If you, like me, immediately think of James Taylor whenever you hear the initials "JT" in the context of a music superstar, then Legacy Recordings has a release just for you! The Essential James Taylor, due on October 29 like The Essential Boz Scaggs, is the troubadour's first-ever 2-CD career-spanning anthology. Its 30 studio and live tracks draw on the artist's tenures at Warner Bros., Columbia and Hear Music, from 1970's breakthrough Sweet Baby James through 2007's One Man Band. Following
Happy Hearts: The Four King Cousins Return With "More Today Than Yesterday"
In those halcyon days of television variety, when ABC's The Hollywood Palace rubbed shoulders with CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show, it wasn't hard to spot the music-making King Family. After all, the ensemble was more than 30 members strong, consisting of big band sweethearts The King Sisters, guitarist Alvino Rey, and some 32 brothers, sisters, children, wives, aunts and uncles. Following much-talked-about appearances on Hollywood Palace, The King Family went on to headline its own variety show
UPDATE: Real Gone Music Is "Obsessed" With Late November Slate, Featuring Animals Box Set and Live Tower of Power
Real Gone Music’s November 25 release slate is so packed that the label has decided to roll it out a few titles at a time. The label is kicking things off for the pre-Thanksgiving rush with some soulful Southern rock, a hidden gem from one of the stars of 20 Feet from Stardom, a slab of metal, a previously unissued live concert from the soulful horn band Tower of Power, and a 5-CD box set from the pride of Newcastle upon Tyne, The Animals! Real Gone is going wild with perhaps its most
The "Lowdown" On Legacy's Upcoming "Essential Boz Scaggs"
Earlier this year, Boz Scaggs returned from a five-year absence from the studio with Memphis, a collection celebrating classic southern soul like “Rainy Night in Georgia,” “Love on a Two Way Street” and “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl.” In just a couple of weeks, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will be celebrating Scaggs’ own music with the October 29 release of the 2-CD anthology The Essential Boz Scaggs. This 32-song set draws on Scaggs’ landmark tenure at Columbia Records which yielded
Caught in a Mosh, Again: Anthrax's "Island Years" Features Classic LPs, Bonus Tracks Aplenty
Influential thrash-metal band Anthrax were celebrated in the U.K. this week with The Island Years, a new budget box set combining four of their most notable albums, plus a bevy of bonus material. The New York City-based quintet, dubbed one of metal's "Big Four" alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, earned early accolades in the mid-1980s, signing to Island Records and garnering fans for their intense musical style and accessible, non-serious image. The band's colorful MTV-style
Review: Paul Simon, "The Complete Albums Collection" and "Over the Bridge of Time"
I. Hello Darkness, My Old FriendMore than 45 years ago, Paul Simon dramatized a journey “to look for America” in the song boldly and simply called “America.” Over 3-1/2 gorgeously elegiac minutes beginning with hymn-like vocalizing, Simon abandoned conventional song structure and rhyme to portray two young people searching for the heart of this promised land. The conversational lyric is both deceptively simple and densely packed. Optimism (“Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes
Release Round-Up: Week of October 15
Eric Clapton, Unplugged: Expanded and Remastered Edition (Reprise/Rhino) The guitar god's '90s comeback was done on an acoustic. The Grammy-winning, best-selling album and the acclaimed episode of MTV Unplugged from which it was taken are paired up and considerably expanded, more than two decades later. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) King Crimson, The Road to Red (Panegyric) Holy crumbs, this 21CD/1DVD/2BD set is a massive tribute to King Crimson's Red album, including new stereo and surround
Omnivore Re-Joins Jellyfish Fan Club with Unreleased Radio Performances
Fans of eternally underrated power-pop outfit Jellyfish have had nothing but friends over at Omnivore Recordings. The label first released the band's two studio albums, Bellybutton and Spilt Milk, on vinyl. Then there was the unreleased Live At Bogart's and the Stack-a-Tracks compilation, which featured mostly-instrumental mixes of the two albums uncovered from the vaults. Now, Omnivore prepares Radio Jellyfish, a ten-track compilation of radio broadcasts recorded two decades ago. All but one
