Mardi Gras 2015 may have come and gone, but Ace Records is keeping the sound of New Orleans alive year-round, most recently with a pair of new releases from two venerable artists - Clarence "Frogman" Henry and Eddie Bo. Born in 1937, New Orleans native Clarence Henry was one of many musicians inspired by blues singer and pianist Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd, a.k.a. Professor Longhair. A pianist, trombonist and a vocalist with a croak that earned him the nickname "Frogman," the young Henry was
Release Round-Up: Week of May 26
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We hope all of our U.S. readers enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And now, without further ado, onto the music! Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Finally, after a brief delay, Progeny is here! This whopping 14-CD box captures seven complete concerts from Yes circa 1972 - the same tour leading up to the performances preserved on Yessongs. For those who don't need 14 discs, 2-CD and 3-LP
In Memoriam: Anne Meara (1929-2015)
Please excuse this interruption of The Second Disc's regular programming to allow for a personal remembrance of the late Anne Meara (Fame, Rhoda, The King of Queens, All My Children). Anne Meara was so much more than "mother of Ben Stiller." Though that famous credit - of which she was incredibly, enormously proud - adorns many of the headlines about her passing this weekend at the age of 85, let it be known that Anne was also a comedienne, an actress, a humorist, a playwright, an artist, a
Review: Andrew Gold, "The Late Show - Live 1978"
Isn't it about time for an Andrew Gold renaissance? Then again, the late artist's music is still very much a part of today. Just tune in to TV Land, Hallmark, or Logo TV and you'll hear Cynthia Fee's rendition of Gold's "Thank You for Being a Friend" introducing the exploits of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia on every episode of The Golden Girls. And when "yacht rock" playlists started popping up, reviving breezy, laid-back 1970s soft rock sounds (many of which emanated out of California),
Ace Collects Good Vibrations On "Here Today! The Songs of Brian Wilson"
2015 has been a banner year for Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys legend has already released a new album, is currently preparing for a tour with Searching for Sugar Man cult hero Rodriguez, and will next month see the full release in theatres of his biopic Love and Mercy. Ace Records is joining the celebration with the June 29 U.K. release (July 10 in the U.S.) of Here Today! The Songs of Brian Wilson. One of Ace's first releases in its Songwriters and Producers Series was 2003's Pet Projects:
It's Your Thing: The Isley Brothers' RCA and T-Neck Albums and More Collected On 23-CD Box Set
Get ready for a release that will make you want to shout! Today marks the 74th birthday of Ronald Isley, one-third of the original founding trio of The Isley Brothers. Since bursting onto the scene with 1959's Shout! on the RCA Victor label, Ronald, Rudolph and O'Kelly Isley - plus Ernie and Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper - the R&B legends have notched four Top 10 Pop singles, sixteen Top 40 albums, thirteen Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum albums, and inductions into the Rock and Roll
Endless Highway: The Band's "Capitol Rarities 1968-1977" Compiled On New Release
With last year's complete release of Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes, and the recent Record Store Day "official bootleg"-style vinyl LPs of music from those seminal sessions, the music of The Band is once again, happily, enjoying a high profile. Fans of The Band might have noticed a new compilation quietly released last week by Capitol Records. Capitol Rarities 1968-1977 features 33 tracks and over two hours of music from the legendary group of Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth
Let's See Action: Pete Townshend Collects Solo Work, Introduces New Songs on "Truancy"
Pete Townshend recently confessed to Rolling Stone, "I just hope that on my deathbed I don't embarrass myself by asking someone, 'Can you pass me my guitar? And will you run the backing tape of 'Baba O'Riley'? I just want to do it one more time." Yet Townshend still finds himself looking to the past even as he embraces the present and future. While on the road celebrating (for the final time?) the legacy of The Who with creative partner Roger Daltrey, Townshend will issue a new solo
Storytellers: Raven Anthologizes Jerry Jeff Walker, Bobby Bare
Two American country legends have recently been celebrated by Australia's Raven Records label with new 2-CD, multi-label anthologies - Jerry Jeff Walker ("Mr. Bojangles") and Bobby Bare ("Detroit City"). No Leavin' Texas 1968-82: The Classic Jerry Jeff follows Raven's recent reissue of three of the New York-born troubadour's albums in one package. This 2-CD anthology collects 39 tracks sourced from 15 albums on five different labels (Atco, Vanguard, Decca, MCA and Elektra) originally
