On the evenings of February 21 and 22, 1998, a host of musicians took the stage of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to pay tribute to one of their own. Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt, and Crosby, Stills and Nash were just a few of the artists who paid their respects in song to the late Nicolette Larson. The luminous singer with the honeyed voice had unexpectedly died just a couple of months earlier at the far too young age of 45. In the decades since her…
Release Round-Up: Week of November 7
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. Wings, Wings [Various Formats] (MPL/Capitol/UMe) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada On November 4, Paul McCartney released Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, an oral history of the superstar’s other band. The hardcover tome, created in collaboration with film director Morgan Neville and editor Ted Widmer, tells Wings’ story through text, photographs, a timeline, a gigography,…
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It’s Gonna Take a Lotta Love: The Second Disc, Lemon Collect Nicolette Larson’s Warner Bros. Albums on “Look In My Direction”
On the evenings of February 21 and 22, 1998, a host of musicians took the stage of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to pay tribute to one of their own. Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt, and Crosby, Stills and Nash were just a few of the artists who paid their respects in song to the late Nicolette Larson. The luminous singer with the honeyed voice had unexpectedly died just a couple of months earlier at the far too young age of 45. In the decades since her…
Somewhere North of Nashville: Ace Takes Listeners to ‘Springsteen’s Country’
Ace Records continues its quest to offer variations on a theme by exploring country interpretations of the music of Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen’s Country will collect 20 covers of The Boss, some familiar (Johnny Cash’s “Johnny 99,” Steve Earle’s live take on “State Trooper”), some offbeat (a take on Tunnel of Love opener “Ain’t Got You” by Solomon Burke, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s version of beloved outtake “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)”), and some altogether lesser known (Americana acts like Lera Lynn and The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow interpreting “Fire” and…
Record Store Day 2025: The Best of the Rest
Next Saturday, April 12, is certainly one of the most packed Record Store Days in recent memory. Since the list was announced, we drilled down on titles from Craft Recordings, Legacy Recordings, Rhino Records, Universal Music Group, Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings, BMG, Cooking Vinyl and Demon Music Group, as well as some notable titles that were getting later general releases on CD. Well, if you thought that was it, you’re wrong! We pored and pored over the list and are here to share with you more than four dozen one-offs, archival…
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The Weekend Stream: March 29, 2025
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. Classic Motown in concert, long-lost favorites from a country icon, a live country take on a Fab Four favorite, Gary Numan’s mid-’80s works, new music from Bachman-Turner Overdrive and a documentary on a late, great Australian musician…there really is a lot of ground to cover, and that’s not even all of it! Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye Live! (Deluxe Edition) (Motown/UMe) Original LP: Apple / Amazon Deluxe: Apple / Amazon To…
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Holiday Gift Guide Review: Elvis Costello, “King of America and Other Realms”
It was a fine idea at the time/Now it’s a brilliant mistake… Elvis Costello delivered a powerful surprise in 1986 when he shed his backing band, The Attractions, and teamed up with T Bone Burnett for King of America. Originally credited in the U.K. to The Costello Show (Featuring The Attractions and Confederates) and in the U.S. to The Costello Show (Featuring Elvis Costello), the album backtracked from the sleek ’80s polish of its two immediate predecessors (Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World) and instead tapped into a vein closer to…
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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…
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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…
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She Is the Champion: Dolly Parton Unveils “Rockstar,” Featuring All-Star Cast Including Elton John, Peter Frampton, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Lizzo, Miley, Many More
“If I’m gonna be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’m going to have to earn it,” Dolly Parton commented upon her 2022 induction into the Cleveland hall. She promised that a rock and roll album was on the way, and today, she made good on that promise…with what essentially amounts to two such records! On November 17, Dolly’s own Butterfly Records in association with Big Machine will release Rockstar, a whopping 2-CD or 4-LP collection with 30 songs featuring some of the biggest names in the genre including Sting,…
As You Walk on By: New Box Celebrates the Music of John Hughes Films
A wise philosopher…or maybe a punk kid…or maybe an astute screenwriter?…once wrote “Life moves pretty fast – if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” A new box set devoted to that iconic filmmaker – the late John Hughes – will help fans enjoy some of that life a little more through a diverse collection of pop songs he helped bring to the masses. Life Moves Pretty Fast. The John Hughes Mixtapes offers four volumes of songs from the writer/director’s popular comedies and teen dramas….
