Tag Archives: new releases

bassically jazz
New Releases, Products

David Finck, BASSically Jazz

bassically jazz

This all-star collection of standards features acclaimed jazz bassist David Finck, one of today’s most versatile and in-demand bassists.

The album’s 12 songs are a tour through eclectic tastes and styles of music, all arranged by Finck, a member of Local 802 (New York City), and including special guest vocal performances by Broadway legend Linda Eder and jazz singer Alexis Cole.

“Like all my albums, this one is about music the way I want to hear it,” Finck says. “It’s not all jazz but it’s basically a jazz record. That’s why we called it BASSically Jazz.”

Finck has spent much of his 40-year career exploring the solo potential of an instrument that is usually the unobtrusive heartbeat of the rhythm section.

This album, his third as a leader, is another testament to his eclectic taste.

the pilgrim
New Releases, Products

Marty Stuart, The Pilgrim – Deluxe Edition

the pilgrim

Marty Stuart, of Local 257 (Nashville, TN), has released a special deluxe edition of his celebrated record, The Pilgrim. This 20th anniversary release is issued on double vinyl and includes a bonus CD with 10 never-before-released tracks, available only with the purchase of The Pilgrim vinyl. These newly unearthed songs include features by country music legends including Ralph Stanley, Connie Smith, Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs, and more.

“This recording changed the course of my musical life,” Stuart says. “Year after year, since its original release in 1999, I’ve heard stories from people all around the world about how The Pilgrim made its way into their lives and touched their hearts. Going into my archives to search out Pilgrim-related material for this release was like reaching into a dusty old treasure chest.”

country
New Releases, Products

Elliott McClain, Country

country

In his debut album, Pianist Elliott McClain of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) honors the traditional country songs for which his hometown of Nashville is known. “You Don’t Know Me” is a nod to Ray Charles’ cover and is influenced by the piano stylings of jazz great Gene Harris. Perhaps his favorite performance on the album is “Faint of Heart,” a song by Vince Gill (Local 257). Other tracks cover songs popularized by Willie Nelson of Local 433 (Austin, TX), Dwight Yoakam of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA), Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, and Glen Campbell.

McClain is known for his improvisational skills and expressive playing style. Blind since birth, Elliott began playing the piano at the age of four and was influenced by radio and his uncle’s record collection. He was especially drawn to live radio programming and recordings of live performances. Jazz and blues deeply inform his compositions and interpretations. 

the brown beatnik tomes
New Releases, Products

Ron Carter, The Brown Beatnik Tomes

the brown beatnik tomes

A unique and powerful collaboration between legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter of Local 802 (New York City) and novelist, poet, and abstract expressionist painter Danny Simmons.

This live recording from BRIC House in Brooklyn captured the Tony Award-winning Simmons, the co-founder of Def Poetry Jam, reading poetry from his collection of prose, The Brown Beatnik Tomes, with projections of his own abstract expressionist paintings providing the stage backdrop while Carter, the veteran of Miles Davis’ band and more than 2,200 sessions, performed solo accompaniment along with instrumental interludes from his fleet trio.

“I hear the rhythm and cadence in my head when I write,” says Simmons. “To stand up there and have to reproduce that with somebody as accomplished as Ron was a little… I’m going to say ‘terrifying.’ Basically, I let him do his thing and I followed.”

sorta surviving
New Releases, Products

Tim Bluhm, Sorta Surviving

sorta surviving

Tim Bluhm’s new full-length solo album, Sorta Surviving, is a testament to his versatility as an artist and honed skill as a songwriter. Recorded while coping with a recent divorce and during recovery from a nearly-fatal paragliding crash, the album finds Bluhm, of Local 6 (San Francisco, CA), at a unique place—grateful, appreciative for his life, and more determined than ever.

Bluhm, known as the frontman for rock outfit The Mother Hips, wrote all but three songs on the album. Sorta Surviving also includes choice cover songs “Del Rio Dan,” made popular by the Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash’s 1958 hit, “I Still Miss Someone,” and album-closer, Merle Haggard’s waltzing “Kern River.”

