Monthly Archives: February 2019

TVD Live: Chuck Prophet at Jammin’ Java, 2/15

By Roger Catlin | Published: February 28, 2019

A whirlwind tour in Spain with Charlie Sexton playing the whole of The Rolling Stones’ Some Girls may not be the best practice for a solo tour, but it may have given Chuck Prophet a little extra slashing on his acoustic guitar at the start of a quite different tour.

It was a solo excursion, though this time accompanied by his wife and member of his Mission Express band, Stephanie Finch. And it occurred at recent return visit to Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA, which he called “my favorite club in a strip mall that formally was a Christian worship place—and I’ve played all of them!”

It was Finch’s voice that was raspy and lower than usual due to being under the weather, bringing her closer to what she said was her fantasy—sounding like Marianne Faithfull. Prophet was chipper and rocking and all around entertaining as usual.

In a generous evening of nearly two dozen songs over two sets, he offered several of his usual crowd pleasers, but in a style that sometimes didn’t have the same impact. To his anthem “Wish Me Luck,” whose titular refrain is usually offered by a couple of heavy band chords, this one only had the tiny plink-plink of Finch’s keyboard. He tried to improvise, adding a humming horn on “I Call Your Name.”

Temple Beautiful, his 2012 ode to his home town of San Francisco, continues to be a mainstay of his shows, with four of its selections featured, including that harbinger of the new season “Willie Mays is Up to Bat.” The 2014 Night Surfer also got a good sampling, with four songs including his winning salute to a key piece of band equipment, “Ford Econoline.”

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TVD Radar: Craft Recordings to reissue CCR titles as breakout half-speed mastered editions, in stores 3/15

By TVD HQ | Published: February 28, 2019

PHOTO: DIDI ZILL, VIA PRESS RELEASE | Continuing the 50th anniversary celebration of all things Creedence, Craft Recordings is pleased to announce breakout half-speed mastered editions for the band’s first two studio albums, their self-titled 1968 debut, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the 1969 follow-up Bayou Country (previously available only as part of The Studio Albums Collection box set), to be released March 15th.

Both titles have been mastered at half-speed at Abbey Road Studios, benefiting from an exacting process that allows for an exceptional level of sonic clarity and punch, bringing these classic recordings a new vibrancy. The 180-gram LPs come housed in handsome tip-on jackets replicating the packaging of the original pressings. Using high-res transfers from the original analog tapes, the half-speed mastering process involves playing back audio at half its recorded speed while the cutting lathe is turned at half the desired playback speed. This technique allows more time to cut a micro-precise groove, enabling more accuracy with frequency extremes and dynamic contrasts.

About Creedence Clearwater Revival | Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1968 self-titled debut album introduced the world to guitar-playing brothers John and Tom Fogerty, drummer Doug Clifford, and bassist Stu Cook, four young men out of El Cerrito in the San Francisco Bay Area. Though they emerged in a place and time where trippy, psychedelic visions were the order of the day, CCR bucked the trends and instead tapped into a rich, traditional seam of American music that connected to blues, country, rockabilly, gospel, folk, and R&B. Creedence Clearwater Revival features the band’s classic hits “Porterville” and “Suzie Q.,” plus their iconic cover of “I Put a Spell on You.”

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Kara Connolly,
The TVD First Date

By Special to TVD | Published: February 28, 2019

“The first record I remember listening to on vinyl was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Stevie looked like such a magical gypsy on the cover and I have to admit I felt cool even touching it.”

“‘Dreams’ is a mystical masterpiece; timeless, textured, spooky, but soothing, and giving crystal visions life. I was in a play in college that used Rumours as much of its soundtrack and it instantly brought me back to that first time hearing the album in that record store years prior. The crazy thing is that I recently got the opportunity to meet and perform for Ken Caillat (co-producer of Rumours) at his studio and write and record with his artist development team. I’m grateful for all of their talents and kindness. It was definitely a pinch yourself moment for me.

There’s something about wandering around a record store, picking up whatever cover catches your eye and reading the liner notes, that is just irreplaceable in this day and age. In a record store, music discovery is tangible. That physical connection with both the music and also with strangers or employees who would take you around and show you what they were currently listening to, was something special.

