Remembering Jackie Wilson, born on this day in 1934. —Ed.

Singer Jackie Wilson landed a slew of hit singles in the 1950s and early ’60s with a sophisticated strain of R&B that crossed over to the pop charts. In 1967, he managed a sizable comeback with the song for which he is now likely best remembered, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” The coinciding LP Higher and Higher, finds Wilson in strong form throughout with typically dynamic backing from members of the Funk Brothers.

To insinuate that Jackie Wilson is today a neglected figure would be ludicrous given how “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” has endured as a musical staple. It feels safe to say I’ve heard this tidy platter of pop-soul uplift at least 50 times while shopping for groceries alone, a number that can be doubled (probably tripled) when taking oldies station rotation into account.

To be clear, Wilson has other killer songs in his body of work, and to expand on his importance, he’s a crucial figure in bringing an admittedly smooth and erudite strain of R&B to wider acceptance. In turn, he helped lay the groundwork for soul music of a refined variety. But here’s another flat fact: Wilson hasn’t been well served in the vinyl reissue market, perhaps in part because none of the full-length albums he cut have grown into consensus classics.

Wilson recorded over two dozen albums between 1958 and 1976, but only a small number made a dent in either the R&B or the pop charts. But just as germane to the issue is how that many LPs is a surefire recipe for an uneven discography, especially considering Wilson’s penchant for Broadway show tunes and straight schmaltz (a tendency spanning back to the ’50s that necessitated his comeback).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Third Man Records is proud to announce a very special 30th anniversary edition of Heatmiser’s landmark 1996 third and final album, Mic City Sons. Remastered and reimagined as a two-LP opus containing a set of rare demos and unreleased tracks, the expanded new version of Mic City Sons will be available via Third Man on standard black vinyl and limited-edition Sunset Pink Transparent & Starry Night Blue Glitter vinyl on Friday, July 25. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now. 

A 12-song dynamo set to explode, Mic City Sons is both the sound of Heatmiser breaking up in real time as well as an era-defining slice of brilliance that lingers like the after-effects of lightning in the sky. Founded in 1991, the Portland, OR-based band—comprised of Neil Gust (vocals/guitar) Sam Coomes (bass), Tony Lash (drums), and the late Elliott Smith (vocals, guitar)—had won critical acclaim and a growing fan following for their darkly combustible brand of indie rock, earning them a major label deal with Virgin Records.

Heatmiser built their own studio in a shared house in Portland and set to work, joined by producers Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock (with whom Smith would go on to record his classic solo albums, Either/Or, XO, and Figure 8). Unfortunately, the sessions were fraught with interpersonal conflict, almost every moment a battle: Lash was a burgeoning gearhead, while Smith liked rough edges; Coomes sometimes felt Schnapf and Rothrock were breathing down his neck; and Gust lost his confidence as he and Smith grew apart due to his longtime friend and collaborator’s increased focus on his burgeoning solo career. “He became such a thing on his own, and then just disappeared from the plans we’d made together,” Neil Gust says. “It sucked.”

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I used to sleep well knowing that the English progressive rock band Family, like Savoy Brown and Steeleye Span, was one of those groups I could spend my entire life ignoring without having to worry I was missing something.

I was wrong. True, some of the songs on 1971’s Fearless—their fifth—are just what I expected: drab progressive rock with a folk edge. But they’re all over the place, and at their best, they’re surpassingly strange; the oddball odes “Sat’d’y Barfly” and “Blind” blow me away, and on several others, they more than hold their own. Family will never be a member of my family, but I’d be a poorer man for never hearing them.

Family are a conundrum—formed in 1966, they released their first album in 1968, and established a reputation as a formidable live act, one so formidable it’s been said “that the Jimi Hendrix Experience were afraid to follow them at festivals.” Maybe so, but I haven’t heard anything on their live albums that would make me think they gave Jimi a fright, and their studio albums are even less electrifying. True, lead vocalist Roger Chapman amazes with his totally idiosyncratic vocals—one writer described his voice as a “bleating vibrato” and another described him as an “electric goat,” and there’s no denying he’s an excitable boy. But a goat boy of a lead singer does not a great band make.

