VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fifty-five years after its debut, Chicago II still sounds like nothing else. Released in 1970, Chicago’s second album brims with confidence and inspiration as it draws on everything from orchestral music to heavy rock. Although it never affected the record’s popularity, it peaked at #4 on the album chart and spawned a trio of Top Ten hits.

Chicago II (Steven Wilson Remix) brand new Dolby ATMOS mix, along with stereo, quadrophonic, and 5.1 mixes in high-resolution, will be available on April 25 as a Blu-ray disc exclusively at Rhino.com. Pre-order HERE. The remixed album will also be released as a 2-LP 140-gram Black vinyl on May 23. Pre-order HERE.

Chicago II has been remixed before, but now, for the first time, a Dolby ATMOS of the 16-track album will be revealed. The album previously received stereo, quadrophonic, and 5.1 hi-res mixes from the multi-track tapes, making it possible for Steven Wilson to bring out elements that were muffled or submerged in the mix. This resulted in a version of Chicago II that boasts clearness, punch, and definition that it didn’t have before.

Wilson explains: “Working with high-resolution 96K/24 bit digitally transferred files, I had every element from the recording sessions isolated, which meant I was able to rebuild the mix from the drums upwards, recreating as closely as I could the equalization, stereo placement, reverbs, other effects, and volume changes of each individual instrument or vocal—but at the same time looking to gain definition and clarity in the overall sound.”

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Remembering Clem Burke. —Ed.

A bit of history: When Blondie signed on with Australian producer Mike Chapman (of Chapman and Nicky Chinn glam rock fame) to record their 1978 breakthrough LP Parallel Lines, little did they know what they were in for. Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, and the rest of the band had a rather punk attitude towards the studio, and everything else for that matter; as Chapman noted later, “They were really, really juvenile in their approach to life—a classic New York underground rock band—and they didn’t give a fuck about anything. They just wanted to have fun and they didn’t want to work too hard getting it.”

Chapman the perfectionist called Blondie “hopelessly horrible” and explained his attitude towards the sessions in frankly dictatorial terms: “I basically went in there like Adolf Hitler and said, ‘You are going to make a great record, and that means you are going to start playing better.’” And they did. The result was a landmark record that everybody should own but you know what? I really kind of miss the hopelessly horrible band that gave us Parallel Lines’ predecessor, Plastic Letters.

Sure, Plastic Letters lacks the gloss of Parallel Lines’ disco-inflected “Heart of Glass” and a song quite as catchy as “Hanging on the Telephone,” but it possesses the same gritty and off-kilter NYC charm as the first recordings by the Dictators and the Ramones. Spies, strange happenings in the Bermuda Triangle, and cheating at poker by means of telepathy—Plastic Letters may be an imperfect recording, but boring it ain’t.

That said, Parallel Lines is still loads of fun, and retains that good old punk spirit on such numbers as “Hanging on the Telephone” (love Harry’s New Yawk squawk), “One Way or Another” (great chainsaw riff meets manhunt disguised as love song), and the belligerent closing track, “Just Go Away,” which boasts wonderful shouted backing vocals and really snotty vocals by Harry. And then there’s the pneumatic “I Know But I Don’t Know,” which features some great vocals by an unnamed member of the band, who accompanies Harry and sounds about as New York, New York as they come.

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Regularly praised as the Queen of Memphis Soul, Carla Thomas is a Memphis Music Hall of Famer who scored numerous hits throughout the 1960s both solo and in duets with her father Rufus Thomas and her Stax Records labelmate Otis Redding. As the 1970s began, Thomas visited American Sound Studio in her home city and cut a batch of songs for a record that, with the exception of one single, remained unreleased until 2013. On April 12 that album, Sweet Sweetheart, makes its vinyl debut for Record Store Day 2025 through Craft Recordings. Cut with producer Chips Moman, the 11-song set has a warm, unified sound as Thomas interprets a wide range of material from the period.

She might take a back seat to such soul heavyweights as Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, but Carla Thomas still makes the short list of the great women soul singers. The reasons are many, but much of her stature comes down to the centrality of her work in the story of Stax Records, where she makes her entrance way back before the beginning.

Thomas scored her first hit in 1960 with the self-penned and Chops Moman-produced “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)” for Satellite Records, the label of Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton that would change its name to Stax the following year. It was Thomas’ second single in a long string that spanned the decade alongside a half-dozen full-length records beginning with Gee Whiz in 1961 and concluding with Love Means… in 1971.

Thomas’ discography expands with King & Queen, her collab set with Otis Redding released in 1967, plus three Best of comps and a pair of records capturing her in performance. Live in Memphis, issued in 2002 by the Memphis International label, documented a show from the previous year with a gang of city all-stars, and Live at the Bohemian Caverns, a 2007 released by Stax of a set from the storied Washington, DC venue (Ramsey Lewis’ The In Crowd was recorded there) dated from 40 years prior (with her father also on the bill).

