Ace Records has recently continued its Golden Age of American Popular Music Series with another volume dedicated to the sounds of country-and-western. More Country Hits follows The Country Hits, released in 2008, and like that volume, presents a collection of country classics that crossed over to the pop side on the Billboard Hot 100. Many familiar names from the first collection show up here, too, including Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash, Faron Young, Ray Price, George Jones, Skeeter Davis, Marty
Mention psychedelia and chances are you're transported to a certain patchouli-scented period in the late 1960s, a hazy period of high times and boundary-breaking musical creativity. The spirit of psychedelia didn't die with the advent of glam, hard rock or disco, however, though it may have been submerged for a time. In 1981, the 13-track album A Splash of Colour chronicled Great Britain's "New Psychedelia" with '60s-influenced cuts from The Mood Six, Miles Over Matter, The High Tide, The
Jack Ashford's story is about how a Philadelphia jazz man ended up in Detroit, playing on hundreds of the greatest R&B recordings ever made. The percussionist's unforgettable work with Motown's Funk Brothers has been oft-chronicled, but on a recent compilation, Ace Records' Kent imprint has turned its attention to Ashford's producing and songwriting work away from Hitsville, USA between the years of 1968 and 1977. Just Productions features 24 sizzling slices of ultra-rare Detroit soul
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Here Today: The Songs of Brian Wilson (Vinyl) (Ace) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Ace brings its acclaimed 2015 Here Today: The Songs of Brian Wilson compilation to 180-gram white vinyl in a slimmed-down form (12 tracks vs. 25 on the CD) with all of Ace's deluxe hallmarks of packaging and annotation! The album features Darian Sahanaja of The Brian Wilson Band and The Wondermints along with Kirsty MacColl, Carmen
The long-running Now That's What I Call Music! series is adding another volume in about two weeks and this one is a little different from its normal fare. Now That's What I Call Broadway! is an 18-track compilation rounding up tracks musical theater tracks from the last 40 years and is due to hit stores on April 29. While the Now! series is primarily focused on contemporary pop music from the Top 40 charts, it has had several detours into slightly other genres, like volumes focused on
When it comes to songwriting, Ray Davies is doubtless one well-respected man. Yet, unbelievably, Ace Records' recent Kinked! Kinks Songs and Sessions 1964-1971 marks the first collection to explore in comprehensive fashion the early body of work created by Davies outside of his famous band. Its 26 tracks encompass songs not recorded by The Kinks, or first released by artists other than The Kinks, as well as a handful of contemporary cover versions, sessions featuring The Kinks on backup, and
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Phil Collins, No Jacket Required and Testify: Deluxe Editions (Atlantic/Rhino) No Jacket Required 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada No Jacket Required LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Testify 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Testify LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Phil Collins' No Jacket Required, originally released in 1985 and still the artist's most commercially successful album,
The title of Ace's new entry in its Songwriter Series - Shazam! - doesn't refer to Captain Marvel's magic word or Gomer Pyle's favorite expression. Rather, the new compilation CD is titled after Duane Eddy's (naturally) twangy western gallop "Shazam!" penned by Eddy and maverick producer Lee Hazlewood and released in 1960. (Okay, Duane and Lee likely did take its name from C.C. Beck and Bill Parker's popular comic book superhero!) Shazam! and Other Instrumentals Written by Lee Hazlewood is
Cherry Red's RPM Records label has been doing a lot of Looking with its series of themed mini-box sets dedicated to such pop subgenres as freakbeat, mod, and girl group soul. The latest set in the Looking series, established in 2011, is Looking Stateside. This volume is dedicated to U.S. R&B Mod, Soul and Garage Nuggets, and contains 80 such selections on its three packed CDs. Though limited to American recordings, the focus is otherwise diverse. As the compilers explain in the thick
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 - Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall (Audio Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 - Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall comes to hybrid 5.0 multichannel SACD for the first time. Audio Fidelity's release will boast a full booklet (as on the original standard CD release) and is playable in stereo on all CD players. Read more here! Various
Noise-rock, dream-pop, post-punk, drone-rock, neo-psychedelia...all of these musical subgenres and more became components of the shoegaze sound. The term itself was rather derisively coined by the press to describe a certain group of musicians' tendencies to stare down at their feet while performing - partly out of introspection, partly out of necessity to operate guitar effects pedals. But the "shoegaze" term stuck, and so did the music. Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze, a lavish,
Between 2012 and 2014, Ace issued three volumes of Where Country Meets Soul. All three volumes featured many of the greatest soul singers of all time tackling country-and-western repertoire. Now, the label has revisited the country-soul territory - in reverse! Out of Left Field: Where Soul Meets Country presents 24 sizzling R&B songs as sung by country's greatest performers, and most are surprisingly comfortable fits. Stax thought it was onto something when it ushered Daaron Lee into the