Dancing in the Dark: Bruce Springsteen's Archive Series Revisits 1984, New Jersey
Just a few weeks following the release of their New Year's Eve show from Nassau Coliseum on December 31, 1980, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have confirmed the latest volume in their ongoing live archive series. Pre-orders are open now for Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984. The release is a bittersweet one for New Jerseyans; the Byrne Arena (later the Continental Airlines Arena and the Izod Center) opened in July 1981 in East Rutherford's Meadowlands and earlier this year was
Review: Peggy Lee, "At Last: The Lost Radio Recordings"
When Mad Men returned to television on April 5 for the first of its final seven episodes, viewers saw a different Don Draper - perhaps ready, at last, to realize what he'd become. To underscore his possible epiphany of disillusionment, the strains of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" recurred numerous times throughout the episode. The song's placement underscored just how resonant Lee's music - mysterious, elegant, startling, bluesy, sensual, sly, hip, alternately hot and cool - continues to
Review: Wes Montgomery, "In the Beginning"
Never-before-heard music by Wes Montgomery isn't easy to come by. Montgomery - an influence to George Benson, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny and every great guitar man in between - didn't enter a recording studio until 25 years of age, didn't record as a leader until another ten years had elapsed, and was dead ten years after that, felled by a heart attack at age 45. His body of work can neatly be divided into three distinct periods at different labels: Riverside (1959-1964), Verve (1964-1966) and
The Ides of March Celebrate 50 Years with "Last Band Standing" Box Set
"Beware the ides of March," goes the famous admonition. Thankfully, Jim Peterik, Larry Millas, Bob Bergland and Mike Borch didn't heed the warning. Formed in Berwyn, Illinois in 1965 as the Shon-Dels, The Ides of March are still going strong 50 years later with their brassy blend of good-time rock and roll, R&B, pop and soul epitomized on the 1970 hit single "Vehicle." These rock and roll survivors and local legends around the Chicago scene have recently assembled a definitive box set
In The Air Tonight: Phil Collins Signs with Warner Music, Deluxe Editions Coming Soon
Phil Collins is getting ready to open the vaults. Warner Music Group has just announced its partnership with Collins to make the superstar artist's solo albums available worldwide through WMG. Though Collins' American fans have long been used to seeing his solo releases on WMG's Atlantic Records label, fans in the U.K. and Ireland were used to seeing the Virgin Records logo on Collins' classic solo records such as Face Value, Hello, I Must Be Going and No Jacket Required. This deal marks
Review: Drivin' N' Cryin', "Best of Songs"
In a career spanning almost thirty years on both independent and major labels, Drivin' N' Cryin' has refused to be pigeonholed. The band, formed by Kevin (or Kevn) Kinney in 1985 has happily leaped from genre to genre, drawing on hard rock, country, pop, punk and other influences. Between June 2012 and January 2014, the band - now consisting of Kinney, founding member Tim Nielsen, Sadler Vaden and Dave V. Johnson - recorded a series of four EPs from which a tight, all-killer, no-filler
RPM Hitches a Ride with Vanity Fare On New 2-CD Complete Anthology
With "Hitchin' a Ride" and "Early in the Morning," Vanity Fare assured its immortality to AM radio connoisseurs. The two 1969 hits are still in rotation on oldies radio today, but they're just two of the nearly 50 songs cut by the British band over the ten year period of 1966 to 1976. Cherry Red's RPM label has recently put those two famous tunes in context with Vanity Fare's I Live for the Sun: Complete Recordings 1966-76. This 2-CD anthology collects the band's output for the Page One, DJM,
Release Round-Up: Week of May 12
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We kick off with a quartet of releases drawing on never-before-released live material! Leonard Cohen, Can't Forget: A Souvenir of The Grand Tour (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Leonard Cohen offers ten selections - including two songs never previously recorded and a pair of covers - from his recent world tour. Andrew Gold, The Late Show - Live 1978 (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) You'll say "thank you for being a
Mid-Mountain Ranch (Limited Edition)
Recorded right after the Youngbloods broke up, and released on their own Raccoon label, 1972's Mid-Mountain Ranch was the sole solo album from the band's multi-instrumentalist Banana a.k.a. Lowell Levinger. Real Gone's reissue of this folk rock/Americana gem, housed in a mini-LP replica sleeve, is limited to 1,000 units.