In A Sentimental Mood: Pablo Expands Sarah Vaughan's "Ellington Songbooks"
Over a long recording career encompassing roughly ten labels and 45 years, “Divine One” Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) followed her muse wherever it led. That meant she might record an album of poetry by Pope John Paul II one day (1984’s The Planet is Alive...Let It Live!) and bossa nova with Sergio Mendes the nest day (1987’s Brazilian Romance, recently reissued as part of Legacy’s Complete Columbia Albums Collection, or a Beatles anthology (1977’s Songs of the Beatles, belatedly released in 1981)
And One More For The Road: Frank Sinatra's "Duets" Goes Super Deluxe In November
The way he wore his hat…the way he sipped his tea (or likely, something stronger)…the memory of all that…no, they can’t take that away from us. Frank Sinatra’s influence is still felt every day – in style, in attitude, especially in song. Though 2013 has been a quiet year for the Chairman’s catalogue, that’s about to change on November 19 when Capitol and UMe celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sinatra’s triple-platinum Duets album with a variety of commemorative reissues including a
Soundgarden's Sub Pop Years to Be Remastered and Expanded
Acclaimed grunge outfit Soundgarden are revisiting their years on the Sub Pop label with a new remastered compilation due in November. Before they burst onto the national scene with 1991's Badmotorfinger, the Seattle quartet (featuring vocalist Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron and - at first, bassist Hiro Yamamoto, ultimately replaced by Ben Shepard in 1990) started off their career with a pair of EPs for the famed local label. 1987's Screaming Life, recorded with
La-La Land Unleashes "Dead," "Black Beauty"
La-La Land's soundtrack reissues this week include a title that's perfect for Halloween and an offbeat score by a composer normally responsible for music that's perfect for Halloween. That latter title is the first up this week: in 1994, Danny Elfman - known best for his offbeat scores for Tim Burton (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, countless others) - was commissioned to write a soundtrack for Warner Bros.' adaptation of Black Beauty, the acclaimed
Special Review: Joe Grushecky, "Somewhere East of Eden"
As these words are being published, we're in Day 10 of the U.S. government shutdown, with no end apparently in sight. Could Joe Grushecky have picked a better time to release his seventeenth and latest solo album, the poltiically-charged and socially-conscious Somewhere East of Eden (Schoolhouse/Warner Nashville 2-535518, 2013)? Grushecky has always evinced that he cares deeply for America, and for its citizens - particularly the blue-collar, working class. On Eden, the rootsy
Don't Cry for Yesterday: Duran Duran EP to Be Reissued for Record Store Day
While Duran Duran don't appear to be reissuing The Wedding Album for its 20th anniversary like we suggested, they will be celebrating the album's legacy with a special reissue on Record Store Day. Birmingham's favorite pop band will reissue 1993's No Ordinary EP on 10" white vinyl for Record Store Day's Black Friday event in North America. Beyond the success of singles "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone," both Top 10 hits off the band's seventh studio album, Duran Duran - at the time, comprised
Esoteric to Release Six Vangelis Remasters
Celebrated Greek electronic composer Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou - or, as he's known to music lovers the world over, Vangelis - is partnering with the Cherry Red label Esoteric to remaster and reissue six of his albums originally released on the RCA and Arista labels. By the time Vangelis signed to RCA and released Heaven and Hell in 1975, he'd already traveled quite extensively in the European music scene. From a turn in Greek pop band The Forminx, he'd formed a prog band, Aphrodite's
Personality Crisis: "Lipstick, Powder and Paint" Reveals New York Dolls' Inspirations
“While I was layin’ in a hospital bed/A rock ‘n’ roll nurse went to my head/She says, ‘Hold out your arm, stick out yo’ tongue/I got some pills, boy, I’m ‘a give you one!” It was no surprise that The New York Dolls – crown princes of debauchery, seventies-style – would include a cover of Bo Diddley’s oddly jaunty 1961 single “Pills” on their 1973 debut album. While The Dolls – lead vocalist David Johansen, rhythm guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane, lead guitarist Johnny
This Time They'll Be Sweeter: SoulMusic Label Reissues Marlena Shaw, Angela Bofill Gems