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Glen Matlock,
The TVD Interview

By Roger Catlin | Published: February 28, 2019

Glen Matlock’s rock cred begins early, as a founding member of the Sex Pistols, co-writer of nine of the 11 songs on the band’s single studio album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, and first to part company with the punk pioneers.

The famous story circulated is that he was booted for being a Beatles fan (false!), but he was arguably the most musically adept Pistol (only to be replaced by the least, Sid Vicious).

But apart from Johnny Rotten & Co., Matlock went on to form the high-profile Rich Kids before appearing in a number of projects—on the 1980 Soldier LP with Iggy Pop, a Damned stab, a reunited Faces, and for one more go round the Pistols again for their various tours this century.

But he’s also fronted his own bands and solo albums, the latest of which, Good to Go, which he recorded with Earl Slick and Slim Jim Phantom, was issued late last year, in a year that saw him opening a European Tour with Dropkick Murphys and playing the DMZ Peace Festival on the border of North and South Korea.

Matlock, 62, was just back from South America when he chatted The Vinyl District from London via Skype about his latest single which has already been named “Coolest Song in the World” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel on Sirius XM.

Tell me what’s behind the new single, “Keep on Pushing.”

It’s kind of Shakespearean really. You’re kicking against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. At this stage in life, as a musician, that means just keeps doing it anyway, carrying on regardless. You have ideas for things, you see something in the paper and you say, no, you can’t do that. And I say, why not just do it?

It gets to be a frustration and it’s a general sort of yardstick for life, really. I mean the refrain is, “Keep on pushing, it might just be enough.” And one day that little straw will break the camel’s back. Whether you’re railing against government, or your personal life and the girl who won’t go out with you. If you ask her one more time, she might. All those kinds of things.

You don’t want to be specific, so it can refer to a lot of different things.

I tend to write esoteric a little bit. Even a song from years ago, “Pretty Vacant,” it’s not a particularly specific song. It’s more of a primal scream.

It seems like “Keep on Pushing” is a little more optimistic than saying “No future” in a song.

That’s John’s lyric, that one, but I believe even then he wasn’t saying there’s no future, he wasn’t saying it’s great that there’s no future; there’s no future unless you do something about it for yourself. Same kind of vibe. You know, there’s only supposed to be seven story lines in the art world. You know, tragedy, love, murder, I don’t know exactly what they are. So you tend to retread the same ground, a little bit, in your song writing, but you just have to put a different slant on it.

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Graded on a Curve: New in Stores for February 2019, Part Four

By Joseph Neff | Published: February 28, 2019

Part four of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases—and more—presently in stores for February, 2019. Part one is here, part two is here, and part three is here.

REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICK: Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages (Hivemind) It’s still only February, and it’s already been a swell year for fans of “out” guitar, with new stuff from the Hedvig Mollestad Trio and the Dave Harrington Group plus reissues of Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and now this 45 RPM 2LP reissue of Sharrock’s killer 1991 album originally released on Bill Laswell’s Axiom Records. At the time, it really set things right, as Sharrock had been on something of a creative losing streak, at least for fans of his playing in punk-jazz monsters Last Exit and his first two solo records Black Woman and Monkey-Pockie-Boo. What producer Laswell (who played bass in Last Exit) pulled-off here, essentially launching Sharrock from the recognizable platform of the jazz quartet, was nothing short of miraculous.

To elaborate, the music extends from a quartet zone informed by the innovations of John Coltrane, an idea that’s embraced to the maximum by grabbing saxophonist Pharoah Sanders (who blows tenor and soprano here) and drummer Elvin Jones, with bassist Charnett Moffett (who like his drummer father Charles, played with Ornette) completing the band. Sanders wastes no time in dishing some prime lung fury, Jones is as muscular and fleet as a fan of the Classic Quartet would hope, and Moffett is a hefty as ’70s Jackie Gleeson. What’s most impressive is how Sharrock doesn’t get overshadowed in a context that never really morphs into full-on skronk mania. Fire Music fans (and audiophiles) will appreciate. A

John Hartford, Backroads, Rivers & Memories—The Rare & Unreleased John Hartford (Real Gone) Deft on a variety of instruments (but especially banjo), warm of voice, and a songwriter of distinction (he penned “Gentle on My Mind,” included here, though his talent was more idiosyncratic than that), for many Hartford’s finest moment is Aereo-Plain; bluntly, thousands in the field of Americana owe him a debt. Before all that, he was a television personality, appearing on the variety shows of the Smothers Brothers, Glen Campbell, and Johnny Cash while working as a session musician, notably contributing to Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Hartford was also tenacious in recording his early progressions, which are offered on this CD with 19 tracks previously unreleased.

