Tag Archives: new releases

Ann Wilson, Immortal

November 16, 2018 IM

Released September 14
BMG

Immortal marks Local 76-493 (Seattle, WA) member Ann Wilson’s debut for BMG. She teamed up with her original producer from Heart, Mike Flicker. The album features 10 musically diverse tracks.

She explains, “The album is a collection of songs by artists who have departed in the last several years: David Bowie, Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, Glen Frey, and Amy Winehouse, to name a few. These artists may have left their bodies, but their souls and craft live on today. It’s not a tribute, but rather a chance for me to honor these great artists … to thank them for their messages they left while they lived.”

Immortal includes some special guests as well. Warren Haynes plays on Tom Petty’s “Luna” and Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” and Ben Mink of Local 145 (Vancouver, BC) is featured on Leonard Cohen’s “A Thousand Kisses Deep” and Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.” Wilson says that “You Don’t Own Me” was included in part because of the conversations regarding sexual harassment and sexism that have been prominent lately.

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Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” and Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1

November 9, 2018 IM

Released September 21
Reference Recordings

This Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra album was recorded in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall under the direction of Manfred Honeck. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians are members of Local 60-471 (Pittsburgh, PA).

Maestro Honeck’s included music notes give insight to the history of both pieces and describe how he conducts and interprets each. Principal Horn William Caballero gives a masterful performance as a soloist on Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1. The booklet notes include a question and answer session with Caballero and Honeck as Caballero discusses the history and performance of the piece.

This is the eighth release of the Pittsburgh Live! series of multi-channel hybrid SACD releases on the Fresh! series from Reference Recordings. The previous release Shostakovich 5! Barber Adagio won Grammy Awards in 2018 for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Classical Album.

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San Francisco Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

October 26, 2018 IM

Released June 29
SFS Media

This digital-only release from San Francisco Symphony, members of Local 6 (San Francisco, CA), and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), a member of Locals 47 (Los Angeles, CA) and 9-535 (Boston, MA), was recorded during live performances at Davies Symphony Hall in March 2017. Symphony No. 6 is known as Tchaikovsky’s final, and arguably, greatest symphony. Thomas explains that the work requires delicacy and vulnerability, but also requires enormous power. “This symphony, an amazingly constructed piece, is an outpouring of elegant melodic invention,” he says. “I have put my whole soul into this work.” The release follows San Francisco Symphony’s release of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (May 2015) and the inaugural episode of the Keeping Score documentary series (2004), which explored Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

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Guthrie Trapp, Life After Dark

October 19, 2018 IM

Released March 30

Life After Dark is Local 257 (Nashville, TN) member Guthrie Trapp’s second album. The album was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, and pays tribute to Trapp’s musical influences throughout his career, from childhood to the present day. With six covers and seven originals, Life After Dark takes in a wide range of genres, from traditional country and bluegrass to jazz and blues to rock. Trapp says that the album represents his life story. The final track, “So Lonesome I Could Cry,” is dedicated to his mom. Trapp’s guitar mastery is showcased throughout the album with originals “Buckdancer’s Choice” and “Commodity.” His cover of George Jones’ “You’re Still on My Mind” features vocals by Local 257 (Nashville, TN) member Vince Gill and his cover of Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” features Local 257 (Nashville, TN) member Charlie Worsham. Local 257 members Stuart Duncan and Jeff Coffin also appear on the album.

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Jason Mraz, Know

October 12, 2018 IM

Released August 10
Atlantic Records

Jason Mraz of Local 325 (San Diego, CA) has just released his first full-length studio recording, Know, since his 2014 release of Yes!. This album draws on many parts of Mraz’s life, including songs entitled “Unlonely,” “Might as Well Dance,” “More than Friends” (featuring Meghan Trainor), and “Have It All.” His current hit single, “Have It All,” is moving up the Top 40 and has reached the Top 10 at Hot AC radio outlets all over the country. The official video for this track shows Mraz’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and features students from the community, as well as actors Katie Grober and Greg Grunberg. “Might as Well Dance” is also accompanied by a touching video featuring footage from Mraz’s wedding. Know has been highly celebrated by Mraz with set features on NBC’s Today Show Citi Concert Series, Live with Kelly and Ryan, and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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Loretta Lynn, Wouldn’t It Be Great