Bring on the B-sides! Despite its title, the massive, indispensable box set The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1964-1968 concentrated on A-sides, presenting only a fraction of the labels' valuable flips. The box left many worthy B-sides overlooked in the CD era, but Ace Records' Kent imprint has redressed that situation with the release of The Other Side of the Trax: Stax-Volt 45 RPM Rarities 1964-1968. All but one of the 24 tracks on this new compilation are all making their official CD
When it comes to chronicling the various regional iterations of rock and soul, Ace Records has few equals. The U.K. label's Kent imprint has two recent, rarities-packed collections touching on two American locales and their contributions to popular music. Dave Hamilton's Detroit Soul Volume Two brings together 24 tracks spanning the 1960s-1980s from Hamilton's small but prolific Motor City studios. Hamilton had been a presence on the Detroit musical landscape since the late 1940s, and
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
Welcome to the first part of our Ace Records late 2015 round-up spotlighting two of the label's recent releases: Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First and the third volume of The Birth of Surf. 2015 was a good year for fans of Georgie Fame. The British singer, who has blended rhythm and blues, jazz, ska, beat, and soul into his own formidable style for over 50 years, was celebrated with BGO Records' collection of his CBS recordings (Georgie Does His Thing with Strings/Knock on Wood/The CBS As
We're welcoming back Ted Frank to The Second Disc for a look at the latest offering - Volume 18 - from the fine folks at International Pop Overthrow! Producer/curator David Bash, graphic designer Steve Stanley and their team have created another instant classic with their latest and greatest collection of the best, most diverse and most delicious pop music circa 2015! In the year that saw the Numero Group's superb Ork Records Collection, Omnivore Recordings' immediately indispensible Power
Was 1966 the greatest year ever in popular music? The case could certainly be made for its significance - and Jon Savage has done just that in his new book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded. Savage's book looks at the events and culture of the year in twelve essays, each one built around one 45 RPM record. Naturally, such a book deserves a soundtrack, and Ace Records has seen to it that it receives one with the companion volume of the same name. Jon Savage's 1966: The Year the Decade
1965 was a key year for The Sound of Young America. In a tumultuous twelve-month period which saw the Selma to Montgomery marches, the United States' escalation of military forces in South Vietnam, and the assassination of Malcolm X, the music of Motown was a cultural touchstone that spread unifying messages of love and togetherness. Berry Gordy's label scored five Pop chart-toppers in 1965: The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love," "Back in My Arms Again" and "I Hear a Symphony," The
What's that festive sound you're hearing? If it's fun, fresh, and a little off the beaten path, it might just be coming from Omnivore Recordings' recent reissue of The dB's and Friends' now-classic holiday party Christmas Time Again! (OVCD-152). Christmas Time first arrived as a holiday vinyl EP from the Chris Stamey Group in 1986. Seven years later, in 1993, the collection was expanded for a new CD release, with the track count jumping from seven to sixteen tunes. In 2006, Collectors
Since 2011, Sony's Legacy Recordings has offered a crop of ideal stocking stuffers with the Classic Christmas Album series. This year's quartet of releases has a decidedly more modern bent, featuring artists associated with the '70s (Earth, Wind & Fire), '80s (a various artists compilation), '90s (Sarah McLachlan) and 2000s (Celtic Thunder). Three of these titles are actually expanded editions of previously released albums. Earth, Wind and Fire's Classic Christmas entry reprises last
Rarely is the sequel ever the equal - but Ace Records has handily disproved that with Love and Affection: More Motown Girls, a recent trawl through the vaults of Hitsville, USA. And not only is this follow-up to 2013's Finders Keepers - Motown Girls the equal of its predecessor, it might be its better. Whereas that volume featured both previously unreleased music and rarities, every one of the 25 tracks on Love and Affection is never-before-heard (save for five songs culled from last year's
With Thanksgiving this Thursday and Black Friday the day after, the Christmas season is officially upon us (if it hasn't already arrived a couple of weeks ago!). There have been several Christmas reissues we've talked about so far this season, including the four new entries in Legacy's Classic Christmas Album series. And now we've got information on a fifth entry for this year: the simply-titled Classic Christmas Album. And we're also happy to say that this Amazon exclusive, 3-CD, 42-song
Today, we're turning the spotlight on two recent releases from Cherry Red's RPM Records imprint! When David Bowie placed Tucker Zimmerman's 1969 album Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman on a list of his 25 favorite albums - alongside acknowledged classics by The Velvet Underground, James Brown, Little Richard and even Steve Reich - readers of the 2003 list could have been forgiven for wondering, "Who is Tucker Zimmerman?" It's taken some time, but the RPM label has finally unearthed Ten Songs by
Though it didn't become the 50th United State of America until 1959, the Aloha State of Hawaii had long held an enchanting spell over mainland dwellers. Tiki culture rose to prominence in the 1930s; the decade saw the opening of the first Polynesian-themed tiki bar and restaurant, Don the Beachcomber, in 1934. By the end of the thirties, flights to Hawaii had begun, making the lush and beautiful land of sun and surf more widely accessible. The Polynesian craze hit full swing in the 1950s, and
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