VIA PRESS RELEASE | Red Poppy Films has announced the premiere of It Was the Music, a 10 episodes series chronicling the lives and love of veteran musicians Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mark Moskowitz (Stone Reader), It Was the Music premieres Sunday, December 13 on FANS, the leading concert and music streaming platform. With FANS, new episodes will debut every Sunday through February 14 with the exception of Sunday, January 3.

​To celebrate the series premiere, a unique livestream event will take place on December 13 at 8 PM ET and will include special performances, conversations, and watch-party with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Emmylou Harris, and Buddy Miller. The event is hosted by actor David Keith and will be available on Fans.

It Was the Music is both a musical odyssey and deeply personal love story about two musicians who, in search of what they call “music utopia,” step off the tour bus and into the limelight to make it on their own. A 3x GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, and bandleader, Larry Campbell is a true veteran hailed for his defining work with such artists as Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes, and many more.

Known for her resonant alto and passion for music “that comes from the dirt,” Teresa Williams is an exceptional singer/actor known for her highly acclaimed roles as Sara Carter in Keep On The Sunny Side and the title role in Always….Patsy Cline as well as her serving as a stellar vocalist for Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Peter Wolf, to name but a few. Having at long last set forth on their own joint musical career, It Was the Music sees the couple packing their bags, guitars, amps, and 30-year marriage into their SUV and setting out across America to sing their own extraordinary songs along with riveting interpretations of beloved gospel, blues, country, and classic rock ‘n’ roll.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Rolling Stones announce the release of Honk, an exclusive 3LP in ‘Stones Red’ featuring some of the biggest hits from every Rolling Stones studio album from 1971 – 2016’s Blue & Lonesome.

​The LP is priced at $60 and is available to buy exclusively in the RS No.9 Carnaby store at 9 Carnaby Street, London and online. Honk is a triple LP compilation of some of the band’s best known songs including “Wild Horses,” “Angie,” “Brown Sugar” and many more. The cover of the vinyl can also be brought to life with a very special Instagram lens filter which can be found on the RS No.9 Carnaby Instagram profile @rollingstonescarnaby. Honk is the latest instalment in the series of vinyl records produced in the new ‘Stones Red’ color.

About RS No 9. Carnaby | The Rolling Stones opened their world-first flagship store in September, ‘RS No. 9 Carnaby’ at 9 Carnaby Street in London’s Soho. The new store, created in partnership with Bravado, Universal Music Group’s merchandise and brand management company, features all of the hallmarks of the iconic band and includes exclusive new fashion label ‘RS No. 9 Carnaby’.

Jointly curated by the Rolling Stones and Bravado, the shop fit follows the brand colours of red and black. The glass floor features many of the band’s lyrics, and the fitting rooms are adorned with iconic album artwork; Exile on Main Street (1972) and Some Girls (1978). Inside, there is an exclusive and curated mix of collections and collaborations for fans of all ages.

Sound, vision, and lighting are key store components. Five, 90 inch portrait screens display a film made exclusively for the store showing footage across the rich history of the band. Speakers from high end British audio brand Bowers & Wilkins will play tracks from the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. The store also features a bespoke T-shirt customization station—choose from an array of exclusive designs on the touch screen menu to create something unique.

“Vinyl is a ritual. It’s a smell. It’s warmth and nostalgia wrapped in a tangible package. Something you can hold in your hands and be transported anywhere—any point in time, any period of your life.”

“My earliest memories of vinyl will always be waking up at my Mawmaw’s and going to yard sales with her looking for old albums. Flipping through the dust and deterioration, hit with the scent of bygone decades, enveloped in those weathered covers of artists I’d never heard of stacked out in someone’s front yard. Or in my dad’s workshop where George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn hung without fail watching over him on the walls, singing their heart-wrenchingly genuine sort of country as he worked.

My own collection began with what was to become my favorite record: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream & Other Delights. I’ll never forget the day I first saw it. The back of some thrift store in Birmingham, and of course a beautiful woman covered in whipped cream caught my eye. Looking out at me mischievously with her finger in her mouth from the wooden bins.