For two of its most recent releases, Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint has turned its attention to two soulful divas who have already called the label home. SoulMusic’s reissue series for Marlena Shaw and Angela Bofill have continued with Just a Matter of Time and Intuition, respectively. Whether singing jazz, funk, blues, pop, or some combination thereof, Marlena Shaw has always sounded right at home. Signed to Chess Records in 1967 on the strength of a successful stint performing at
Release Round-Up: Week of October 8
Tony Bennett,
Classic CCR Box Set Choogles Back Into Print
A box set of Creedence Clearwater Revival's official studio and live discography, first released in 2001, is getting reissued again for the holiday box set season. Creedence Clearwater Revival was a six-disc set collecting all of the Southern (by way of California) rock band's studio albums - Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968), Bayou Country, Green River, Willy and the Poor Boys (all 1969), Cosmo's Factory, Pendulum (both 1970) and Mardi Gras (1972) - along with both of their posthumous live
They Shall Be "Released": Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Joni Mitchell, U2, Peter Gabriel, Miles Davis on Amnesty International Box
Since its founding in 1961, Amnesty International has endeavored “to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.” The Nobel Peace Prize-winning international human rights organization has, naturally, attracted a number of high-profile supporters over the years. In 1988, a number of those men and women took the road to spread Amnesty’s message and raise funds via the Human Rights Now!
Review: Pablo 40th Anniversary Series with Gillespie, Ellington, Tatum, Peterson, Grappelli and Sims
When impresario Norman Granz founded the Pablo label in 1973, fusion, funk and Latin sounds were at the forefront of jazz. Granz, founder of the Verve, Norgran and Clef labels, initially launched Pablo as a platform for his management clients Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass, but soon its roster was filled out with the equally starry likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. Granz’ new label was an instant success and a safe haven for traditional jazz in this period
Review: The Paley Brothers, "The Complete Recordings"
If The Brill Building had survived as the fulcrum of pop songwriting activity through the 1970s, chances are that Andy and Jonathan Paley would have been found in a cubicle there, turning out one infectious pop nugget after another like “Come Out and Play” and “Here Comes My Baby.” As it turned out, the category-defying Paley Brothers were men out of time. Singers as well as songwriters, they were signed to the Sire Records roster between the Ramones and Talking Heads, and managed to bridge
Intrada Conjures Up Magic, "Miracle"; Kritzerland Returns to "Alien Nation"
This week has seen some great archival soundtrack releases courtesy of Intrada and Kritzerland - all featuring some big names in the film score world. Kritzerland's latest title is already shaping up to be a hot one: a greatly expanded double-score reissue from the cult classic Alien Nation. This 1988 film featured James Caan and Mandy Patinkin as partnered cops in a future Los Angeles where a race of aliens, called Newcomers, have landed on Earth and have done their best to fit in with our
Review: The Alan Parsons Project, "I Robot: Legacy Edition"
How to follow an art-rock concept album based on the macabre tales of nineteenth-century author Edgar Allan Poe? For The Alan Parsons Project, the answer was apparently a simple one: look forward rather than back. So the second album by the progressive-rock "group" - in actuality producer-engineer Parsons, chief songwriter-executive producer Eric Woolfson, and a rotating cast of musicians and vocalists - was inspired by the writing of Isaac Asimov and explored artificial intelligence in a
Morello Reissues The Electric Prunes' "Mass" and "Oath" On One CD
Cherry Red’s Morello label has taken a break from its usual diet of classic country – think: the legendary likes of George Jones, Marty Robbins and Charley Pride – to bring two titles from the psych-rockers The Electric Prunes back into print. The label has paired The Prunes’ 1968 David Axelrod-produced albums Mass in F Minor and Release of an Oath on one CD which is now available. Composed and arranged by the maverick Axelrod – on loan from Capitol Records – Mass in F Minor is perhaps
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