There’re also three songs from a radio show (WHOW, Clinton IL) with Pat Burton on guitar and Nate Bray on mandolin, plus the four singles from Hartford’s Ozark Mountain Trio; for bluegrass nuts, these eight songs will justify the price of ownership all by themselves. While there is a 36 second first rehearsal excerpt of “Steam Powered Aereo Plain” and a wonderfully wacked spoken “Station Break” that kinda reminds me of what might’ve transpired had a young Garrison Keillor joined the Firesign Theater, this isn’t as eccentric as Hartford regularly was later. Think of it this way; if Aereo-Plain planted the seed that became Newgrass, these are the movements that led to Hartford’s 1971 classic. With notes by Skip Heller, a sure sign of quality. A-

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In rotation: 2/28/19

By TVD HQ | Published: February 28, 2019

Here’s the List of Rumoured Record Store Day 2019 Releases: Record Store Day is once again approaching. And once again, the sprawling list of rumoured Record Store Day 2019 releases has leaked ahead of the official announcement. Like every year, users over on Reddit have dug up a list of RSD exclusives rumoured to be arriving on April 13. It goes without saying, though, that the list is very much still a work in progress, with the majority of the titles apparently coming from the France list at this point. Still, if years past are anything to go by, the list should give you a good idea what you can expect this RSD…A few highlights from the rumoured list include releases from David Bowie, U2, Weezer, Morrissey, the Rolling Stones, Roxy Music, Prince, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Iggy Pop, John Lennon, Thee Oh Sees, Fleetwood Mac, Gorillaz, Green Day, Ennio Morricone, Lou Reed, Madonna, Mastodon, and Queen.

Alexandria, VA | ‘Rat Tunnels’ Forced Crooked Beat Records Out Of The District. Now High Rents Are Keeping Them Out: Crooked Beat Records was a staple Adams Morgan record store for 12 years when it closed its storefront in 2016. Human residents of D.C. loved it, and apparently so did rodents. “Yes. The rumors were true. There were rat tunnels were going as far as 28 feet below our old location in D.C. … it was a city within a city under the store,” Crooked Beat wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend announcing that it would not be moving back to Adams Morgan. The store was apparently in the middle of negotiations with a building owner trying to open a location in its old neighborhood, but couldn’t reach a deal and withdrew its offer. Crooked Beat owner Bill Daly tells DCist high rent has been a serious problem as he tries to look for a new location in the city. He says he’s offering to pay 30 to 35 percent more in rent than he paid for his old Adams Morgan spot, but things always end up being more expensive than that. He is “shying away more from D.C. because we’re running out of options with the rents,” Daly says. “We’re kind of hitting a dead end.”

Modesto, CA | Modesto’s old Babies R Us gets a new, rocking tenant as Rasputin Music to move in: So much for music stores all dying out. But then I guess when you’re named after one of history’s most infamous mystics, the rules simply don’t apply. The Rasputin Music store in north Modesto is moving to a new, much larger location. It will take over the vacant Babies R Us site on Sisk Road, in the process filling one of the large retail vacancies left from recent national chain store closures. The music and DVD store opened on Dale Road, two doors down from Trader Joe’s, in late 2014. Since then, the store has sold new and used CDS, vinyl records, DVDs and other related merchandise. The new site will be a combination Rasputin and Anastasia New & Vintage Clothing store, bringing a large selection of new and used apparel into the mix.