October 5, 2018 IM

Released September 28
Legacy Records

One of the most personal albums of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) member Loretta Lynn’s career, Wouldn’t It Be Great communicates the universality of the human experience—love and heartbreak, as well as the transformative and connecting power of music. Comprising 13 songs written (or co-written) by the Queen of Country Music, the title song was the last song Lynn wrote for her late husband Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn. The album debuts new songs “Ruby’s Stool,” “Ain’t No Time to Go,” and “I’m Dying for Someone to Live For,” and new renditions of classics like “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” “This new record means so much to me, but this last year I had to focus on my health and I decided to hold up the release,” she says. “I’m feeling good and look forward to it coming out. It was really important to me to be a part of it being released and I’m excited to celebrate with everybody!”

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Kenny Chesney, Songs for the Saints

September 22, 2018 IM

Released July 27
Blue Chair Records/Warner Music Nashville

Kenny Chesney of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) has long called the US Virgin Islands his second home. He even says his time spent there has shaped the man he has become. In 2017, when he began writing the songs on this album—“Song for the Saints,” then “Love for Love City”—he was worried about people in the Virgin Islands who were riding out a Category 5 hurricane. “I was so scared for a lot of people and places that I really loved,” he says. “I was anxious, and I was thousands of miles away. I needed to do something that would let those people know they weren’t going to be forgotten when the news cycle moved on. I had no idea it would be an album, but the songs were something they could sing.” Songs for the Saints features 12 tracks, of which Chesney wrote or co-wrote five. Local 257 member Jimmy Buffet, Ziggy Marley, and Mindy Smith also appear on the album.

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John Prine, The Tree of Forgiveness

September 15, 2018 IM

Released April 13
Oh Boy Records

The Tree of Forgiveness is Local 257 (Nashville, TN) member John Prine’s first album of new music since his 2005 Grammy-winning album Fair and Square. Prine takes everyday themes like loneliness or heartbreak and creates humorous and quirky tunes, many of them co-written with close friends. Dave Cobb produced the album recorded in Nashville’s Studio A. The album was recorded on Prine’s own label, Oh Boy Records, which happens to be Nashville’s longest operating indie label, founded in 1981. Prine won his first Grammy for The Missing Years (1991). His self-titled album from 1971 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014. He was awarded the PEN New England’s Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award in 2016 and named Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association in 2017, at age 70.

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High Valley, Farmhouse Sessions

September 8, 2018 IM

Released March 23
Warner Music Nashville

High Valley, brothers Brad and Curtis Rempel, of Local 390 (Edmonton, AB), stripped down seven tracks from their Atlantic Records/WMN album Dear Life to create Farmhouse Sessions. Recorded on a farm outside of Nashville, the acoustic album showcases the Rempel brothers’ musicianship, honed over years of practice growing up in rural Canada. The album includes the group’s first top 10 single “I’m With Her” and the Canadian chart topper “I Be U Be.” “We were out on our first headline tour in the US this fall and witnessed so many amazing fans singing our songs back to us,” says Brad. “We wanted to share that feeling with everyone, so we put together a few of our favorites.” Dear Life was nominated for Country Album of the Year at the 2018 JUNO Awards. High Valley also was nominated ACM New Vocal Duo or Group of the Year and Dear Life was nominated as JUNO 2018 Country Album of the Year.

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Punch Brothers, All Ashore

September 1, 2018 IM

Released July 20
Nonesuch Records

The self-produced album All Ashore includes nine originals from the Punch Brothers, a quintet of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) members Chis Thile (mandolin/lead singer), Chris Eldridge (guitar), Paul Kowert (bass), and Noam Pikelny (banjo), and Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member Gabe Witcher (fiddle). Thile says the album is “a meditation on committed relationships in the present day, particularly, in the present political climate.” It is the bands’ fourth album. “Going in we knew what we needed it to sound like and I think we had a specific enough vision to make the reality match up with that,” he says. The self-produced album was recorded at United Recording Studios in Hollywood in the same room as their previous release, The Phosphorescent Blues (2015) and Antifogmatic (2010). Punch Brothers began a 36-city tour in July.

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