Ace Records' two most recent entries in its Songwriter Series of collections both spotlight artists who bucked tradition to forge their own paths at the end of the 1960s and the dawn of the 1970s: Leon Russell and Kris Kristofferson. As we wrote upon his passing in 2016 at the age of 74, Leon Russell was an extraordinary talent unlike any other: A true renaissance man and an extraordinary talent as composer, musician, arranger, producer, and artist, The Master of Space and Time led many
Crimson Productions' series of budget-priced Gold compilations has continued with a number of new titles spotlighting artists from the pop-rock, country, and big band genres. Today, we'll take a look at five of those recent releases. Nilsson: Gold features 45 tracks from singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson's RCA recordings. As Nilsson's oeuvre has been comprehensively addressed in the past - most notably on the 2013 box set The RCA Albums Collection - there's not much that's new here. Arranged
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Zappa: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Zappa Records/UMe) 3CD/Digital: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP/Digital Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada UMe and Zappa Records offer a soundtrack release for director Alex Winter's documentary film about the iconoclastic artist. The 68-track collection is out today on CD and has been available digitally, while the
Following the limited Record Store Day release of the 2-LP set for Record Store Day Black Friday, a standard edition of Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration is set for wide release on January 24 From Decca: "On Joni's 75th birthday last November, a star-studded roster of musicians gathered together to pay tribute to the legendary singer-songwriter. The evening was recorded and is now being released on vinyl. It features performances by Brandi Carlile, Glen Hansard, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones,
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
Filmmaker Ken Burns has tackled many subjects over the years, from the Civil War to baseball. His documentaries have garnered numerous awards over the years. In 2001, he took an in-depth look at the genre of jazz. Now, he is aiming to explore a different genre with Country Music, an eight-part, 16-1/2-hour documentary premiering September 15 on PBS. And as with Jazz, there will be an accompanying soundtrack. The most expansive of these is a 5-disc box set debuting on August 30 from Legacy
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
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
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
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
Previously unheard words of Johnny Cash are coming to new life on April 6 with Legacy Recordings' release of Forever Words, an album of new songs built around the late Man in Black's unknown poems and writings. In the spirit of similar projects like The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams and Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes (setting new melodies to lost lyrics by Hank Williams and Bob Dylan, respectively), Forever Words features an all-star array of talent placing Cash's words in an
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Who, Maximum As and Bs: The Complete Singles (Polydor/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Who's complete singles from 1964-2015 are collected on a new 5-CD box set, which also contains a 48-page booklet featuring track-by-track annotations on each single. Read more here! Willie Nelson, Teatro: The Complete Sessions (Modern Classics Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Willie Nelson's
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Doors, The Singles (Elektra/Rhino) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 2CD/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. Vinyl box set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. Singles compiles all 20 of the singles from The Doors' official discography. This not only includes every A and B-side from their core studio albums, but several albums recorded and released after the passing of frontman Jim Morrison, including
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson, Full Moon: Expanded Edition (Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) 1973's Grammy-winning, chart-topping Full Moon was the first duet album Rita Coolidge made with her then-husband Kris Kristofferson. Yet, it has never been released on CD outside of Japan - until now! Real Gone's new reissue has been expanded with six previously unreleased outtakes: one from the album sessions and five more
As we get further into the spring season, we've begun to hear about releases that will be coming out more towards summer. Among these are the new announcements of titles from Real Gone Music due on June 2. As always, they are an eclectic group featuring CDs and vinyl reissues. First up are two titles from Rita Coolidge featuring liner notes from our very own Joe Marchese. 1973's Full Moon was the first duet album Coolidge made with her then-husband Kris Kristofferson. It was the first of
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Bon Jovi, The Albums (Island/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Bon Jovi's The Albums includes all 14 of the group's studio efforts, from 1984's blistering-glam self-titled debut to the just-released This House is Not for Sale, the first album without longtime guitarist Richie Sambora. Eleven of these albums have hit the Billboard Top 10 since 1986's chart-topping breakthrough Slippery When Wet; of those, six of these albums
Next month, Rhino Records will revisit a latter-day classic from one of the leaders of the "new country" movement, Kris Kristofferson. The 1999 release The Austin Sessions will be reissued on CD, vinyl LP and DD in a newly-remastered edition also featuring two previously unreleased bonus tracks. The Austin Sessions was recorded by the famed singer-songwriter with producer Fred Mollin at Arlyn Studios in 1997 as part of a songwriter-focused series also featuring retrospectives from Jimmy Webb
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, with some of the most high-profile releases yet for 2016! The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds 50 (Various Editions) (Capitol/UMe) 4-CD/1-BD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-CD Deluxe Edition (CD 1 + highlights from 4-CD set): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Mono 180-Gram Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Stereo 180-Gram Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Beach
Legacy Recordings has been releasing comprehensive album collections for some of their artists for the past several years with this year's Elvis Presley collection being the latest. The label has just announced another of these box sets, this time devoted to a star of the country genre: Kris Kristofferson. The Complete Monument and Columbia Album Collection is due to be released on June 10 and the 16-disc set features 11 studio albums and three concerts (two unreleased) plus two more discs of
Among Ace Records' recent releases is a collection that just might make you scream - make that "Primal Scream" - with elation. Bobby Gillespie Presents Sunday Morning Comin' Down is a mix CD curated by Primal Scream founder/Jesus and Mary Chain drummer. The Glasgow-born singer/songwriter/musician has selected 20 of his favorite tracks for Ace, and the result is a set that not only illuminates Gillespie's influences as an artist but stands on its own with thematic and sonic coherence. In
"Every day I write the book," sang Elvis Costello on his first U.S. Top 40 hit, and this year he is indeed writing one. The iconoclastic British rocker, who's chased his muse through the most diverse of places, from punk to bluegrass, will let it all out in prose on the hotly anticipated memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. And now, Universal Music Enterprises, the home base for Elvis' catalogue for nearly a decade (following stints at Rykodisc/Demon in the 1990s and Warner