Family’s lineup underwent consistent changes over the course of their career, as did their sound from LP to LP, but come Fearless they featured Chapman on vocals; John “Charley” Whitney on guitar, mandolin, and percussion; John “Poli” Palmer on keyboards, backing vocals, vibes, flute, and percussion; John Wetton (who would ultimately move on to King Crimson) on bass, backing and lead vocals, guitars, contracts (?), and keyboards; and Rob Towsend on drums, Paiste cymbals, and percussion. Family were a crack outfit, but on Fearless they’re a crack outfit that occasionally bores me silly.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “The Winchester Cathedral recordings showcase a one-of-a-kind outfit that was already at the peak of its powers, long before it became internationally famous. Sly is fully in command, while the unique arrangements and tighter-than-tight ensemble playing point clearly to the road ahead, and the enduring influence of Sly & The Family Stone’s music.” —Alec Palao

High Moon Records is proud to announce the official release of Sly & The Family Stone’s The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967, available Friday, July 18 on CD, LP, and digital download. This earliest live recording of the pioneering band is accompanied by a deluxe booklet with liner notes from the set’s GRAMMY®-nominated producer Alec Palao, featuring exclusive interviews with Sly Stone and all of the original band members, never-before-seen photos, rare memorabilia, and more. The CD edition includes a bonus performance of Otis Redding’s classic “Try A Little Tenderness.” An electrifying “I Gotta Go Now / Funky Broadway,” premieres today.

Sly & The Family Stone were true pioneers on so many levels: black/white, male/female, rock/soul, the act shattered all preconceptions of what popular music could be and would go on to become one of the most innovative and influential groups the world has ever witnessed. Originally released as a sold-out, limited edition LP, earlier this year for Record Store Day, The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 is an electrifying live performance by the original Family Stone line-up, a full year before their chart breakthrough with “Dance To The Music.”

This fascinating recording was featured in Questlove’s critically acclaimed 2025 documentary, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) and spotlights Sly Stone’s singular brilliance on a tremendously exciting and atmospheric set of vintage soul covers and original compositions, peppered with the arrangements, motifs, and intoxicating energy that would soon become familiar during the group’s ascent.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Bear Family Records® is proud to announce the July 11th re-release of the second soul/blues album Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland recorded in Los Angeles during 1973/’74: His California Album, another milestone in soul/blues history on high-quality 180 gram vinyl.

Bland is quite justly regarded as one of the greatest US blues, soul, and R&B singers of all time. Producer Steve Barri—also responsible for Dreamer (BAF18029) the following year—brought guitarists Larry Carlton, Mel Brown, and Dean Parks, among others, into the studio to create this flawless album. Stand-out tracks include “This Time I’m Gone For Good,” “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right,” and “Help Me Through The Day,” all classics of the genre. This first reissue on 180-gram vinyl has been carefully remastered, and the original cover art has been reproduced.

When Bear Family released Dreamer by Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland (1930–2013) on vinyl for the first time since its original release, they had no idea of the demand for that record. In 1973/’74, Steve Barri produced two albums in Los Angeles with perhaps the greatest soul/blues singer of all time, which both met with a mixed reception at the time. After more than 50 years, however, Dreamer and its predecessor, His California Album, sound cool and timeless, and have become fantastic classics. The chant of the church combined with deep blues in Bland’s interpretation is incredibly moving, and the melancholy in his voice sounds so emotional, sometimes heartbreaking, and at times cool and soft.

Bland could be tough, but he also possessed the crooner qualities of Nat ‘King’ Cole, for example. With both LPs on ABC Dunhill and the subsequent records with B.B. King, he reached a wider audience. His California Album is the perfect synthesis of black soul and blues from the South and the coolness and laid-back attitude of Los Angeles.

Celebrating Tom Jones in advance of his 85th birthday tomorrow.
—Ed.

What’s new pussycat? For starters, the legendary Tom Jones—that manly hunk of a man with the curly crop of black hair and awe-inspiring mutton chop sideburns—is back with a new LP, 2021’s Surrounded by Time. So what you ask? Well consider this—the world’s most beloved Las Vegas casino lounge act is 80-years-old and still has the mighty baritone pipes that propelled him to fame with “It’s Not Unusual” back in 1964.

What sets Jones apart from his contemporaries is his dedication to keeping up with the trends. Most have opted to play it safe, sticking to the sentimental favorites beloved by their aging fan bases. They may toss in an “edgy” number along the lines of “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown,” but you’re far more likely to be subjected to such dentures-pleasing tear-jerkers like “The Little White Cloud That Cried” and “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast.”