I loved the production and arrangements, the melodies and overall feel of that record so much. Now it’s one of the most parodied album covers of all time—Sweet Cream, Sour Cream, Clam Dip, Spaghetti Sauce and all the other delights. I collect them all now. Any time I come across one, you better believe it’s leaving that record store or front yard with me… if it’s less than five bucks at least. Even more recently, when he was still a puppy, my dog Merle used to howl at the string section of “Lady Fingers.” And it’s memories like this that instill in something such a sense of significance in one’s life. These are the things you remember.

It goes without saying these encounters left a lasting impression on me. They propelled me into a life of music. From trumpet in the band in high school to shows at the Bottle Tree in Birmingham to see Beach House, St. Vincent, The XX, and Blitzen Trapper, to the development of my own career as a songwriter and musician in Nashville.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings continues their salute to the enduring musical legacy of Creedence Clearwater Revival with the release of half-speed mastered editions of the band’s two final albums: Pendulum, which was released exactly 50 years ago today (December 9, 1970), and their closing studio album, 1972’s Mardi Gras. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl and set for release February 12th, both records were mastered by the award-winning engineer Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Available for pre-order beginning today, these audiophile-quality LPs come housed in beautifully crafted jackets (tip-on gatefold for Pendulum and embossed for Mardi Gras), replicating the albums’ original packaging.

​Pendulum, which marked CCR’s second release of 1970—following Cosmo’s Factory—was a unique title in the band’s catalog for several reasons. First, the album was the group’s sole LP to feature all original material. Typically, CCR sprinkled covers of blues songs, traditional material, and rock ‘n’ roll standards into each of their albums, putting their own spin on classic favorites. Pendulum also found the guitar-heavy group expanding their sonic palate—experimenting with new sounds (including the use of saxophones, vocal choirs, and keyboards) and even venturing into psychedelia.

The quartet’s musical explorations paid off. Not only was Pendulum a critical success, but it also spawned two global Top Ten hits: the reflective “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and the upbeat “Hey Tonight.” The singles, released as a double A-side in 1971, peaked at No.8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Other highlights included the stomper “Molina,” the bluesy “Pagan’s Groove” and the twangy “Sailor’s Lament.” Recently, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” gained renewed popularity with the 2018 launch of a new official music video featuring Sasha Frolova, Jack Quaid, and Erin Moriarty (the latter two also featuring in Amazon’s smash hit series, The Boys), introducing the song to a new generation. To date, the video—available on the official CCR YouTube channel—has received over 61 million plays.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | 8 Disc Box Set (7 CDs + DVD) with all of Skydog’s Iggy and the Stooges releases plus a 48-page booklet and detailed notes by Iggy Pop biographer, Paul Trynka.

When the riotous, confrontational “last ever” Iggy & the Stooges gig Metallic KO was issued in 1976 on the French indie Skydog label, it heralded the punk movement and cemented Iggy’s position in it. Iggy’s career then took off, and a lengthy liaison between Skydog and Iggy Pop continued, with releases through and beyond the Stooges reunion 29 years later.

Here are all of the Skydog label’s Iggy releases, remastered, in a clam-shell box set containing seven CDs and a DVD—a fitting tribute to the label’s punk pioneer boss Marc Zermati, who passed away in June. Marc started Skydog in 1973, arguably Europe’s first independent rock label, and in the same year that Metallic KO was released he organized the “First Punk Festival” in Mont de Marsan. He worked closely with The Clash, Johnny Thunders, Wilko Johnson, and Chrissie Hynde and others.

Alongside Metallic KO the box includes the two Metallic KO source tape gigs, pitch-corrected after a tape speed fault was discovered; two collections of live and studio rare songs; unusual Iggy acoustic shows on DVD; a studio acoustic CD and the Stooges long-awaited 2003 live reunion in Tokyo. The 48-page booklet has notes by Paul Trynka, the Iggy Pop Open Up and Bleed biographer and former Mojo editor, and rare and unseen photos.

Hi-Tide Recordings is an international record label and lifestyle brand based in Freehold, New Jersey, USA. Partners Vincent Minervino and Magdalena O’Connell tour the world as vinyl DJs and event curators, and produce their very own Hi-Tide “Holiday” series of music and cocktail weekenders.

