Folk

Formats:

Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys, Diamond Rio, Dusty Springfield, Fanny, Marty Robbins, Mitch Miller, The B-52's, The New Christy Minstrels, Wilson Pickett

Genres:

Classic Rock, Country, Folk, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul

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Dynamic Duos: Omnivore Reissues Henske and Yester’s “Farewell Aldebaran” and McGarrigle Sisters’ “Pronto”

June 6, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Judy Henske and Jerry Yester Farewell Aldebaran

Omnivore Recordings is gearing up for a busy summer, with releases from The Kingbees, The Bangles, Velvet Crush and many more. Two of the label’s most exciting titles, however, come from a pair of remarkable duos. Farewell Aldebaran arrived in 1969 on Frank Zappa’s Straight Records label from the duo of Judy Henske and Jerry Yester. Henske was the onetime “Queen of the Beatniks” whose distinctive, bluesy voice earned her legions of fans on the folk circuit. She appeared alongside Johnny Cash and The Brothers Four in the big screen MGM musical…

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Jerry Yester, Judy Henske, Kate and Anna McGarrigle

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Laura Nyro, David Bromberg, Ann Wilson Headline Rounder’s June Reissue Campaign

June 1, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 8 Comments

The venerable Rounder Records label, currently enjoying its 45th anniversary, has long been a leading light in the realm of roots music and Americana. But those terms need not be applied solely to one type of music. This month, as part of its ongoing digital catalogue initiative, Rounder is reissuing a number of titles blurring the genre lines of roots-rock and Americana. Some of the familiar names represented in this go-round include Ann Wilson of Heart, Laura Nyro, David Bromberg, Martha Wainwright, and Tiny Tim. So if you’re ready to get into…

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Formats:

Digital Download

Genres:

Country, Folk, Pop, Rock

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Ann Wilson, David Bromberg, Laura Nyro, Martha Wainwright, NRBQ, Tiny TIm

Even The Nights Are Better: Real Gone’s June Slate Features Petula Clark, Air Supply, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Fairport Convention, More

April 29, 2016 by Randy Fairman | 1 Comment

With spring having just begun, it might be hard to believe that summer is going to be here before we know it. But the year marches on and Real Gone Music is kicking off the summer with its June 3rd slate of titles. As per usual with the label, there are a wide variety of genres being represented, including one that Real Gone has never dipped into before. We’ll begin with the two titles that feature liner notes by our very own Joe Marchese. The first is a collection from sixties British hit-maker…

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Formats:

Air Supply, Fairport Convention, Grateful Dead, Loudon Wainwright III, Maynard Ferguson, Petula Clark, The D.O.C., The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Genres:

Blues, Classic Rock, Folk, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 22

April 22, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Impressions, The Best of The Impressions: The Curtom Years (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Varese Vintage has an impressive line-up of releases this week! First up, the label has brought together 18 prime cuts from the premier purveyors of Chicago soul, Curtis Mayfield and the legendary Impressions. This set features singles released on the Curtom label between 1968 and 1976 including the R&B hits “Fool for You,” “Choice of Colors,” “Say You Love Me,” “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m a Changed…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, SACD

Genres:

Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul

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Bernard Herrmann, Bill Evans, Doris Day, Earth Wind and Fire, Eric Carmen, Jethro Tull, Marvin Hamlisch, Sandy Denny, The Impressions

The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 – Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall

March 20, 2016 by Joe Marchese

Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 – Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall comes to hybrid 5.0 multichannel SACD for the first time. Audio Fidelity’s release will boast a full booklet (as on the original standard CD release) and is playable in stereo on all CD players.

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Formats:

SACD

Genres:

Classic Rock, Folk

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To Know Them Is To Love Them: Dolly, Emmylou and Linda Release “The Complete Trio Collection”

March 14, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 8 Comments

Individually, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris have created some of the most beautiful records of all time, blurring the lines between country, pop, folk, and rock-and-roll. Collectively, the threesome released two transcendent and heartfelt albums, Trio (1987) and Trio II (1999). The two landmark LPs garnered sales of over five million copies and three Grammy Awards and became beloved additions to all three artists’ discographies. Today, Rhino Records announced the September 9 release of The Complete Trio Collection, available in three formats. Emmylou Harris has produced The Complete Trio Collection, a 3-CD release…

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Formats:

Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt

Genres:

Country, Folk, Pop

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Rounder Bluegrass Initiative Features Béla Fleck, Doc Watson, John Hartford, Louvin Brothers, More

March 7, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Rounder Records, the pioneering American roots music label, is in the midst of its 45th anniversary celebration. Over the past months, the Cambridge-founded, Nashville-based Rounder has been making titles from its deep catalogue available as digital downloads. Last month, the label threw a Mardi Gras party with digital reissues of R&B, blues, jazz and Cajun music of the Crescent City. This month, the 51-time Grammy-winning Rounder – since 2010 under the umbrella of the Concord Music Group – will turn its attention to the varied world of bluegrass and the label’s rich legacy…

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Formats:

Digital Download

Genres:

Blues, Country, Folk

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Béla Fleck, Doc Watson, John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, The Louvin Brothers

Special Shout-Out to This Year’s Reissue Grammy Winners; Legacy Leads Catalogue Pack

February 23, 2016 by Randy Fairman | 3 Comments

dylan and the band basement tapes complete

The 58th Annual Grammy awards were held a little over a week ago and there were numerous winners. The Grammys have so many categories that the majority are not given out on the actual television broadcast. Even though we’re a little late, we’d like to give acknowledgment to the winners from reissue and catalogue labels who picked up an award, some for categories that aren’t always exclusively associated with reissues. The biggest winner of the night for reissue labels was Sony’s Legacy Recordings. The label, whose upcoming slate of releases includes a stunning,…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, SACD

Genres:

Classic Rock, Folk, Pop, Rock

Tags:

Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, The Band

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man: Bob Dylan’s “Bootleg – Live 1964” Coming In Surround Sound

January 18, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

The sixth volume of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series is coming to 5.0 multichannel hybrid SACD from Audio Fidelity in March. Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall was mixed into surround sound years ago by Sony, but the mix has sat on the shelf until now. It will arrive March 18 as newly remastered by Steve Hoffman (with a remastered stereo layer playable on all CD players). First released in 2004, Bootleg Series Vol. 6 premiered Dylan’s Halloween night concert from 1964 at New York’s Philharmonic Hall (today known as David Geffen Hall)…

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The Year In Review, Part 2 – More Of The Best Of 2015

January 5, 2016 by Ted Frank | 6 Comments

The Second Disc is continuing its celebration of 2015’s finest with today’s column by Ted Frank! Stop, do not pass GO and do not collect 200 dollars if you haven’t already read our Sixth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards summation of the year’s greatest releases. Here, Ted presents his very own, alternative year in review with titles new and old! I make records … I really don’t want to be about singles or anything. -Adele, The Tonight Show In recent years, the download/stream-heavy music business has seemingly become an industry of the sure-fire hit single rather…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Everything Else, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Cherry Red’s él Label Offers Rod McKuen, Wally Stott, Bobby Scott Rarities

January 5, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Cherry Red’s él imprint has a trio of recent releases continuing its commitment to truly eclectic sounds of the pre-1964 era. Two of these are musical odes to the big city life of London and New York, from arrangers Wally Stott and Bobby Scott, respectively; the third reissues and expands a compilation from the late Rod McKuen. Singer-songwriter-poet-author-renaissance man McKuen, who died earlier this year, was recently the subject of Varese Vintage’s Reflections: The Greatest Songs of Rod McKuen, an anthology for which I was proud to write the liner notes. McKuen was an…

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Genres:

Folk, Jazz, Pop

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Bobby Scott, Rod McKuen, Wally Stott

Raven Has Folk and Funk With Melanie and Mother’s Finest

January 4, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Raven Records’ most recent pair of CDs certainly showcase the label’s eclectic leanings! From singer-songwriter Melanie Safka, the label has a three-for-one release of her much-loved albums Candles in the Rain, Leftover Wine and Gather Me. The Melanie release is joined by a four-for-one title from pioneering funk-rockers Mother’s Finest collecting the band’s self-titled LP plus Mother’s Finest Live, Another Mother Further and Mother Factor. Raven’s release from Melanie follows the Morello label’s recent reissues of four albums originally issued on her Neighborhood Records label. Candles in the Rain arrived on Buddah…

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Genres:

Disco/Dance, Folk, Funk, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Melanie, Mother's Finest

The Year of Al Stewart: Esoteric Reissues Three Early Albums

December 17, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Al Stewart attained soft rock immortality with his 1976 Top 10 Pop and AC hit “Year of the Cat.” But the Glasgow-born, Bournemouth-raised artist and writer had been recording as a leading light of the British folk revival scene for a full decade by the time of his radio breakthrough. Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint has recently restored to print Stewart’s third, fourth and fifth albums for the U.K.’s CBS Records label in newly remastered editions. CBS had been Stewart’s home since his 1967 debut album Bedsitter Images. (Prior to that, he…

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Genres:

Classic Rock, Folk

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Al Stewart, Alan Parsons

Release Round-Up: Week of December 11

December 11, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

This week’s Release Round-Up is slimmer than most of late, but still filled with some ideal stocking stuffers… Joe Cocker, The Life of a Man: Ultimate Hits 1968-2013 (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada) UMe celebrates the life and career of the late, great Joe Cocker with this new 3-CD, 36-track anthology with greatest hits and deeper cuts including a live version of “With a Little Help from My Friends” never before released in the United States. This set was previously released in the U.K. by Sony. Miles Davis, The Last Word…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download

Genres:

Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Alice Cooper, Brian Hyland, Joe Cocker, Judy Collins, Marty Balin, Miles Davis, Neil Finn, Paul Kelly, Roger Atkins, Rumer

Colors of the Day: The Best of Judy Collins (Quadraphonic SACD)

November 30, 2015 by Joe Marchese

Audio Fidelity brings Judy Collins’ 1972 compilation to hybrid SACD (playable on all CD players) including the 4.0 surround presentation of the album. Features “Both Sides Now,” “Suzanne,” “In My Life,” “Amazing Grace” and more.