Such isn’t the case with Jones, who has taken risks galore. Try to imagine Engelbert Humperdinck singing “Sex Bomb,” a collaboration between Jones and German DJ Mousse T—or “Burning Down the House.” Why Jones hasn’t gotten around to covering the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” is a mystery.

On Surrounded by Time Jones shakes things up even more than unusual, singing covers of artists from alt-country stalwart Todd Snider, The Waterboys, Tony Callier, Cat Stevens, and Bob Dylan. And I’m not talking about done-to-death Stevens/Dylan wheezers like “Morning Has Broken” or “Lay Lady Lay.” No, Jones dives deep and comes up with Stevens’ “Popstar” and Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee.”

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Mona Kayhan owns The Bridge, a large-room recording studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This stunning space is devoted to making exceptional recordings in a manner that has become less common and upholding the tradition of sonic excellence.

The new tradition that should also be celebrated here is that this space is a woman-owned commercial recording studio. Mona and I talked about her training as a classical pianist, making field recordings of traditional music in West Africa with Griot masters, working at indie labels, starting the Electronic Music School at the forefront of Dubstep, running stages at Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, and her deep love of artists and making them heard.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

I love this album. I love that it’s a sprawling mess, I love it for its good songs and bad songs, and I love it for the demo-like quality of said songs, but I love 2013’s Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter most because everybody’s Prince Charming couldn’t have made a weirder and more contrarian comeback album. Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter, is Ant’s Exile on Main Street, but unlike the Stones, Ant was a real exile, a forgotten man, a has-been.

Some eighteen years had passed since Ant (aka Stuart Leslie Goddard) released 1995’s Wonderful. During the long hiatus, Ant wrote his autobiography and dabbled. And struggled with mental illness. “The Blueblack Hussar is me coming back to life,” he told one interviewer. “I’m like The Terminator—I was a dead man walking.” Which doesn’t make a lick of sense, but you get what he’s saying. Ant was back amongst the living, and for all its very human flaws, Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter is the proof. The album has more red blood coursing through its veins than just about any album I can think of.

On Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter Ant did exactly what he wanted, fashion and chart success be damned. I don’t hear a big number one hit single amongst its seventeen tracks, and I doubt Ant did either, but apparently he didn’t care. Its one single, “Cool Zombie,” died an awful death, gasping its last at Number 154 on the UK charts before being unceremoniously buried in the Potter’s Field of British pop flops. England’s Prince Charming had apparently decided he’d sooner be the Mad King of Bavaria.

This is not Antmusic. Gone are the Goody Two Shoes persona, the Burundi drums, and catchy pop proclivities. AA began the project with long-time collaborator Marco Pirroni, but they decided to go their separate ways. He then recorded the album on a laptop computer with long-time Morrissey collaborator Boz Boorer. He also co-wrote several songs with 3 Colours Red guitarist Chris McCormack.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “As if!!!!” UMe marks the 30th anniversary of Paramount Pictures’ 1995 comedy classic Clueless by releasing the movie’s soundtrack on both standard weight vinyl and a limited-edition standard weight pink colored vinyl—available now HERE.

Loosely based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, Clueless was hilariously updated to Beverly Hills High School in the 1990s by writer/director Amy Heckerling. The iconic film stars Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz, Stacey Dash as her best friend Dionne, Brittany Murphy as Tai, the ugly duckling transformed into a beautiful swan, and Paul Rudd as Cher’s disapproving ex-stepbrother.

The platinum-selling soundtrack features The Muffs’ cover of Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America,” along with Radiohead’s acoustic version of “Fake Plastic Trees” as well as tracks from a who’s-who of the decade’s alternative music stars, such as Cracker (with a cover of Flamin’ Groovies’ “Shake Some Action”), Counting Crows (cover of Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You”), Luscious Jackson, World Party (with a rousing cover of Mott the Hoople/David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes”), Lightning Seeds, Smoking Popes, Beastie Boys, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (who appeared in the film), Coolio, Supergrass, Velocity Girl, and Jill Sobule.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | A pivotal figure in American music history finally gets the comprehensive biography he deserves with the release of Chet Atkins: Mr. Guitar (through University of Georgia Press), the latest work from acclaimed country music historian and scholar Dr. Don Cusic. It is the first definitive biography on the acclaimed musician. Written with scholarly rigor and deep musical insight, this definitive portrait of Chet Atkins is essential reading for music, history, and guitar lovers alike.