VINCENT: We think quite a bit about where our records will end up in 50 years. Just like we light up with excitement when we uncover an old Link Wray 45, we wonder when and where a dusty Surfrajettes record will bring that same excitement in the future.

MAGDALENA: Both of our parents had extensive vinyl collections, wide-ranging in genres that made up our childhood soundtracks. I remember my dad spending hours digitizing our family’s favorite LPs to play in the car on family road trips to Wisconsin. These playbacks always featured the crackle-hiss-pop of the original platter, and were especially magical against the moving scenery of the midwest highways. At home, there was always a record spinning on the Linn Sondek. It was my Dad’s pride and joy, purchased after his first big job as an outdoor advertising painter in New York City.

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In November of 2019, to mark the 10th anniversary of Magnetic Eye Records, an event was held in celebration at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn. Nine bands played back-to-back, and the four headlining sets by Elephant Tree, Domkraft, Summoner, and Horsehunter were recorded in commemoration of the event. The four albums, all titled Day of Doom Live, are available separately on vinyl in limited color editions (dark green, ocean blue, purple and dark brown, respectively) and “worldwide classic black,” plus on compact disc individually and together in a 4CD hardcover artbook. It’s all out December 11, forebodingly sludgy across the board, and with elements of distinctiveness throughout.

The name Day of Doom sets up a rather clear expectation, and alongside it, the risk that the sounds will sink into genericism as the bands gradually become indecipherable from each other. Anybody who endured a multiband all-ages hardcore matinee will tell you that piling up nine consecutive acts of the same style on the same bill is a gamble, even if the occasion is a celebratory one.

But thankfully, Magnetic Eye’s output has established a high standard of quality across their existence, so that Day of Doom’s four headliners kept matters consistently interesting while not straying far from the brand of metal that is the label’s specialty. That the bands call four different countries home is representative of the combined achievement; if comparable in style, each outfit is coming from a different place.

Elephant Tree formed in London in 2013, with the lineup heard on this recording featuring Jack Townley on guitar, Sam Hart on drums, Peter Holland on bass, and John Slattery, the most recent addition, on guitars and synth. Townley and Hart are the cofounders, with Holland entering the fold a little later, after the three met for the second time at an Om show. Their set offers similarities to the heavier side of the ’90s Alt-rock sound, which could’ve proved a toxic situation.

Except that Elephant Tree evince taste and restraint, and additionally, fold aspects of the same era’s noise rock into the equation, so that more than once I thought of a less surly Melvins with hints of a doomier Unsane. The kicker is that Holland is a legit singer rather than a vocal cord shredder, which also could’ve spelled disaster for me, as ’90s heavy rock vocals are decidedly not my bag. However, Holland’s approach doesn’t date, as he refuses to overemote and is appropriately placed in the mix. Altogether, a nice dose of thud, with an introspective piano and synth-infused finale. B+

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Legendary guitarist Gary Lucas upcoming retrospective The Essential Gary Lucas via Knitting Factory Records offers ample evidence of this maverick artist’s trailblazing and unique career, from his early work on stage and record with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, to his landmark work with Jeff Buckley and his one-of-a-kind psychedelic jazz-rock band Gods and Monsters, though his extraordinary and extensive multi-genre solo catalogue—a truly epic body of work that spans psychedelic rock, film music, classical, electronica, jazz, blues, avant-garde, and world music excursions through 1930s Chinese pop, Hungarian folk, raga, and more, all unified by Lucas’s virtuosic guitar and ceaselessly questing spirit. The album originally scheduled for the Spring of 2020 is now slated to come out January 29, 2021.

A long overdue survey of a truly prodigious career, The Essential Gary Lucas collects the artist’s own favorite work for the first time ever, including a range of rare and never-before released tracks. Boasting nearly 160 minutes of music, the double album includes a first CD devoted to songs recorded with GODS AND MONSTERS while the second CD compiles SOLO, RARITIES AND COLLABORATIONS. Special guests throughout include Jeff Buckley, Alan Vega (Suicide), David Johansen (New York Dolls), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers), Billy Ficca (Television), Nona Hendryx (Labelle), avant-legend Mary Margaret O’Hara, GRAMMY® Award-winning Cuban dance heroes Los Van Van, UK dubmaster Adrian Sherwood, Rolo McGinty (The Woodentops), mainland Chinese vocalist/erhu virtuoso Feifei Yang, French diva Elli Medeiros, Cuban legends Haydee and Suylen Milanés, Hungarian folk star Enikö Szabó, Indian shamaness Najma Akhtar, and others.