Okki Nokki RCM cleans records without cleaning out your bank account: It’s always tempting to bolster your vinyl collection with second-hand finds, but not everyone is as careful as you. If you’re looking to keep your record library in tip-top condition and hear them play at their best, a record cleaning machine could be the answer. However, many can cost more than some turntables. Fear not, Dutch brand Okki Nokki has the solution. Okki Nokki comes from Holland and is one of Europe’s best-selling record cleaning machines. Now, thanks to County Durham-based hi-fi distributor Decent Audio, it can easily be purchased here. The Okki Nokki RCM (Record Cleaning Machine) is a compact yet powerful piece of kit whose build quality, features, and performance might reasonably be expected to come with a high price tag. Conceived initially around 15 years ago by Dutch designer Johan Bezem, its design and construction have steadily and deliberately evolved, adding a raft of enhancements while keeping the price firmly in check.

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TVD Radar: Steve Earle
& The Dukes announce March record store tour

By TVD HQ | Published: February 27, 2019

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Steve Earle & The Dukes are set to release GUY on March 29th, 2019. A return to New West Records, the 16-song set is composed of songs written by one of his two primary songwriting mentors, the legendary Guy Clark.

GUY appears ten years after his Grammy Award winning album TOWNES, his tribute to his other songwriting mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Produced by Earle and recorded by his longtime production partner Ray Kennedy, GUY features his latest, and possibly best, incarnation of his backing band The Dukes including Kelley Looney on bass, Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle & mandolin, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel guitar, and Brad Pemberton on drums and percussion. GUY also features guest appearances by fellow Guy Clark cohorts Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Terry Allen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mickey Raphael, Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, Gary Nicholson, and the photographer Jim McGuire.

Steve Earle first met Guy Clark after hitchhiking from San Antonio to Nashville in 1974. A few months after his arrival, he found himself taking over for a young Rodney Crowell as bassist in Guy’s band. “No way I could get out of doing this record,” says Earle. “When I get to the other side, I didn’t want to run into Guy having made the TOWNES record and not one about him.”

“Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark were like Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to me.” The mercurial Van Zandt (1944-1997) who once ordered his teenage disciple to chain him to a tree in hopes that it would keep him from drinking, was the On The Road quicksilver of youth. Clark, 33 at the time Earle met him, was a longer lasting, more mellow burn. “When it comes to mentors, I’m glad I had both,” says Earle.

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Eric Traub, veteran saxophonist with a luscious sound, has passed away

By Jay Mazza | Published: February 27, 2019

PHOTO: MR. B | For lovers of New Orleans music, the saxophone work of the great Eric Traub was everywhere, but unless you were a musician, a serious devotee of live music or a record collector, his genius was often hiding in plain sight. A longtime member of Dr. John’s band, he worked with a who’s who of New Orleans music over the course of over 40 years including deceased legends like Johnny Adams and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown as well as dozens upon dozens of artists still active today.

Eric Traub, who passed away February 15, was a consummate musician, performer, composer and mentor to hundreds of younger musicians. His style on tenor saxophone was informed by some of the undersung greats of the 1950s like Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. He could blow down the walls, but he also had a subtle touch on a ballad we are unlikely to ever hear again.

A brief period performing with the trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson, beginning with his album New Vintage in 1977, marked Traub’s early career. But it was his move to New Orleans in the early 1980s that began a remarkable run of recordings and live performances.

Early on in his tenure as an adopted son, he worked with Johnny Adams on Johnny Adams Sings Doc Pomus: The Real Me, which appeared in 1991. But it was his work a year later, along with numerous other horn players including Charles Neville and Alvin “Red” Tyler (the horn arranger on the Adams album), on Dr. John’s career-defining effort Going Back to New Orleans that signaled he had arrived as an ace ensemble player and a first rate R&B soloist.

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TVD Vinyl Giveaway: Green Book OST

By TVD HQ | Published: February 27, 2019

If you’re keeping a scorecard for Oscars 2019, you no doubt know that Green Book is a heavy hitter this year with nominations for Best Picture, Best Lead Actor for Viggo Mortensen, Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, Best Original Screenplay, Best in Film Editing—and its official soundtrack just surpassed 1 million streams globally. And for those of you thinking, “Hey, that’s a great achievement, but what about the vinyl soundtrack?” …we’ve got you covered.