Produced by Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, Sorta Surviving features an all-star lineup of musicians including Nashville legends, David Roe (bass) and Gene Chrisman (drums), both of Local 257 (Nashville, TN).

greening the dark
New Releases, Products

Debra Cowan, Greening the Dark

greening the dark

Debra Cowan of Local 1000 (nongeographic) has released her sixth recording, Greening the Dark. The EP, her second collaboration with drummer Dave Mattacks of Local 9-535 (Boston, MA) as arranger and producer, contains six songs about change, loss, transformation, tragedy, and empowerment. From the Celtic-sounding traditional “Hills of Greenmore,” to the late Lal Waterson’s “Anna Dixie,” Greening the Dark brings the listener on a journey of compelling storytelling.

Musically, Cowan and Mattacks have gone beyond their first collaboration, Fond Desire Farewell, by adding electric instruments, creating a folk-rock sound that is full and complex.

Musicians from Local 1000 and Local 9-535 contributed to this recording, including John Roberts (hurdy-gurdy and concertina), Duke Levine (guitars and banjo), Richard Gates (bass), Mike Barry (acoustic guitar), Billy Novick (whistles), Tom Palance (flugelhorn), Bob Nieske (bass), and Dave Mattacks (drums, cymbals, keyboards).

beyond the magik mirror
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Duke Charelle, Beyond the Magik Mirror

beyond the magik mirror

In his new album, Beyond the Magik Mirror, Duke Charelle of Local 542 (Flint, MI) captures the material and spiritual, and all the ups and downs of life.

Written from personal experiences, the album covers the gamut of emotions, often toying with the idea of “Perception creates Confinement.” From unrequited love to passionate lust, self-doubt and destruction, the pains of watching another go through addiction from their eyes, and transformation and rebirth, Beyond the Magik Mirror covers all these themes.

Charelle, who plays guitar and does the vocals as well as writing the tracks, says he is out to make something new, and push the envelope.

Charelle has won numerous awards for his music and performances, from being a part of the NME Online Music Awards for his live performances for five years straight, to winning the Akademia Music Awards in LA in 2016 for Best Funk Song, “Tantric Dance.”

springsteen on broadway
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Bruce Springsteen, Springsteen on Broadway

springsteen on broadway

Springsteen on Broadway is the recent album of music and stories by Bruce Springsteen of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) and Local 399 (Asbury Park, NJ), and the soundtrack of the Netflix film of the same name. The album is the complete live performance of the show.

Based on his worldwide best-selling autobiography Born to Run, Springsteen on Broadway is a unique evening with Bruce, his guitar, a piano, and his very personal stories. On the soundtrack album, each of these stories appears as its own track, labeled as an “introduction” to the song it precedes. In addition, the show features a special appearance by Patti Scialfa of Local 802 (New York City), a member of the E Street Band and Springsteen’s wife.

Bruce Springsteen’s sold-out series of performances of his one-man show opened October 12, 2017. The show was extended three times after its initial eight-week run, and ran on Broadway at The Walter Kerr Theatre through December 15, 2018.

ride me back home
New Releases, Products

Willie Nelson, Ride Me Back Home

ride me back home

Ride Me Back Home, the latest album by Willie Nelson of Local 433 (Austin, TX) is a reflective, upbeat journey through life, of love and time’s inescapable rhythms, as viewed from Nelson’s inimitable perspective. The album finds the artist in full appreciation of every moment, sharing his experience in songs he’s written and songs he loves to sing.

Alongside his new compositions on the album, Nelson pays musical tribute to a variety of pop and country songwriters and performers, covering Billy Joel, Mac Davis of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA), and the late American country/folk artist Guy Clark.

Filling out Ride Me Back Home are Nelson’s interpretation of Buzz Rabin’s classic song, “Maybe I Should Have Been Listening,” his take on Skip Denenberg and Dan “Bee” Spears’ “Nobody’s Listening,” and the artist’s 2019 return to “Stay Away From Lonely Places,” an outlaw country deep cut Nelson first wrote and recorded for his 1972 album The Words Don’t Fit The Picture.

the best of everything
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: The Best of Everything 1976 – 2016

the best of everything

The Best of Everything is the first career-spanning collection of all of Tom Petty’s hits with The Heartbreakers, his solo work, and Mudcrutch.

The 38-track, two-disc set also features two previously unreleased tracks: the poignant and autobiographical “For Real” and the collection’s lead single—an alternate version of the title track, which restores a never-heard second verse to the song that was originally recorded for the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ 1985 album, Southern Accents. This collection also features an essay on Petty written especially for this compilation by Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, author, and journalist Cameron Crowe.

All 38 recordings on The Best of Everything have been remastered for this collection from pristine transfers of the original studio masters.

Petty was a member of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) until his death in 2017.