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SACD

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Faith and Grace: A Family Journey 1953-1976

November 10, 2015 by Joe Marchese

This limited edition 4-CD box set features The Staple Singers’ hits alongside favorite studio and live recordings, plus a handful of never-before-released rarities, including a special bonus: the earliest known recordings of the group on a 7-inch vinyl record, marking the first time that these two tracks have been available in any format since the Staples’ self-released edition of 500 in 1953. The box is packaged in a deluxe, old-school ’45 folio’ package, and also contains a book with new liner notes by Mavis Staples, James Miller, Opal Louis Nations, and compilation producer Joe McEwen, as well…

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Holiday Gift Guide

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Blues, Folk, Gospel

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Brand New Melanie: Morello Label Reissues Four of Melanie’s Rare Albums On CD

November 4, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

“Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates/You got a brand new key/I think that we should get together and try them out you see…” With her chart-topping 1971 hit “Brand New Key,” Melanie Safka-Schekeryk built on the success of previous hits like the Woodstock-inspired anthem “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” and her cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday.” But “Brand New Key” also unfairly tagged the singer-songwriter as a novelty artist, a notion she was quick to dispose with the series of albums she recorded for her…

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Melanie

Release Round-Up: Week of October 30

October 30, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Packed with over 30 titles including highly-anticipated reissues, a slew of box sets, collections and more, it just may be the mightiest of the year! The Velvet Underground, Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Velvet Underground’s 1970 album – and Lou Reed’s swansong with the band – gets the deluxe expanded treatment from Rhino in this new box set featuring the original stereo and mono albums plus a wealth of bonus material, two live concerts and a DVD featuring high…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, SACD, Vinyl

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Folk, Holiday, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

Roger McGuinn and Pete Seeger, Tony Orlando, Doc Watson Join Bottom Line Archive Series

October 29, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 4 Comments

Pete Seeger and Roger McGuinn Bottom Line

The Bottom Line Archive Series, preserving performances from the late, renowned New York club, will roll out a new trio of releases on October 30. Joining previous entries from artists including The Brecker Brothers, Harry Chapin and Janis Ian are new titles from Tony Orlando, Doc Watson, and the duo of Pete Seeger and Roger McGuinn. One 1994 evening at The Bottom Line, famed disk jockey Vin Scelsa joined folk legend Pete Seeger and The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn for one-of-a-kind exchange of songs and stories. The two men had shared a long…

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Formats:

CD, Digital Download

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Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, Roger McGuinn, Tony Orlando

Reflections: The Greatest Songs of Rod McKuen

October 19, 2015 by Joe Marchese

Varese Vintage celebrates the life and singular career of Rod McKuen with this new collection. Reflections brings together 24 of the late songwriter’s own interpretations of his most famous compositions including “If You Go Away,” “Seasons in the Sun,” “Love’s Been Good to Me,” “A Man Alone” and many more. TSD’s own Joe Marchese has written the liner notes for this new overview of McKuen’s storied legacy in song.

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Genres:

Folk, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal

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Hear The Bang: Lost Country-Rock Classic By Late Singer-Songwriter Denny Lile Is Rediscovered

October 15, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Singer-songwriter Denny Lile was only 21 years old when a newspaper headline proclaimed “Maybe THIS time it’s Denny Lile’s turn,” but he was already a veteran of the music business and its vagaries. A couple of singles came and went with his band Elysian Field on Imperial Records; the same fate befell Soul, Inc. and its handful of singles on the Laurie label. At the time of that headline, Lile was striking out with his own group Otis for the single release of “Hear the Bang.” A self-titled album followed shortly thereafter…

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Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

Genres:

Country, Folk, Rock

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Denny Lile

Release Round-Up: Week of September 18

September 18, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up including a couple of spectacular new box sets, one acclaimed soundtrack, numerous reissues and anthologies, and the return of a few beloved artists! a-ha, Hunting High and Low: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros./Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The 1985 debut from a-ha gets super-sized with Rhino’s upcoming 4-CD/1-DVD edition. Disc One has the original, remastered album, while Disc Two boasts 25 demos, Disc Three has 15 singles, B-sides and extended versions, and Disc Four takes in ten previously unreleased alternate mixes. The DVD has…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Brian Wilson, Darlene Love, David Gilmour, Dr. John, Elyse Weinberg, Erroll Garner, Grateful Dead, Judy Collins, Keith Richards, Otis Redding, Patti LuPone, a-ha

Release Round-Up: Week of September 11

September 11, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Second Disc Records is going back to the beach with Ricci Martin, but that’s far from all this week! We’re also taking off with ELO, singing street-corner symphonies with The Four Seasons, and much more! Plus: new titles from classic artists! Ricci Martin, Beached: Expanded Edition (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) What if key members of The Beach Boys, Chicago, America, and Wings had teamed up to create one of the greatest California rock albums you’ve never heard? Well, they actually did! Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author…

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