The official soundtrack from the award-winning motion picture Green Book has surpassed 1 million streams globally, marking it the highest streamed jazz soundtrack released by Milan Records. The soundtrack, featuring an original score by composer Kris Bowers, has seen a steady increase in daily streams, from roughly 10,000 streams per day in January 2019 to now closer to 20,000 streams per day.

Milan Records says of the achievement, “It’s been a hugely rewarding process to work on the soundtrack album with Kris Bowers and his team, Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe, and Paul Katz. Kris’ score is remarkable and stands proudly as the work of a born virtuoso. It also has had no trouble connecting with music streaming audiences, contrary to conventional wisdom surrounding the marriage of jazz and music streaming. With more than 650,000 streams to date, Kris’s music is getting the attention it so rightfully deserves and is receiving by far the highest number of streams of any of our jazz-infused soundtrack albums. We look forward to seeing what Kris does next!”

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Graded on a Curve: Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Bad Guy

By Michael H. Little | Published: February 27, 2019

A Freddie Mercury solo album? Hot damn! I didn’t even know such a creature existed until I watched Bohemian Rhapsody last week. And immediately thought, “Man, that album has just got to be shit! I’d better listen to it right now!”

And guess what? 1985’s Mr. Bad Guy IS shit, and what makes it even worse is the fact that it was two years in the making. That said it’s relatively good-natured shit; if it seems Freddie’s working too hard and getting nowhere throughout, to his credit he has tongue firmly planted in cheek (watch out for that overbite!).

One thing you can’t accuse Mercury of is trying to recreate the Queen sound without Queen; on the other hand, he seems to be slumming. Most of the LP is either your standard flatulent mid-’80s shlock (lots of over the top ballads) or sleazy Eurodisco. Warning to fans of Queen’s rock operatic bombast–there’s not a single rock song on the album. And there’s no opera either!

Just a few electric guitar touches here and there, and (for all you opera fans) the ersatz “Bohemian Rhapsody” substitute that is the title cut, which dispenses with both figaro and magnifico in favor of a symphonic shlock and proceeds to plod, plod, plod. “Mr. Bad Guy” is to “Bohemian Rhapsody” what Alvin Stardust is to Ziggy Stardust. Aside from the amusing lyrics this clunker has nothing to offer the world, and I can hardly believe Freddie expended his vocal chords on it when he could have just soon covered Alice Cooper’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”

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TVD Premiere: Moniker, “Private Prophet” EP

By Mike Olinger | Published: February 27, 2019

Richmond-based rockers Moniker may live a long way from NYC, but the quartet’s tuneful punk rock sonnets channel the grit and glory of the Big Apple.

Today, TVD has the pleasure of premiering the band’s latest EP, “Private Prophet,” which lends itself to the uncompromising early stylings of The Velvet Underground and other NYC luminaries. Lead singer-songwriter Jordan Scott’s effortlessly melodic and compact rock nuggets are imbued with the kind of hot and heavy lyricism that endeared millions of listeners to Lou Reed’s musings, while the drums, bass and keys double down with fierce, unpretentious grooves.

The themes at play on the record tend to touch on the push and pull between best laid plans and life’s realities. Scott seems to approach his songwriting with the intention to chart his personal growth, weaving his personal philosophies through the five tracks, veering erratically from big picture ideas to everyday details while keeping the content lean, mean, and meaningful.

“Private Prophet” arrives in stores on March 1.

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Graded on a Curve: Professor Longhair,
Live in Chicago

By Joseph Neff | Published: February 27, 2019

Prior to his passing in 1980, the New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair reliably delivered the goods to club and festival audiences far and wide. For evidence, please consult Live in Chicago; cut at the University of Chicago Folk Festival on February 1, 1976, it offers a fine dose of the man’s immediately recognizable sound.

Professor Longhair’s 1970s renaissance is one of the sweeter late acts in the whole of 20th century American music; throughout the decade Henry Roeland Byrd was knocking out crowds on festival stages across the USA and Europe, but before the Alligator label’s 1980 release of Crawfish Fiesta the pianist was still primarily known on home stereos for his ‘50s work as collected by Atlantic on their classic ’72 LP New Orleans Piano.

