Al Stewart fans have been rather well-served in recent years. The historically-minded troubadour recently released a new live album with the band The Empty Pockets, preserving a concert set on 2 CDs. Earlier this summer, Al received a volume of Rhino’s Now Playing series of vinyl compilations. Last year, TSD teamed up with Real Gone Music for Songs on the Radio: The Complete U.S. Singles 1974-1981, and in 2022, Madfish issued The Admiralty Lights, a massive 50-CD box set featuring (almost) all of Stewart’s catalogue. (Those U.S. singles were a notable exception!) …
King of America and Other Realms
6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 140-gram Black LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 140-gram Gold Nugget LP: Official Store / uDiscover Music / The Sound of Vinyl Elvis Costello is looking back on his tenth studio album King of America – and its effect on his future live and studio work – on a lavish new box set. The remastered 1986 album is paired with a disc of demos and outtakes (six of them previously unreleased), a previously unissued show recorded in 1987 at Royal Albert Hall in London, and three discs of potpourri showcasing the…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
I’ll Wear It Proudly: Elvis Costello Coronates ‘King of America’ for New Box Set
When King of America became Rhino’s penultimate Elvis Costello reissue in 2005, a hype sticker cheekily hailed it as “the album that fans, critics and Elvis Costello all agree on.” Perhaps that’s why it’ll be the next of his classic albums to receive a deluxe box set this fall. King of America and Other Realms, available November 1, follows the super deluxe, vinyl-and-digital-only The Complete Armed Forces box; however, this one’s primarily available on CD – six of ’em, in total. The remastered 1986 album is paired with a disc of demos and outtakes…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
The Story Behind The Album: The New Christy Minstrels’ ‘Live at Ledbetter’s: The Complete Concert’
![6404 NCM Live from Ledbetter's [Roof Color Art] Complete Concert 300](https://i0.wp.com/theseconddisc.com/wp-content/uploads/6404-NCM-Live-from-Ledbetters-Roof-Color-Art-Complete-Concert-300-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1)
Last week, Legacy Recordings unveiled a special treat for fans of The New Christy Minstrels, the bestselling, Grammy-winning large folk ensemble. The digital release Live from Ledbetter’s: The Complete Concert (iTunes / Amazon) was recorded at the Los Angeles venue in 1964 but remained on the shelf until rescued from the vaults in 1999. Now, a quarter of a century later, producer-historian Tom Pickles has returned to the Ledbetter’s tapes for a brand-new, expanded presentation premiering three entirely unheard performances from the group. As Live from Ledbetter’s is a digital-only release, some may worry that…
The Weekend Stream: September 7, 2024
Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week, there’s new tracks from pop royalty (and rock court jesters), plus expansions and rarities from The 5th Dimension, The Alan Parsons Project, and a very exciting treat for fans of The New Christy Minstrels! Stevie Wonder, “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” (Republic) (iTunes / Amazon) A gentle, unifying acoustic number from the 74-year-old Motown legend might be easy enough to dismiss as pap. But consider…
Categories:
Formats:
Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980)
6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980) features six CDs (also available as a “highlights” set on four LPs) chronicling the Canadian icon’s trek through the latter half of the ’70s, peeling away from her always-eclectic folk-pop sound, venturing into territory inspired by jazz and fusion. Sourced from variously assembled materials, from rare multitrack tapes to radio recordings (and even the archive of another major artist, one Bob Dylan!), this set continues the rich discoveries that netted Mitchell, producer Patrick Milligan, and…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Paul Robeson’s Glorious Voice Gets Its Due on New Box Set
As an actor, singer, linguist and political thinker, Paul Robeson was one of the most accomplished Black men in America. A newly-released box set will finally give him the attention his work deserves. Voice of Freedom: His Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV and Victor Recordings is a lavish 14CD box set that serves at the definitive account of Robeson on record: a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance whose expressive bass-baritone preserved scores of American spirituals and folk songs, and a versatile actor whose stage presence anchored the most successful Broadway production of…
Categories:
Genres:
Release Round-Up: Week of August 16
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Lindsey Buckingham, 20th Century Lindsey (Rhino) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP: Rhino.com Lindsey Buckingham’s earliest solo works are getting a box set from Rhino this summer. True to its name, 20th Century Lindsey features remastered versions of the three albums the Fleetwood Mac singer/guitarist issued during the 20th century – 1981’s Law and Order, 1984’s Go Insane and 1992’s Out of the Cradle – plus a newly compiled disc of eight rarities. The set…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Release Round-Up: Week of August 9