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN | I recently attended Brooks & Dunn at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, and despite a few unexpected moments, it was a great night of country music.

The evening began with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, who delivered a fabulous set, blending bluegrass, folk, and traditional country. Having had the chance to photograph them a few years ago in Chicago, I can confidently say they’re a band worth seeing on their solo tour. Molly’s virtuoso guitar playing and the band’s tight harmonies really set the tone for the night.

Next up was David Lee Murphy, who gave an enjoyable set that had the crowd vibing. Murphy, a seasoned country artist and hitmaker, treated fans to a mix of his own hits, including the well-loved “Dust on the Bottle,” and some great songs he’s written for others, like “The More I Drink” for Blake Shelton. His easygoing stage presence and knack for connecting with the audience made his performance a nice transition to the headliners.

When Brooks & Dunn took the stage, the energy in the arena skyrocketed. They powered through their catalog of hits, with the crowd singing along to every word. However, during their final song before the encore, Ronnie Dunn had to leave the stage due to feeling ill. It was a bit concerning, but Kix Brooks truly stepped up in the moment, seamlessly taking over Ronnie’s vocals on the last couple of songs. His ability to carry the show without missing a beat was impressive, and he kept the energy high throughout.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Vol. 11: 1989 of On Record, a comprehensive series of awardwinning books celebrating popular music from 1978 to 1998, has just been published. “I’m thrilled and grateful to see this 21-book series arrive at the halfway point,” says author and Colorado Music Experience director G. Brown.

Vol. 11: 1989 rounds up the year’s major releases, from Tom Petty’s first solo album to Roy Orbison’s final effort, even the first recording of a Russian rock musician with a Western label, as well as ascending pop-metal bands (from Mötley Crüe to Warrant) and alternative-rock acts (The Cure, Pixies), plus the best in jazz, blues, adult contemporary, and other genres.

Marking more than 50 years as one of America’s foremost popular music writers, G. Brown has interviewed more than 3,000 musicians, ranging from superstars to one-hit wonders in every genre—pop, rock, country, and hip-hop to punk, folk, alternative, and beyond.

Each edition overflows with rare, powerful and informative editorial photographs from Brown’s personal archive of close to 15,000 images amassed over decades. These beautifully crafted, reader-friendly volumes, presented in a lively, engaging style, invite perusing at any point within the book.

“When G. Brown writes about you, his readers give you a chance. They listen. G.’s trusted voice is a big reason I have an audience. I’m forever grateful to him for including me in his writing over the years and to be a part of his On Record series,” says Lyle Lovett, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and actor.

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Remembering Spencer Dryden, born on this day in 1938. —Ed.

For your illumination, a shameful tale of gross and inexplicable prejudice. To wit, I spent most of my life refusing to give the Jefferson Airplane a break, because of what they would in time become—namely first the fishy Jefferson Starship, and then plain old loathsome “We Built This City on Rock’n’Roll” Starship. I was so busy judging the Airplane by their checkered future I never bothered turning back the page to take in these lyrics from Volunteers: “We are all outlaws in the eyes of America/In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal/We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young.”

Those may be some of the most defiantly punk lyrics ever written, but I never heard them. How could I have? I was so anti-Jefferson Airplane I jokingly declared the anniversary of Altamont “Punch Marty Balin in the Mouth Day.” But just recently, goaded by some inexplicable impulse, I gave 1969’s Volunteers a listen. And I was dumbfounded by how goddamn day-glo good it was. From its plethora of cool vocals to Jorma Kaukonen’s brilliant guitar playing to its extraordinary lyrics, Volunteers is a triumph.

More overtly political than their karmically resigned compatriots in the Grateful Dead, and smarter-assed (and just plain smarter) than their brethren in CSN&Y, on Volunteers the Jefferson Airplane launch razor-sharp barbs against straight society, from sarcasm-laden opening track to inspirational closer. Whether you call them idealistic, naïve, or just plain deluded, the Volunteers-era Jefferson Airplane—Grace Slick on vocals, piano, organ, and recorder; Paul Kantner on vocals and rhythm guitar; Marty Balin on vocals and percussion; Jorma Kaukonen on lead guitar and vocals; Jack Casady on bass; and Spencer Dryden on drums and percussion—expressed a commitment to revolution and the radical transformation of American society.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | When Grammy-winning artist Petula Clark met poet-songwriter-singer Rod McKuen in France during the 1960s, they became fast friends. Petula, of course, was one of the biggest music stars in the world and in the midst of a long string of hits in both English and French. For his part, McKuen was a huge fan of Petula, naming her his favorite female vocalist; and by the mid-1970s, they had performed together on several television programs.

Inspired by Petula’s recorded versions of his dramatic environmental anthem “The Wind of Change” and the tender ballad “I Think of You,” McKuen resolved to put together an entire album of his compositions for Petula just like he had done with Frank Sinatra on his 1969 release A Man Alone. The project was announced, but it took a few decades to come to fruition; finally, after her acclaimed runs with the musicals Blood Brothers and Sunset Boulevard on Broadway and in London, and national tours across the United States, Petula and Rod were able to synchronize their schedules in 2005.

