The Weekend Stream: March 8, 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. This week’s offerings are particularly reflective, packed with tributes and goodbyes (both editorial and musical) and a little dust of new Disney magic. Dolly Parton, “If You Hadn’t Been There” (Butterfly) (iTunes / Amazon) On her first day in Nashville at the age of 18, a rising country musician named Dolly Parton had a chance encounter with Carl Dean, owner of a local asphalt business, at a laundromat. In 1966,…

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SoulMusic Spotlight Part One: New Anthologies Arrive For Esther Phillips, Levert, and Mtume

Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records label has added another quintet of releases to its rapidly-growing Anthology series, and this batch is among the most eclectic yet, blurring the lines of jazz, pop, and R&B with Esther Phillips, Levert, Tom Browne, Kashif, and Mtume. As the premier vocalist on CTI Records’ Kudu imprint, Esther Phillips (1935-1984) played a key role in producer Creed Taylor’s “Cool Revolution” at CTI. A gifted vocalist, Phillips nonetheless struggled with personal demons throughout her too-short life. The former “Little Esther” had her first taste of success in 1949, just…

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