Ace Records’ ongoing Black America Sings series gets a second helping of classic tunes by Bob Dylan on a new compilation available this week. Highway of Diamonds: Black America Sings Bob Dylan, available January 30 in Ace’s native U.K. (and a week later in America), offers 20 compositions from the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter recast for soul, blues and gospel acts including The Staple Singers, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Billy Preston, Natalie Cole, Solomon Burke, Merry Clayton, Sarah Vaughan, Aaron Neville and more. The collection, available on CD or two LPs, includes informative song/track…
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…
Touch My Heart: Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Expands “From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music” Box Set
Back in 1998, The Country Music Foundation teamed with Warner Bros. Records to release From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music. The 3-CD box set was divided into three thematic discs – The Stringband Era, The Soul Country Years, and Forward with Pride – which reflected on the immense contributions of African-Americans to country music in 60 songs. Today, the spotlight shines even more brightly on the black experience in the genre, in no small part due to the release earlier this year of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. The album…
Hand of Fate: The Rolling Stones’ 2002 “Live at The Wiltern” Comes to Audio, Video Formats
The Rolling Stones’ 2002-2003 Licks World Tour was one of The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band’s most innovative. To celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary (and the release of the career-spanning compilation 40 Licks), venues would come in three different sizes: small theatres, arenas, and stadiums. Setlists would be scaled to the size of each venue, with the theatre settings giving the band the most freedom to perform lesser-known gems in addition to their major hits. On March 8, Mercury Studios will release one of those intimate shows when Live at The…
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Cherry Red, SoulMusic Round-Up, Part One: Labels Anthologize Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips’ Complete Atlantic Recordings
In recent weeks, Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint has launched a series of mini-box sets drawn from the Atlantic vaults including titles available now from Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips, Barbara Lewis, and Carla Thomas. Today we’re looking at the releases from Burke and Phillips, while we’ll next turn to Lewis and Thomas! The late Solomon Burke (who died in 2010 at the age of 70 or 74; reports vary) lived up to his moniker as The King of Rock ‘n’ Soul. SoulMusic’s 3-CD set of that title is drawn from his Atlantic…
The Second Disc’s Guide To Record Store Day Drop 2, September 26!
2020 has been a bit of a rollercoaster and Record Store Day 2020 is no exception: once scheduled in April, it moved forward a few months, and is now spread out across three Saturdays in the summer and fall. The Record Store Day Drop in August proved a success and round two, set for tomorrow, September 26, is sure to please fans of all genres and eras. It’s a diverse list full of exciting releases that you can only find through your local brick-and-mortar record store (or through their online storefronts as…
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This Is Soul: Ace Collects “The Soul of The Memphis Boys” with Elvis, Dusty, Box Tops, More
We’ve already filled you in on Ace’s recent anthology collecting works by Philly soul maestro Thom Bell; now we’re looking to the American South with another release! Way back in 2012, Ace Records collected the multifaceted sounds of Chips Moman and Don Crews’ American Studios on Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios. The 24-song tribute collection featured such visitors to Memphis as Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, B.J. Thomas, and Solomon Burke as well as Elvis Presley, one of the city’s most famous denizens. Now, the label has returned to the milieu of…
In the Pocket: Ace Salutes Mickie Most, Reggie Young on New Anthologies
The names of Mickie Most and Reggie Young might not be among the most familiar except to diehard music aficionados, but the songs that benefited from their respective golden touches certainly are among the most well-known ever. Ace Records has recently paid tribute to both of these late talents with a pair of deluxe anthologies. The Pop Genius of Mickie Most may be the most lavish single-disc package yet released by Ace, housed in a heavy slipcase also containing a squarebound 74-page biography of the producer-impresario. Most (1938-2003) made no bones about…
Review: Solomon Burke, “The Best of Atlantic Soul 1962-1965”
When Solomon Burke died in 2010 at the age of 70, American song lost one of its most towering talents. With a figure as imposing as his deep voice, The King of Rock and Soul sat upon his throne for decades, spreading the gospel…not just the gospel of music, but the Gospel itself. Tapping into his roots in church music, jazz, blues, and country, Burke was one of the pioneering artists who bridged the gap between “R&B” and “soul,” and he did it at Atlantic Records. Run Out Groove’s new 14-song vinyl…
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love: Run Out Groove Preps New Solomon Burke Anthology
Run Out Groove is heating up 2018 with its first release of the year. The label, which allows fans to vote every month on its next audiophile-quality deluxe vinyl title drawn from the Warner Music Group vaults, recently announced the rarities-packed collection Professor Bizarre’s Funkology from New Orleans’ one and only Dr. John, as well as unsung R&B great Lou Johnson’s Sweet Southern Soul, and the first vinyl reissue of Ministry’s Greatest Fits from the Industrial band. Now, ROG will usher in 2018 with more classic soul from the late, legendary Solomon…
With a Bang! Legacy Recordings Brings “The Bert Berns Story” Soundtrack to Vinyl
Even if you don’t know the name of Bert Berns, chances are you know the songs he wrote (“Twist and Shout,” “I Want Candy,” “Hang On, Sloopy,” “Piece of My Heart”), produced (“Under the Boardwalk,” “Baby I’m Yours,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Here Comes the Night”) and oversaw as head of Bang Records (“Cherry, Cherry,” “Solitary Man” and the rest of Neil Diamond’s earliest recordings). Though Berns died in the final days of 1967 at just 38 years of age, a year hasn’t gone by since when his songs haven’t been recorded and played. …
Kick Out the Jams: New Label, Run Out Groove, Lets You Pick the LPs
With nearly a decade of Record Store Day celebrations and a stunning uptick in sales, there’s little question that there’s been some sort of vinyl revolution lately Now, a new label is looking to add to that by putting pressing power in the hands of buyers. Run Out Groove, a recently-launched vinyl boutique label, aims to issue new LP-only compilations with a twist: they pitch you the projects, to be determined by a majority vote. Afterward, a 30-day pre-order period ensues, resulting in an individually numbered, highly limited run of a title….
New “Rare Soul” Collection Features Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Mary Wells and More
If Rare Soul is what you’re looking for, PopMarket has an exclusive release just for you. The online shop has recently released A Crate Digger’s Collection of Rare Soul, a 3-LP set pressed on heavyweight180-gram vinyl presenting 35 tracks culled from the Warner Music Group family of labels including Atlantic, Cotillion, Loma, Atco and Warner Bros. itself. This handsome package, a limited edition of 1,000 units, features 35 tracks from some of the labels’ heaviest hitters as well as names that only soul connoisseurs would recognize. But once you hear these artists,…