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Stone Free: Rhino and Warner Announce Lineup for Rocktober 2020 Indie-Exclusive Vinyl Releases
There are some things you can just count on: taxes, death, trouble…add to the list the joy of listening to a bunch of new albums in October while supporting your favorite brick-and-mortar shop. Yep, it’s back. Rhino’s annual Rocktober campaign is back on, boasting a stellar line-up of lost gems and favorites from the Warner vault. From landmark albums by famed ’90s rockers, a desirable compilation of John Prine’s ’70s work, reissues of DEVO and Talking Heads classics, a clutch of soundtracks, an Emmylou Harris reissue that rocks in a different way,…
The Big Light: Johnny Cash’s Complete Mercury Albums Reissued in New Box Set and Individual LPs
Johnny Cash is coming to town (again)! When the legendary Man in Black was unceremoniously dropped by his longtime home of Columbia Records in mid-1986 – “the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life,” opined then-label chief Rick Blackburn – he wasn’t yet finished. Mercury Records stepped up to sign Cash, beginning a relationship that lasted for five years and six albums. Now, that fertile 1986-1991 period of rebirth is being revisited by Mercury and UMe in a multi-platform campaign. On April 24, the labels will issue a new…
Swinging Doors: Grateful Dead, Emmylou, Dolly, Dino, More Celebrate “The Merle Haggard Songbook”
Along with Buck Owens – with whom he shared a musical history and a wife – Merle Haggard (1937-2016) defined The Bakersfield Sound of country music: authentic, raw, rooted in honky-tonks. But unlike the Texas-born and Arizona-raised Owens, Haggard was actually born in Bakersfield and raised just across the river from that California town. “Hag,” as he preferred to be known, rocketed to superstardom thanks to “Okie from Muskogee,” his controversial 1969 song that was either a scathing indictment of the younger generation or of the smalltown, heartland folk criticizing them. (Hag…
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Release Round-Up: Week of March 29
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up. Here’s what’s due for March 29! John Coltrane, Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings [5 CD] (Craft Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The year 1958 was a breakout one for saxophone legend John Coltrane. It marked the year when Coltrane–already well-established as a talented sideman–began to make a name for himself as a solo musician and developed his signature “sheets of sound” style while exploring many other routes. To mark the 70th anniversary of Prestige, Coltrane’s complete 1958 recordings are released today on…
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UPDATED: Back To The Garden: “Joni 75” Tribute Concerts To Arrive on CD, DVD, and Public Television
Few musicians have had as lasting an impact on music as Joni Mitchell. In her four-decade career, she made groundbreaking music that traversed genres and continually stunned fans and critics alike. The music icon celebrated her 75th birthday in style last November, as Jörn Weisbrodt and The Music Center in Los Angeles hosted a pair of star-studded Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration concerts in her honor. The line-up (which Joni helped select) featured many of her closest friends and dearest collaborators, including Graham Nash, Seal, Chaka Khan, Kris Kristofferson, and James Taylor. Also…
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UPDATED WITH TRACK LIST: Back To The Garden: ‘Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration’ Tribute Concert Coming to Theaters in February, Soundtrack Arriving in March
Few musicians have had as lasting an impact on music as Joni Mitchell. In her four-decade career, she made groundbreaking music that traversed genres and continually stunned fans and critics alike. The music icon celebrated her 75th birthday in style last November, as Jörn Weisbrodt and The Music Center in Los Angeles hosted a pair of star-studded Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration concerts in her honor. The line-up (which Joni helped select) featured many of her closest friends and dearest collaborators, including Graham Nash, Seal, Chaka Khan,Kris Kristofferson, and James Taylor. Also on…
Back To The Garden: ‘Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration’ Tribute Concert Coming to Theaters in February, Soundtrack Arriving in March