Amid his newfound fortune new Fess material was largely approached with disinterest; as detailed in John Sinclair’s notes for Live in Chicago, he did record with Snooks Eaglin circa ’71-’72, but the results languished on the shelf until Rounder put them out in ‘87 as House Party New Orleans Style (Rhino followed suit four years later under the tile Mardi Gras in Baton Rouge).

Rock & Roll Gumbo paired the Professor with the guitar and violin of Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, but it was contemporaneously issued only in France on the Blue Star imprint, and other than Live on the Queen Mary, a ’78 album capturing a performance at a party hosted by Paul and Linda McCartney, there was basically nothing else.

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In rotation: 2/27/19

By TVD HQ | Published: February 27, 2019

Scarborough, UK | Record Store Day launch party at Record Revivals – including unveiling of exclusive releases: Vinyl specialists Record Revivals will reveal exclusive releases – to celebrate Record Store Day – at a launch party on Thursday February 28. Record Store Day is the one day of the year when more than 200 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Record Store Day 2019 will take place on Saturday April 13 and Scarborough’s sole Record Store Day shop is Record Revivals in Northway. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day and many shops and cities host artist performances and events to mark the occasion. The list of exclusive releases will be unveiled at 6pm on Thursday February 28 and the Record Revivals party starts at 5pm and goes on until 8pm.

Vinyl coming to a radio station near you!

Over 100 Radio Stations Will Go Vinyl-Only For Charity Event Vinylthon 2019, With Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine in Support: Across the USA and the world, radio stations will celebrate the unique format of vinyl by going vinyl-only on Vinylthon, April 13, 2019. Stations playing vinyl for 24 hours will win the Golden Slipmat Award to recognize their deep passion for vinyl. Vinylthon is an event for the entire radio industry, which also takes place on worldwide Record Store Day. Organized by the College Radio Foundation and open to all radio stations, commercial and non-commercial, Vinylthon is the radio industry’s response to the remarkable vinyl renaissance that has occurred around the world. The College Radio Foundation gives grants to college radio stations to keep them on the air. Vinylthon 2019 will be the fourth Vinylthon event, and proceeds will go to their College Radio Fund that supports college radio stations.

Dogfish Head Brewery Teams with David Lemieux for Grateful Dead-Themed Record Store Day Release: Dogfish Head Brewery has announced an exclusive Record Store Day release, enlisting Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux to curate a 10-inch vinyl. Sage and Spirit will be a “soundtrack to a summer day” and feature Grateful Dead favorites like “Sugar Magnolia,” “Eyes Of The World,” “Lost Sailor,” “Saint Of Circumstance,” “High Time,” “Unbroken Chain,” “If I Had The World To Give” and, of course, “Sage and Spirit.” According to press release, the LP will also include live cuts of “Jack Straw” and “Brown-Eyed Women” from the Dead’s famed Europe ’72 run. “Choosing the songs for ‘Sage & Spirit’ really didn’t take long, but that’s not to say I didn’t put a lot of work into it. My directive was, ‘You’re sitting on the porch. It’s a summer day. You’re drinking a Dogfish Head American Beauty and listening to the Dead,’ and immediately I thought, ‘I got it,’” Lemieux said.

Garth Brooks unveils his elaborate vinyl “Legacy” collection, with pre-orders starting tonight: Starting tonight at 7 p.m. ET, Garth Brooks steps into the vinyl world in a major way. That’s when you’ll be able to pre-order the five-album, seven-record set known as Legacy . Garth unveiled the artwork for the collection — which shows an astronaut in space with E rth in the background — on Monday during his weekly Inside Studio G chat on Facebook. Legacy will be available in three different packages: the original analog versions on vinyl; the remixed-remastered series with the updated tracks on vinyl; and a limited package that includes both the analog records and digital discs with bonus tracks. Legacy will also include the three-disc Triple Live project Garth recorded on his World Tour. You can find out more about the project when the pre-order goes live at 7 p.m. ET tonight at GarthBrooks.com/vinyl.

