Few figures were as instrumental to the British folk music revival as John Renbourn, whose guitar style incorporated influences from Celtic, jazz, pop, R&B, and beyond. As one-fifth of Pentangle, he and his bandmates expanded the possibilities of a folk-infused combo with odd time signatures, lengthy instrumental passages, and a repertoire that spanned decades, genres, and forms. But even before forming Pentangle, Renbourn had stunned audiences and listeners with his unique approach to the
Keep the Customer Satisfied: Ace Celebrates Paul Simon, Teddy Randazzo, Van McCoy On New Collections
Today, we're taking a look at three recent, stellar additions to Ace Records' long-running Songwriter Series! Teddy Randazzo (1935-2003) might have not attained the same "household name" status as some of his peers, but the prodigiously gifted composer-arranger-producer-artist nonetheless left behind a remarkable body of work in a career spanning over five decades. Ace's Yesterday Has Gone: The Songs of Teddy Randazzo is the first-ever anthology of his output, concentrating on the mid-1960s -
Review: Bob Dylan featuring Johnny Cash, "Travelin' Thru: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15 (1967-1969)"
There's a delicious moment on the fifteenth volume of Bob Dylan's long-running Bootleg Series. The troubadour is in Columbia Records' Nashville Studio A, rehearsing a duet medley with Johnny Cash of his "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and Cash's "Understand Your Man." Once they stop playing, The Man in Black happily observes that "the phrasing comes out just right, 'cause we both stole it from the same song!" Indeed, Dylan and Cash shared substantial musical roots, with less than a decade
Surprise Surprise: Cilla Black's "Especially for You" Comes to CD with "Classics and Collectibles"
Tomorrow, November 1, Cherry Red's Strike Force Entertainment imprint will release the next title in its series of definitive reissues from Cilla Black's considerable catalogue. The 2-CD set Especially for You Revisited/Classics and Collectibles brings together a newly remixed version of Cilla's 1980 album Especially for You with a second disc of rare and previously unreleased tracks. Especially for You marked a turning point in Black's career as it was her first recording project after
Radioactive: Rave On Releases Roger C. Reale and Rue Morgue's "Collection" Featuring Mick Ronson
The discography of Big Sound Records proves that great things often come in small packages. While the label didn't release many LPs, those that were released by the likes of The Scratch Band and Van Duren have become favorites of crate-diggers. Big Sound patterned itself on the U.K.'s Stiff Records, and its answer to Stiff's Elvis Costello may well have been Roger C. Reale. The 1978 album Radio Active, credited to Reale and Rue Morgue, was packed with compact rock-and-roll nuggets - ten on the
Review: Ramones, "It's Alive: 40th Anniversary Edition"
Fast and furious - that was the modus operandi of Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone when they hit U.K. concert stages in December 1977 in the wake of the November release of their third studio album, Rocket to Russia. The New Year's Eve gig at London's Rainbow Theatre provided the basis of It's Alive, issued in April 1979, with 28 songs comfortably packed onto less than 54 minutes of vinyl. Now, that singular document of the Ramones' electrifying performance has been revisited by Sire and
Review: Cher, "3614 Jackson Highway" [Run Out Groove Edition]
Cher's album 3614 Jackson Highway arrived midway through 1969 as the singer and her partner Sonny Bono worked furiously to re-establish themselves in a changing musical landscape and escape from mounting debt. Their first child had been born in March, a Sonny and Cher single arrived in May and was quickly followed by a Cher solo 45, and her film Chastity hit theatres in June. Sonny and Cher hadn't had a major hit single since 1967's "The Beat Goes On" and the solo Cher hadn't had a chart entry
Let the Wind Carry Me: Joni Mitchell's Stunning Volume of Handwritten Lyrics and Drawings Reviewed
Joni Mitchell doesn't look back. That's what fans have come to understand about the fearless songwriter, singer, poet, and visual artist. She's famously rejected reissue campaigns, career-spanning box sets, cash-in live albums, and hits collections. Over the years, though, she's begun to come around. She approved the DVD/Blu-ray of her 1970 appearance at the Isle of Wight and the LP reissue of the box set Love Has Many Faces, helped organize the Joni 75 tribute concerts, and recently gave the OK
Review: Lee Hazlewood, "400 Miles from L.A.: 1955-56"