Few musicians have had as lasting an impact on music as Joni Mitchell. In her four-decade career, she made groundbreaking music that traversed genres and continually stunned fans and critics alike. The music icon celebrated her 75th birthday in style last November, as Jörn Weisbrodt and The Music Center in Los Angeles hosted a pair of star-studded Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration concerts in her honor. The line-up (which Joni helped select) featured many of her closest friends and dearest collaborators, including Graham Nash, Seal, Chaka Khan,Kris Kristofferson, and James Taylor. Also on…
Release Round-Up: Week of June 1
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Michelle Phillips, Victim of Romance: Expanded Edition (Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) “Mama” Michelle Phillips’ 1977 solo album, produced by Jack Nitzsche, returns to CD in a new expanded edition collecting the artist’s complete sessions with Nitzsche. It adds three outtakes from the album sessions, including a Bee Gees cover (“Had a Lot of Love Last Night”), Dennis Lambert and Fil Spina’s “Practice What You Preach,” and Michelle’s own, tropically-flavored “Guerita.” These three songs were not featured on previous reissues of the album. …
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Sweetheart of the Rodeo: Emmylou Harris’ “The Ballad of Sally Rose” Goes Deluxe in June
Today is Emmylou Harris’ birthday, and Rhino is celebrating the songbird’s illustrious career with a brand-new 2-CD remastered and expanded edition of one of her most cherished albums. On June 1, the label will reissue 1985’s The Ballad of Sally Rose, a concept album inspired by Harris’ short but blazing time spent with the late Gram Parsons. This deluxe edition will also be available as a digital download, on streaming services, and as a 2-LP vinyl set. (The vinyl release will also be released early for participants in the Record Store Crawl…
Life Is A Carnival: The Band Celebrates 40 Years of “The Last Waltz” With New Reissues
Forty years ago on Thanksgiving Day 1976, The Band took the stage at San Francisco’s Winterland for their final performance. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters and others joined Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel for the concert event known as The Last Waltz. Director Martin Scorsese’s film of the evening was released in April 1978, setting a high bar for concert movies. On November 11, Rhino will mark this landmark anniversary of The Last Waltz with four new…
Release Round-Up: Week of September 9
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up…one of the most packed in recent memory! Beatles, Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Apple/Capitol/UMe) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Since the advent of the compact disc era, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl has been the forgotten stepchild of the Fab Four’s legendary catalogue. That changes today with the first-ever commercial CD/DD release of the 1977 album on September 9 via Apple/UMe. The newly-retitled, remixed, remastered and expanded Live at the Hollywood Bowl will arrive one week in…
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To Know Them Is To Love Them: Dolly, Emmylou and Linda Release “The Complete Trio Collection”
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…
Lotta Love: Varese Collects “The Very Best of Nicolette Larson” – AND YOU CAN WIN!
Today, Varese Vintage releases Lotta Love: The Very Best of Nicolette Larson, celebrating the life and career of the silken-voiced pop singer who died at the tragically young age of 45 in 1997. This 16-track anthology, culled from her years with Warner Bros. Records and featuring duets with Emmylou Harris, Steve Goodman and Michael McDonald, is a welcome reminder of Larson’s versatile gifts in the genres of pop, country and folk – and we would like to give you a chance to WIN ONE OF TEN COPIES of this new collection. Details…
Review: Linda Ronstadt, “Duets”
Tonight, Linda Ronstadt receives her long-overdue recognition into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But rock and roll, of course, played only a small – if key – role in Ronstadt’s career. The breadth of that career is revealed on Rhino’s new release of Linda Ronstadt – Duets (Rhino R2 542161), containing fourteen tracks originally released between 1974 and 2006 plus one previously unreleased performance. While there are no duets here from Ronstadt’s Tony-nominated turn in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Pirates of Penzance or her Mexican recordings , her immersions into…