Consistently compelling, endlessly inventive, and always impossible to pigeonhole, The Essential Gary Lucas affirms Gary Lucas among the most singular musicians and artists of this or any era.

Born and raised in Syracuse, NY Gary Lucas began playing guitar at the age of 9. While a student at Yale University in 1971 he witnessed Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band perform their first-ever show in New York City, an experience that changed his life. Before the decade was through, Lucas’ individualistic virtuosity had in return caught the Captain’s attention and the young guitarist was unleashed as featured soloist and later, full Magic Band member, on the final two Beefheart albums, 1980’s DOC AT THE RADAR STATION and 1982’s ICE CREAM FOR CROW.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The world lost Elvis Presley on August 16, 1977, when he was just 42 years old. News reports painted him as bloated and unconscious on his bathroom floor, leaving devastated fans with a graphic, tarnished final image of their shiny idol from Tupelo. Toxicology reports confirmed that he was overloaded with prescription medications—just another cliché, a rock star who popped one too many pills.

​Historian and author Sally Hoedel, however, doesn’t see Elvis as a cautionary tale of self-destruction. Instead, she sees a man who struggled, every day, to survive. In her compelling, thought-provoking new release, Elvis: Destined to Die Young, Hoedel offers factual and scientific data, plus never-before-published information she gained by interviewing people who personally knew Elvis, to dive deep into his struggles with multiple chronic health conditions.

Hoedel examines Elvis Presley — devoted son, husband, father and friend — while plowing through the negative hype and legendary myths surrounding the man. Elvis’ downward spiral of health struggles is intertwined with his life story, and for the first time, it is revealed that he suffered from disease in nine of eleven bodily systems. Five of those disease processes, Hoedel finds, were present from birth. She expertly puts all of this into historical context, pointing out differences in medical treatments and protocols for the time.

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Lee Fields stands amongst the titans of contempo classic-styled soul sounds, so it makes total sense that his work with the Expressions comprises Big Crown Vaults Vol. 1. It’s the first in a series of records finding Big Crown founders Leon Michels and Danny Akalepse tidying up their audio closet for the betterment of humankind. This album, availably now on vinyl (limited translucent purple ripple or reliable black), compact disc and digital, features six Fields-sung tracks followed by six instrumentals, five of them versions, effectively illuminating the Expressions’ skills and Michels’ production savvy. Altogether, for lovers of old-school soul, this set is a total keeper.

As a survivor on the scene, Lee Fields’ soul prowess is far from a secret. Having debuted on record via 45 rpm single in 1969, Fields cut a bunch more through the next decade and capped the initial stretch of his long career with his first LP, Let’s Talk It Over in 1980 for the Angie 3 label. As the warmth, grit and energy of classic soul ebbed in the years thereafter, Fields’s momentum was slowed until the early ’90s, when he recorded a few full-length discs for Ace, but the set that firmly established his presence was Let’s Get a Groove On in 1998 for Desco, which was recently reissued for Record Store Day.

It was Desco that helped pave the way for Daptone, so if Fields is a new name, that association might clue you in, as he appears on a pair of albums by Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. He also cut a few singles for Daptone, plus the LP Problems for Soul Fire (the other label spawned by Desco’s demise) before hooking up with Truth & Soul for three records, My World in 2009, Faithful Man in ’12, and Emma Jean in ’14.

After Truth & Souls’ folding and as part of Big Crown’s flowering (events directly related through Michels as co-owner-operator of both), Fields recorded Special Night for his current imprint in 2016 followed by It Rains Love last year. That brings us to Big Crown Vaults Vol. 1, which rounds up songs from the sessions for those two LPs, starting out with a version of “Two Timer” by Little Carl Carlton (perhaps best known to non-soul aficionados for his smash reading of “Everlasting Love” from ’74) that’s faithful to the 1970 original while deepening the groove considerably, as is Michels’ and Big Crown’s way.

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