Multiple sessions at Hollywood’s Private Island Trax studio and an overdub session in Geneva would yield 20 favorites from the McKuen songbook, passionately and poignantly sung by England’s most successful female singer of the 20th century.

A limited-edition, 14-track CD available from Rod’s website and Petula’s fan club quickly sold out, and now Solitude & Sunshine–The Songs of Rod McKuen is coming to retail for the first time in a newly expanded edition including 6 bonus tracks, 5 unreleased! The CD includes extensive liner notes written by both Rod and Petula along with rare photos. A huge find for fans of either artist!

I successfully de-programmed myself from the Cult of Frank Zappa at the tail end of the seventies, when I finally realized he was a smug, smarter-than-thou anal-retentive with bad classical and jazz tendencies and a proclivity for 13-year-old potty humor who held everyone, including his own fans, in contempt. I finally realized the only reason I was listening to him was for the guitar solos. And in the end they just weren’t enough. I left the fold, ashamed of myself for having been suckered in by the arrogant sour-puss in the first place, and never looked back. In the end, I just wasn’t prepared to drink the strychnine-laced Kool Aid.

That’s how these things always end, right?

The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau, never a fan, finally lost patience not too long after I did; his parting words to Zappa, written in 1982, were “Oh shut up.” Possibly he wanted him to just shut his mouth—Zappa’s snide and increasingly low-brow satire was what did me in. This explains why the only Zappa album I’ve been able to listen to over the years—and it’s something I only do every decade or so—is the 1969 jazz-rock exercise Hot Rats. Zappa doesn’t open his mouth once. Some of it is fusion with a stick up its ass—his fussy orchestral arrangements guarantee the lesser songs don’t swing—but a few of its songs do rock.

Zappa himself made clear that the lyrics were a sop, and a bit of condescension on his part, to his no-nothing audiences. He once told an interviewer, “Americans, in general, know very little about music. They like to hear words, so I give them words—sometimes they overlook the music involved.” Look down upon much? And had the guy ever heard of jazz? By music he meant the classical works of Europeans like Edgar Varese. For Zappa rock music was a lower life form and a kind of afterthought.

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PHOENIX, AZ | Shakey Graves and the 10th anniversary of And The War Came tour came through Phoenix on April Fools Day, and the show was no joke. Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of some of his biggest hits, Shaky Graves delivers a consistent message with the same power.

I have seen Shakey live before, but nothing quite like this. He wrote the songs on that record at a low point in his life, and the lyrics stem from challenges he has battled. To take them back on the road 10 years later, at such a different point in his career, is something special to witness from the artist.

He’s also quite the storyteller, both sonically and on the mic. He spoke in between almost every song with little tidbits about the song or his journey. It was very stream-of-consciousness and offered an intimate insight into the brain of Shakey Graves. He mixed in two of his most popular songs at the end, but the tour captures And The War Came straight through.

Shakey plays both extremely complicated guitar parts while effectively marching in place with one foot hitting a kick drum and the other a tambourine—he’s been doing this for years, yet still plays with a band. They make a lot of noise because Shakey is an octopus, and he’s one of the most impressive, unique guitar players I have seen live. He mixes in a little bit of bluegrass, rock, folk—and a mystery blend that I have only heard from Shakey.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino announces a special reissue of 1969’s Guisando: Doing a Job, the third collaboration from pioneering salsa duo Willie Colón featuring Héctor Lavoe. With such classic tracks as “No Me Den Candela,” the instrumental “I Wish I Had a Watermelon” (Colón’s response to Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man”) and “Guisando,” the album is a must-have for fans of classic salsa.

Returning to wax for the first time in over half a century, Guisando was mastered from its original analog tapes by Dave Polster and Clint Holley at Well Made Music and pressed on 180-gram vinyl for an optimal listening experience. The album, which arrives May 30th, will also make its debut in hi-res digital. A limited-edition “Candela Orange” color vinyl variant (limited to 300 copies), with an exclusive bundle option that includes a Fania T-shirt, is available at Fania.com. Click here to pre-order Guisando: Doing a Job.

In 1967, Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe were just 16 and 21, respectively, when Fania Records co-founder and musical director, Johnny Pacheco, paired them in the studio. Before long, the talented young men would become one of Latin music’s most formidable duos. Known as “El Cantante,” Lavoe (1946–1993) was one of the great interpreters of salsa music, revered for his bright vocals, seamless phrasing, and witty, ad-libbed anecdotes.

Colón (b. 1950), meanwhile, quickly became a key figure in the scene, who shaped the sound of salsa on and off stage as a trombonist, composer, producer, and leader of his namesake orchestra. Together, Colón and Lavoe defined one of Latin music’s most exciting eras through 11 legendary albums, beginning with two classics: 1967’s El Malo and 1968’s The Hustler.

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