What Does a Canceled Ryan Adams Album Mean for Record Stores? Earlier this month, the first of three Ryan Adams albums slated for 2019, Big Colors, was put on hold indefinitely after several women, including Phoebe Bridgers and Adams’ ex-wife Mandy Moore, told the New York Times about Adams’ alleged history of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct. Big Colors was due for an April 19th release on Adams’ own label Pax-Am, via Blue Note Records and Capitol Music Group. The album’s iTunes pre-order and pre-release listing on streaming services were quickly pulled. But much of Adams’ core audience still buys music at record stores. What does it mean for those shops when a major artist has his album pulled? And as streaming platforms face scrutiny for how they handle music by artists accused of abuse, what is the responsibility of a physical record store in the #MeToo era?

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TVD Live: The Chills at the Black Cat, 2/24

By Joseph Neff | Published: February 26, 2019

PHOTOS: JON THOM MOODIE | Led by songwriter-vocalist-guitarist Martin Phillipps, New Zealand’s The Chills haven’t toured in the USA since 1996. That’s a long time. Long enough in fact that when this cornerstone of the Kiwi Flying Nun experience announced a 2019 tour of the States, high expectations were unavoidable. That’s in large part because the current lineup’s recent work, in particular 2018’s Snow Bound, has offered substantial rewards. However, it’s also true that outstanding music by veteran outfits doesn’t always fully translate to live performance bliss, making disappointment a real possibility. How’d The Chills’ February 25th show at Washington, DC’s Black Cat turn out? Dear reader, the answer is awaiting below.

It should be mentioned straightaway that when it comes to geographical sounds, the ’80s New Zealand Flying Nun Records explosion remains one of my favorites. And yet, with the exception of catching David Kilgour (twice), my up-close-and-personal experience with this scene is zilch. Talk about intensifying expectations. Understandably given the circumstances, when the opportunity arose to see The Chills at the Black Cat, my thoughts beforehand focused entirely on the main attraction and not on the opening acts, of which there were two.

Still, my friend and I arrived early, shortly after the start of the first band’s set. They were called Springhouse. It rang a bell, but at my age I’ve encountered more than a few false alarms. The music they played was solid melodic rock, moderately anthemic and more than a touch Anglo, with some interesting guitar textures. Not at all bad.

Then the drummer came out front to play shakers for a song. Once it was over, he was announced to the crowd as what sounded like Jack Rabbit, which I thought was kind of a lame handle. After rolling it over in my head a few times, it suddenly occurred to me that it was actually Jack Rabid, as in the indefatigable publisher of The Big Takeover and oh yeah, Springhouse, I remember them now.

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TVD Radar: Steve Miller Band, Complete Albums Volume 2 (1977-2011) box set in stores 5/24

By TVD HQ | Published: February 26, 2019

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 2018, the legendary Steve Miller Band’s Complete Albums Volume 1 (1968-1976) debuted as an unprecedented and acclaimed 9LP vinyl box set, individual 180-gram black vinyl LPs, and color vinyl LPs, and HD digital audio.

Today, Steve Miller and Capitol/UMe are incredibly excited to announce plans for the May 24 global release of the collection’s second volume, presenting nine more Steve Miller Band studio albums in a new 180-gram vinyl box set called Complete Albums Volume 2 (1977-2011). Spanning the band’s multi-platinum 10th studio album, 1977’s Book of Dreams, through 2011’s Let Your Hair Down, the albums have all been remastered and are available now for preorder. Each album is also available for preorder as individual 180-gram black LPs to be released on the same date, as well as limited edition 180-gram color vinyl LPs for sale exclusively via uDiscoverMusic.

Complete Albums Volume 2’s nine studio albums have also been newly remastered for HD digital audio (96kHz/24-bit). Starting with the global release of Book of Dreams and Circle of Love, the albums’ HD digital audio debuts will continue with two titles per week in chronological order ahead of the Complete Albums Volume 2 vinyl release.

Steve Miller Band will be hitting the road again this year — first this spring for an evening with the Steve Miller Band, and then this summer with the great Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives supporting a 36-city cross-country trek — “An Amazing Evening of Original American Music – Classic Rock Meets Classic Country.”