simon (“That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”) as well as Mansfield, Hoyt Axton, and Peter Gosling. But that’s not all from Clodagh; two more compilation albums (likely 1971’s self-titled Camden set and 1973’s Come Back and Shake Me) are promised to arrive in the coming weeks to finish off her RCA discography.

Velvet Elvis, Fun and Trouble (self-released) (Apple / Amazon)

Lexington, Kentucky indie-pop band Velvet Elvis blended rock, country and vocal harmonies for an appealing blend in the mid-to-late ’80s (including one full-length LP on the major label Enigma). Ahead of some reunion shows in their hometown this summer, they’re partnering with SuperVisible Multi Media to make their discography available digitally for the first time, starting with debut EP Fun and Trouble (1985).

Ben Light, Spotlight On (Expanded Edition) (RCA/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)

A fleet-fingered pianist, Ben Light’s early career mostly predated the modern method of record releases, with the musician often backing noted vaudeville acts like Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor. After a stint recording for Capitol, Light recorded several albums for the RCA imprint known as “X,” including 1954’s Spotlight On. With the assistance of SuperVisible Multi Media, the LP is back in print along with four non-album sides, including a pair of medleys and two tracks with accompaniment by vocal quartet The Mellomen (known for their longtime affiliation with Disney projects and the deep bass voice of Thurl Ravenscroft, remembered as the voice of Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”).

The Visitors, Motherland (Remastered 2026) (Craft) (Apple / Amazon)

Philadelphia-bred saxophonist brothers Carl and Earl Grubbs – both cousins of John Coltrane’s first wife Naima – recorded four albums of spiritual jazz for the Cobblestone and Muse labels between 1972 and 1976. Craft Recordings has remastered the last of them, recorded in New York with producer Michael Cuscuna.

Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco & Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Celia, Johnny and Pete (Remastered 2026) (Fania/Craft) (Apple / Amazon)

Three legends of the Fania label share vocal duties on this newly remastered album, originally released in 1980.

Carlos Rafael Rivera & David Stahl, Hacks: Seasons 2-5 (Original Series Soundtrack) (Lakeshore) (Apple / Amazon)

Finally, a release to make you laugh and cry: last week saw the conclusion of the superb HBO Max comedy Hacks, starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder as an aging Las Vegas stand-up and the writer she hires to punch up her sets. The side-splitting show has been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (for Smart) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (for Einbinder, the daughter of Saturday Night Live veteran Laraine Newman, in her first acting role) at the Primetime Emmys for its first four seasons. (Smart has won all four of those nominations, while Eindbinder won last year and the series won the year before that.) To celebrate a show that evolved across its seasons – and stuck the landing in an emotional finale – an album of score cues from the show’s last four seasons is now available.

PASSINGS AND EXTRAS

Joe wrote a great tribute to saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins after his passing this week, and Mike celebrated the soundtrack to the new John Carney film Power Ballad. We’d also like to recognize a passing not in the music world, but of a pivotal, somewhat overlooked figure in the film industry. Editor Marcia Lucas, who died this week at the age of 80, was a master editor with credits on three of Martin Scorsese’s celebrated mid-’70s releases: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver and New York, New York. She’s best known, though, for her revelatory work on her then-husband George Lucas’ Star Wars. After a rough cut by A Hard Day’s Night editor John Jympson was deemed lacking in the speed and intensity Lucas wanted for his misfit sci-fi epic, Marcia was one of three editors (alongside Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch) tasked with re-cutting the film. Her most significant contributions remain the climactic trench run over the Death Star, streamlining a sequence oddly heavy on dialogue and even multiple attempts by Luke Skywalker to defeat the Empire’s battle weapon into a thrilling mini-adventure that, as she hoped, elicited thunderous cheers from advance audiences. Lucas, Chew and Hirsch won one of Star Wars‘ seven Oscars, and it’s quite possible the series wouldn’t endure today without her.