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Also, don’t miss out on today’s eclectic slate of releases from Real Gone Music; click here to find out what’s new from Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Firehouse, Azar Lawrence, Charlie Nothing, and 3 Inches of Blood! Elvis Presley, Memphis (RCA/Legacy) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This new 5CD set (also available as a double vinyl album of highlights) showcases five crucial periods in which The…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Refugee of the Roads: Joni Mitchell’s Latest Archives Box Takes Listeners to the End of the ’70s
Rhino’s Joni Mitchell Archives series has been dependably running since 2020, offering alternating box sets featuring troves of unreleased material from the folk legend and remastered versions of the album eras they cover. With the most recent box collecting her last four albums for the Asylum label – Hejira (1976), Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (1977), Mingus (1979) and the live Shadows and Light (1980) – today’s new announcement closes that same chapter, offering hours of unreleased live and studio material tied to those records. Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980), released October 4, will feature six CDs…
Categories:
Formats:
Run for Home: Lindisfarne’s “Mercury Years” Collected on Box from Cherry Red, Lemon
With a sound melding harmony vocals to soaring folk-rock, Newcastle upon Tyne band Lindisfarne released three studio albums – including the 1972 breakthrough Fog on the Tyne, which spent 56 weeks on the U.K. Albums Chart – before splintering. Two-fifths of the band carried on with new members for a pair of albums in 1973-74, but by ’75, the group had called it a day. Then, in 1978, they were back. The album was cheekily entitled Back and Fourth, referring to the fact that the originals had only recorded three albums and…
Review: Rhino’s Sounds of the Summer Series – Randy Newman, Chicago, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Al Stewart, Utopia
Over the past month, Rhino has been releasing numerous titles as part of its Sounds of the Summer initiative, for a total of over two dozen vinyl releases hitting brick-and-mortar stores. These titles encompass various reissues as well as new entries in the label’s ongoing Now Playing series of compilations. As of now, these LPs are all exclusive to independent record stores and Barnes & Noble locations. We’ve given a spin to a few of these titles! How to distill the discography of one of America’s pre-eminent songwriters into the contents of…
Release Round-Up: Week of August 2
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Van Morrison, Live at Orangefield (Orangefield Records) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Christmas 1959 saw Van Morrison take the stage of Orangefield Secondary School in Belfast for his very first live performance. Van, on guitar and vocals, joined his fellow students John McCullough on tea-chest bass, Cyril Downey on guitar, Billy Ruth on guitar, and Walter Blakely on washboard for a skiffle show. In August…
Categories:
Formats:
Neil Young’s Third ‘Archives’ Box is His Biggest Yet
Neil Young has announced a big fall release: the third – and biggest – box set in his long-running Archives series. Archives Vol. III (1976-1987), slated for release September 6, will span in its deluxe form a whopping 17 CDs and five Blu-rays boasting a broad array of songs and film footage: 15 unreleased songs, 121 unreleased tracks and 11 full-length films (four of them unreleased). Housed in a box identical to Archives Vol. I (1963-1972) (2009) and Archives Vol. II (1972-1976) (2020), the set will also include a 160-page hardcover booklet “chronologically illustrated with…
Release Round-Up: Week of July 26
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Loleatta Holloway, We’re Getting Stronger: The Gold Mind/Salsoul Recordings (1976-1982) (SoulMusic/The Second Disc) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Cherry Red) We’re Getting Stronger: The Gold Mind/Salsoul Recordings (1976-1982) presents, on 5 CDs, all of the late, great Loleatta Holloway’s albums for Gold Mind and Salsoul (all newly remastered by Nick Robbins) plus a host of bonus tracks, both on the individual albums and on a newly-curated…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Release Round-Up: Week of July 19
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Mungo Jerry, Electronically Tested: Expanded Edition (7a Records) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Mungo Jerry’s eclectic 1971 album Electronically Tested, featuring the global hit “In the Summertime,” returns in a newly remastered and expanded edition from our friends at 7a Records. It adds four bonus tracks including the infectious single “Lady Rose” and its flipside “Little Louis,” the B-side “The Man Behind the Piano,” and…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Rhino Ushers In Summer with Frankie Valli, Van Morrison, Linda Ronstadt, Randy Newman, Chicago, Grateful Dead, and More