The Rolling Stones Celebrate 50 Years of "Satisfaction" In July
Sticky Fingers isn't the only Rolling Stones classic celebrating an anniversary this year. On June 6, 1965 in the U.S. and August 20, 1965 in the U.K., listeners had their first opportunity to pick up "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" on a 45 RPM record. To commemorate the golden anniversary of perhaps the most enduring hit single from the greatest rock and roll band of all time, ABKCO is reissuing "Satisfaction" as a remastered 12-inch vinyl single in a replica sleeve on Friday, July
Nightbirds (Quadraphonic)
With production from New Orleans' own piano man, Allen Toussaint, the No. 7 Pop/No. 4 R&B Nightbirds (1974) was the most successful LP ever by Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. It was bolstered by the success of Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan's "Lady Marmalade," which topped the Pop, R&B and Dance charts. Crewe's "It Took a Long Time (For the First Time in My Life") is also featured on the album - you can hear Bob's own version on Bob Crewe: The Complete Elektra Recordings from
Review: The Pretenders CD/DVD Reissue Series
Chrissie Hynde, Pete Farndon, James Honeyman Scott and Martin Chambers may have taken the name of The Pretenders, but anybody paying attention soon realized that there was nothing "pretend" about this band - not its brash amalgam of British and American styles (Hynde was a U.S. émigré; the other three were Brits), not its unabashedly punk approach to a classic rock sound, not its effortless, cool swagger. 1979's Pretenders launched the band on a journey that continues to this day. It's been a
Real Gone's July Features Complete Ronny and the Daytonas Plus New Riders, Fanny, Grateful Dead, More
Summer is just around the corner, but Real Gone Music isn't taking a vacation! The label has just announced its June 30 - July 10 slate of releases! If you just can't wait to roll down the windows and crank the car stereo up, you'd be hard-pressed to find more appropriate music than the complete recordings of Ronny and the Daytonas ("G.T.O.") ! And to coincide with the summer's most in-demand concert ticket, Real Gone has another volume of live rarities from Grateful Dead. The Dead has been
What's Love Got to Do With It? Warner Celebrates 30 Years of Tina Turner's "Private Dancer"
What's love got to do with it? Plenty, in fact! On June 30, Warner Music/Rhino will issue a new 2-CD deluxe edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of Tina Turner's landmark "comeback" album, Private Dancer. The four-time Grammy-winning album yielded seven singles and catapulted Tina Turner straight back to the top. When Private Dancer was issued in May 1984, it was Turner's first album since 1979's Love Explosion. Recorded in England with four different production teams, it marked a
Ace Super Soul Round-Up Part Two: Unheard Music From Sam Dees, George Jackson and Dan Greer Sees Release
Welcome to Part Two of our Ace Super Soul Round-Up! You can read Part One here! Birmingham, Alabama native Sam Dees has worn many hats in a long and illustrious career - producer, singer, songwriter, among them. He's gifted music to George Benson and Aretha Franklin ("Love All the Hurt Away"), Atlantic Starr ("Am I Dreaming"), Gladys Knight and the Pips ("Save the Overtime (For Me)" and Loleatta Holloway ("The Show Must Go On") - as well as Larry Graham, whose No. 1 R&B/No. 9 pop hit
Seven Steps to Heaven: Miles Davis' Bootleg Series Continues With "Newport 1955-1975"
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings are headed to Newport with Miles Davis. The Friday, July 17 release of Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 chronicles the evolution of Davis' style as it treks from 1955 to 1975 with live performances from the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island as well as New York City, Berlin, and Switzerland. The set arrives sixty years to the day of the first performance it includes (July 17, 1955) and just before this summer's annual Fest,
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