400 Miles from L.A.: Phoenix, Arizona was the birthplace of Lee Hazlewood's professional career. The future writer of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" was well-acquainted with the Greyhound bus between Phoenix and Los Angeles, making frequent trips in the hopes of selling his songs. Though he was a successful DJ in Phoenix, Hazlewood wanted more, and songwriting seemed to be his means of attaining it. Lee wrote his first songs, it's believed, in 1953; the following year, his first songs
Review: James Taylor, "The Warner Bros. Albums 1970-1976"
Over six years at Warner Bros. Records, James Taylor laid the groundwork for a career that is now in its sixth decade. The Massachusetts native's records were key exponents of the early Laurel Canyon sound, not to mention the entire confessional "singer-songwriter" movement that today is synonymous with the 1970s. The six albums he released at Warner Bros. were collected over the summer in one essential CD or vinyl LP box set, The Warner Bros. Albums 1970-1976, that's perfect for the impending
Review: Frank Sinatra, "My Way: 50th Anniversary Edition" and "Sings Alan and Marilyn Bergman"
The album was entitled My Way for the song by Paul Anka, Claude Francois, Gilles Thibault, and Jacques Revaux, but truth to tell, the moniker would have been fitting even without that famous anthem. For the ten songs on Frank Sinatra's 1969 Reprise LP were indisputably sung as only one man could: swing - his way, pop - his way, rhythm and blues - his way. Capitol Records, Frank Sinatra Enterprises, and UMe have reissued My Way in a 50th anniversary expanded edition celebrating both the song and
Heaven Is: Belinda Carlisle's "Runaway Horses" Turns 30, Gets Deluxe Edition; "Gold" Anthology Also Released
Thirty years ago, Belinda Carlisle released her third LP. Runaway Horses came on the heels of two successful albums: her 1986 IRS Records debut, Belinda (featuring the hit "Mad About You"), and 1987's Heaven on Earth (boasting the smash "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" as well as "I Get Weak" and "Circle in the Sand"). Runaway Horses completed the hat trick for the Go-Go-gone-solo when it reached the top five in the United Kingdom. Now, the U.K.'s Demon Music Group has revisited the album in a
Earwig Music Unearths Trove of Chicago Blues and Soul on "Cadillac Baby's Bea & Baby Records: The Definitive Collection"
Chicago in the '50s was overflowing with skilled bluesmen, vocal groups, gospel singers, not to mention the mom-and-pop labels eager to make a hit off the artists. There are the now-famous labels - Chess, Delmark, and Vee-Jay among them. But the Windy City was so teeming with talent (and entrepreneurial hucksters trying to launch their own careers) that small, independent labels were plentiful. Earwig Music Company celebrates one such label in its ambitious new box set, Cadillac Baby's Bea
Song of Time: Two Folk Classics from Art and Paul Are Reissued for First Time
With a recent pair of reissues, Sony Music/Legacy Recordings has transported listeners to Greenwich Village at the dawn of the 1960s, when guitar-wielding troubadours took the stages at venues like Café Wha? to share their own "alternative" music: folk. While Connie Francis, Brian Hyland, Elvis Presley, and even Percy Faith were ascending to the top of the Pop chart, folksingers were spinning their own musical yarns that didn't involve teenage romance or itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polkadot
Review: The Beatles, "Abbey Road: Anniversary Edition"
I. Once There Was a Way to Get Back Home By the opening days of 1969, it was clear that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were four very different people, temperamentally and artistically. Their lives were taking them in different directions and threatening to pull them apart from the group that made them internationally famous. The Beatles, a.k.a. The White Album, had made high art out of those very differences and - surprising no one - was another triumph for the
America's Gerry Beckley Returns with New Solo Album "Five Mile Road"
Gerry Beckley has earned the right to call the opening track of his new solo album "Life Lessons." The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and America co-founder is understandably in a reflective mood on Five Mile Road, out now from Blue Elan Records. The artist may be celebrating 50 years with America, but he still has plenty to say. For his first solo album since 2016's Carousel, Beckley has reunited with many of the same collaborators. Jeff Larson not only co-produced with Beckley but
Review: Bridget St. John, "Live at The Betsey Trotwood"
Bridget St. John is one of the treasures of the British folk revival. Her early recordings on John Peel's Dandelion label in the late '60s and early '70s - delicate and delightful as they are - continue to inspire a growing cadre of songwriters, singers, and alternate-tuned guitar-wielders. Fifty years since her debut Ask Me No Questions, St. John continues to perform, criss-crossing between Europe, Japan, and her adopted home state, New York. And she's still enrapturing audiences of longtime
