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
Having recently introduced some EMI-controlled artists to the ICON roster, Universal now incorporates some of those artists (and some of their most treasured R&B and country acts) into a new budget-oriented series, Ballads. And while none of the artists covered here really, truly need more compilations on the market - and, one can assume, the assembly of these is as low-impact as the ICON series - there's actually some promise to be had here. The overall selection of artists isn't terrible,