Atkins’s role in shaping 20th-century music is unparalleled. A virtuosic guitarist, producer, and music executive, he was instrumental in crafting the “Nashville Sound”—a smoother, more commercially viable blend of country and pop that bridged musical divides and revolutionized the recording industry. As a producer at RCA Victor, Atkins influenced generations of artists and played on landmark recordings from Elvis Presley to the Everly Brothers.

Atkins was highly revered by artists and musicians from multiple genres of music. Guitarist John Knowles, one of the few guitarists that Atkins honored with the title of CGP (Certified Guitar Player) once said about Atkins, “You know, there’s a handful of artists out there…Fred Astaire dances that way and Chet Atkins plays the guitar that way. Where you do all your work and then, you step beyond the work you’ve done to an area of grace and elegance. Chet absolutely had that,” Knowles remembered admiringly.

Dr. Cusic traces Atkins’s journey from a self-taught teenager in rural Tennessee to one of the most celebrated musicians in American history. With over 100 solo albums, 14 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award), and inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame, Atkins not only left an extraordinary catalog of music but also reshaped the sound and business of country music itself. Singer and musician Steve Wariner knew Atkins’ expertise well. Also lauded as a CGP by Atkins, he was in amazement at Atkins’ talent. “His breadth of knowledge was unbelievable,” he recalls.

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Remembering Tom Evans, born on this day in 1947. —Ed.

Talk about your bad mojo. It would be hard to find a band with as tragic a backstory as Badfinger, not one of whom, but two, of its original members hanged themselves. And this despite a string of at least five timeless tunes, and plenty of other good songs to boot.

The problem is that corrupt management—in the form of the New York mob-connected Stan Polley—made off with the bulk of the band’s profits, leaving Badfinger’s members practically penniless. It proved to be too much for the band’s songwriting team, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, leaving Badfinger to be remembered as much for its morbid history as its status as a great power pop band, England’s answer to The Raspberries.

The quartet formed in Swansea, Wales in 1961 as The Iveys. After much struggling they found themselves part of Apple Records’ stable of artists and hit pay dirt with “Come and Get It,” a Paul McCartney written and produced record, at which juncture they changed their name to Badfinger, supposedly after an early iteration of “With a Little Help From My Friends” entitled “Bad Finger Boogie,” so named because an injured McCartney was reduced to using one finger. They then proceeded to produce a number of hits, but saw no money, and their subsequent career saw them become pop stars without a dime to call their own.

But what a legacy they left behind! It’s not all here on Timeless… The Musical Legacy (you owe it to yourself to also check out 1990’s The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2, which includes such great tunes as “Just a Chance” and “Shine On”) but it’s a powerhouse record nonetheless, and convincing proof that Badfinger was more, and much more, than the band that brought us the delectable “Day After Day.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Lord of the Rings trilogy remains one of the most successful films in cinematic history. Based on the popular J.R.R. Tolkien novel of the same name, Peter Jackson directed the trilogy, which features a score composed by Howard Shore. The trilogy earned 17 Academy Awards®, including three for music. Beyond critical acclaim, the music from the films also enjoyed wide commercial success, collectively selling over 7 million albums.

Today, The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy Soundtrack is available exclusively at Rhino.com as a 6-LP boxed set on 180-gram Black vinyl limited to 2,000 units worldwide. The music for all three films was composed, orchestrated, and conducted by Howard Shore. His music was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, with contributions from two choirs: London Voices and London Oratory School Schola.

The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack was certified platinum in the US alone and sold exceptionally well worldwide. It won the Academy Award® for Best Original Score, as well as the GRAMMY® Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. It includes two original songs written and performed by Enya: “May It Be” and “Aníron (Theme for Aragorn and Arwen).”

The Two Towers soundtrack was certified gold in the US, the UK, and Canada and won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. The Return of the King soundtrack was certified Gold in the US and the UK and won two Academy Awards® for Best Original Score and Best Original Song with “Into the West” performed by Annie Lennox; two Golden Globe Awards® for Best Original Score and Song; and two GRAMMY® Awards for Best Score Soundtrack Album and Song Written for a Motion Picture.

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