Today, Rhino announced its new Sounds of the Summer initiative, which will see a total of over two dozen vinyl releases hitting brick-and-mortar stores beginning this Friday, July 5, and continuing throughout the month of July. These titles encompass various reissues as well as new entries in the label’s ongoing Now Playing series of compilations. As of now, these LPs are all exclusive to independent record stores and Barnes & Noble locations. You’ll find the full list of releases below including descriptions courtesy of TSD. July 5 Genesis, And Then There Were…
Release Round-Up: Week of June 28
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Two Tons o’ Fun, Get the Feeling: The Complete Fantasy/Honey Recordings (Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music celebrate Two Tons o’ Fun – a.k.a. Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes Armstead, a.k.a. The Weather Girls – with a complete 2-CD anthology that serves as a companion to last year’s Sylvester release, Disco Heat: The Fantasy Years 1977-1981. Get the…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
“Les Cousins: The Soundtrack to Soho’s Legendary Folk and Blues Club” Features Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Al Stewart
“For two-and-a-half years, I had the Friday night show at Bunjies Coffee Bar, and it became a residency for me,” Al Stewart remembered in an interview with this author for the recent collection of his U.S. singles. “After a while, I got another residency right around the corner at a club called Les Cousins.” The Greek Street venue was a focal point of the London folk scene. Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Alexis Korner, John Renbourn, and a young American named Paul Simon all passed through its doors. Stewart met Bert Jansch there,…
Release Round-Up: Week of June 21
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Joni Mitchell, The Asylum Albums 1976-1980 (Rhino/Asylum) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com 6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) arrives on 5 CDs, 6 LPs, and digital formats, completing the Asylum period of Mitchell’s extraordinary career. Whereas 1972-1975 represented the peak of Mitchell’s hitmaking years, 1976-1980 captured her in innovative, experimental mode. Following the tour for 1975’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns, she embarked on a period of personal rediscovery…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Release Round-Up: Week of June 14
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. David Bowie, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Parlophone/Rhino) 5CD/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This new 5CD/1Blu-ray collection from the late David Bowie follows 2019’s Conversation Piece (which shed light on the 1968-1969 David Bowie/Space Oddity era) and 2022’s Divine Symmetry (which chronicled the twelve months leading up to December 1971’s release of Hunky Dory). Rock ‘n’ Roll Star! takes an in-depth look at Bowie’s path to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Kid in the Street: Justin Townes Earle Memorialized on Forthcoming Rarities Set
The Americana world was shaken in 2020 by the death of Justin Townes Earle, the talented country/folk/blues musician following in the footsteps of his father, alt-country hero Steve Earle. His songs were rich in guitar, organ and horns (the first two of which he’d played in his father’s band) and featured evocative, personal lyrics inspired by his own personal demons and the stark realities of life in general. His last album, 2019’s The Saint of Lost Causes, was an affecting critique of the American dream in 12 songs and signaled burgeoning promise cut…
Categories:
Formats:
The Weekend Stream: June 8, 2024
Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week is jam-packed with practically something for everybody, especially if you love the ’80s: live cuts from one of the biggest touring bands of the decade, B-sides and remixes from that same decade’s biggest British band and a rediscovered female country hitmaker – plus rare soundtracks, early favorites from a Latin-pop icon and so much more! Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, The Born in the U.S.A….
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
The Weekend Stream: June 1, 2024
Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. Remixes from icons in Ireland and Australia, a rare gospel classic and a new, catchy tune from a Disney theme park are part of our latest round-up! U2, If God Will Send His Angels (Island/UMO) (iTunes / Amazon) The latest in U2’s digital backfill campaign is – surprise! – another single from Pop, backed with a handful of B-sides including a guest appearance from Willie Nelson. (There is still one more…
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Release Round-Up: Week of May 24
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Joe Grushecky, Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology is an all-encompassing look at the singer, songwriter, and bandleader, covering 40 years of music from The Iron City Houserockers, Joey G., Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers, and Grushecky solo. Available on 2 CDs and digitally, the anthology culls 36 key tracks from Grushecky’s discography, as newly remastered by Michael Graves. …
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