Check Out Grover: SoulMusic Records Collects Columbia-Era Grover Washington, Jr. Titles on "Sacred Kind of Love"
During the '70s, '80s and '90s, there were few jazz musicians as popular and influential as Grover Washington, Jr. The talented reed-man's skilled saxophone work (he could bring the funk on soprano, alto, baritone, tenor, and even flute) was matched by a pop sensibility that made him an instrumental figure in jazz-fusion as it morphed into smooth-jazz. His music was funky, danceable, accessible, and always smooth. His groundbreaking work in the '70s and early '89s has been well-documented --
Review: "Country Music - A Film by Ken Burns: The Soundtrack"
Can the circle be unbroken? asks The Carter Family on the opening track of Legacy Recordings' new 5-CD, 105-song soundtrack to Ken Burns' epic documentary Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns. The 1935 funeral hymn is a most appropriate way to begin this collection exploring the manifold branches of country music, but the tone on the box set is far from funereal as it gallops from "hillbilly music" to blues, folk, western swing, rockabilly, countrypolitan, outlaw country, and beyond. Country Music
Wake Up Everybody: Cherry Red, SoulMusic Collect Classic Philadelphia International Albums from Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes
If you don't know Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes by now, Cherry Red and SoulMusic Records have just the right collection for you. Be for Real: The PIR Recordings (1972-1975) brings together the four albums recorded by the group for Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records on two CDs, plus a six-song bonus disc. Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes came to Gamble and Huff's newly-formed label in 1972 after having bounced from label to label including Landa, Arctic, and
Review: Chris Stamey and The ModRec Orchestra, "New Songs for the 20th Century"
Chris Stamey has taken many unpredictable paths in a long career, whether as a member of the dB's, a solo artist, a producer, or a sideman. But his latest project might be his most unpredictable yet. New Songs for the 20th Century, credited to Stamey and the ModRec Orchestra and newly released by Omnivore Recordings, is a sprawling double-album love letter to traditional (read: pre-rock and roll) vocal pop with a heavy jazz emphasis. Written, arranged, mixed, and produced by Stamey, these
Review: Craft Latino Invites You To Take A Far-Out Trip With "Fania Goes Psychedelic"
Get ready for a freak-out, because Craft Recordings has announced a new 15-song compilation of experimental and far-out treasures from the legendary Latin music label Fania! Entitled Fania Goes Psychedelic, this crate-digger's fantasy is part of Craft Latino's ongoing celebration of the influential imprint that became a home to the Latin-soul fusion "boogaloo" tunes that were coming out of the barrios. Originally founded by musician Johnny Pacheco and lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964, the label
Review: Expanded Reissues of Renaissance's "Live at Carnegie Hall" and "Novella"
Esoteric Recordings, the progressive rock arm of Cherry Red, has built a reputation for excellent reissues of prog classics, some once-overlooked and others legendary favorites. Among those landmark recordings that have received the Esoteric treatment is Renaissance's Live at Carnegie Hall. The 1976 release became one of the defining live albums of the decade and has recently been newly remastered and expanded to a 3-CD set as part of the label's ongoing Renaissance reissue series. Live at
Still Magic: Mint Audio Collects Peter Skellern's "Complete Decca Recordings" on New 3-CD Set
Peter Skellern's 1972 hit "You're a Lady" introduced a new, original voice onto the pop scene. A No. 3 hit in his native England, the gentle ballad was covered by artists ranging from Davy Jones to Johnny Mathis. A second major hit came three years later with "Hold On to Love," and Skellern continued to make music on records, television, stages, and even churches for the rest of his life. The singer-songwriter sadly passed away in 2017 at the age of 69, but the U.K.'s Mint Audio label has
Review: Bobby Rush Proves He's At the Top of His Game With "Sitting On Top of the Blues"
Legendary bluesman Bobby Rush is back with a new album, Sitting on Top of the Blues, which is released today on CD and LP through Rush's own Deep Rush label. At 86 years old, the Louisiana-born guitar slinger and singer has traveled from the Chitlin' circuit to the world's stages since 1951. He's released music on indie labels across the nation, recorded for Gamble & Huff, and has performed alongside a who's-who of funk, soul, and blues luminaries. You've probably heard some of his classics
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