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Light in the Attic Records proudly presents Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996—the first comprehensive collection of Ukrainian music recorded prior to, and immediately following, the Ussr’s collapse. From subtly dissenting Soviet-era singles to DIY recordings from Kyiv’s vibrant underground scene, the compilation chronicles the development of Ukraine’s rich musical landscape through rare folk, rock, jazz, and electronic recordings.

“This record is a labor of love and a long time coming,” says label owner Matt Sullivan. Over the course of the last five years, Sullivan, alongside producers David Mas ("dbgo”), Mark “Frosty” McNeill, and Ukrainian label Shukai Records worked tirelessly to compile a carefully curated, chronological playlist. But behind the scenes, ongoing war & politics would shape the evolution of the tracklist, which originally featured both Ukrainian and Russian artists. “We found ourselves in the midst of a larger political issue; what began as a broader overview of a sonically underrepresented region suddenly became quite the controversial project,” Sullivan continues, “so we decided to pivot and focus only on Ukrainian music. There were times when it felt impossible to bring this project to fruition, so to be sharing it with the world today is truly humbling and long overdue.”

Guiding listeners through the physical editions of the album are insightful liner notes and track-by-track details by Vitalii “Bard” Bardetskyi—a Kyiv-based filmmaker, DJ, and writer. The 2xLP is housed in a beautiful gatefold package showcasing Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko’s beloved and iconic folk paintings. The vinyl edition features a 20-page booklet with artist photos & liner notes in both English and Ukrainian, pressed on Clear Blue Sky & Sunflower Yellow wax; the CD edition features bonus content housed in a deluxe, 64-page hardbound book.

Light in the Attic will donate a portion of proceeds directly to Livyj Bereh, a Kyiv-based volunteer group working to rebuild in the regions affected by ongoing war in Ukraine.

“Music has always pulled Ukrainians out of the abyss,” writes Vitalii “Bard” Bardetskyi in his liner notes for Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996. “When there is no hope for the future, there is still music. At such moments, the whole nation resonates under a groove. Music, breaking through the concrete of various colonial systems, is an incredible, often illogical, way to preserve dignity.”

While the songs collected in Even the Forest Hums were recorded during periods of immense societal and political upheaval—and certainly reflect the resilience of the Ukrainian people—they are rooted in the universal spirit of exploration: from post-war teenagers seeking fresh rhythms and artists experimenting with DIY recording technologies to an entire nation being introduced to decades-worth of previously-embargoed albums. Yet, until now, it has been nearly impossible for anyone outside Ukraine to explore the country’s flourishing music scene for themselves.

Much of this can be attributed to Soviet-era restrictions. Music, much like any other commodity, was tightly controlled before the fall of communism. “Only state-authorized performers who had gone through hellish rounds of the permit system could record at the few monopolistic, state-run studios,” explains Bardetskyi. While many of these compositions were released and performed to mass audiences, however, they weren’t necessarily what they seemed. “Some of the artists managed, even under difficult ideological circumstances, to build a whole aesthetic platform which was essentially anti-Soviet.”

Bands could slide under the radar by changing the lyrics of rock songs to reflect Soviet ideals or by performing traditional folk music with subtle outside influences. “This resulted in a whole scene that combined central-eastern Ukrainian vocal polyphony, Carpathian rhythms, and overseas grooves,” writes Bardetskyi, who refers to this era of music as “Mustache Funk.”

Examples featured in Even the Forest Hums... include 1971’s “Bunny” by Kobza. While the folk-rock group was known for their polyphonic vocals, this particular composition is an instrumental waltz, which blends elements of traditional Ukrainian music with progressive rock, British beat, and jazz-rock. Another example of “Mustache Funk” comes from the latter half of the decade, with the Caribbean-influenced “Remembrance” by Vodohrai. While the group—which included some of the best jazz musicians in the country—had a multitude of traditional hits, inspired jams like this one could, for a lucky few, occasionally be heard live.

While the 70s proved to be a golden age for Ukrainian music (complete with pop stars, large-scale tours, and legions of adoring fans), the excitement was short-lived. “The Soviet system finally understood that funkified beats quite strongly contradict[ed] [its] principles,” notes Bardetskyi, who adds that by the 80s, “The once prolific scene was almost completely colonized, appropriated, and largely Russified; the state radio and TV waves were occupied by banal VIAs and cheezy schlager singers.”

With tighter restrictions, however, came the rise of the underground. While the decade leading up to Ukraine’s independence was marked by great turmoil—including the political reform of Perestroika in the Ussr and the Chernobyl disaster—it also marked a time of incredible creativity.

Mirroring global trends, the first half of the decade found many composers and producers experimenting with electronic music. Among them was Vadym Khrapachov, whose scores have appeared in over 100 films. His moody, Moroder-esque “Dance” (written for Roman Balaian’s iconic 1983 film, Flights in Dreams and Reality) is notable in that it was recorded on the Ussr’s only existing British EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer.

Producer Kyrylo Stetsenko, meanwhile, was reimagining traditional songs for the dancefloor. Among them is 1980’s “Play, the Violin, Play,” by Ukrainian pop star Tetiana Kocherhina. Stetsenko, who produced the album for Kocherhina, created a hypnotic remix of the folk tune that was fit for a disco. Stetsenko is also featured here with 1987’s “Oh, how, how?,” in which he transforms a melancholic ballad by Natalia Gura into a synth-forward, breakbeat jam.

As the fall of communism approached, the scene continued to diversify—particularly as music from around the world became increasingly available. Kyiv, in particular, became an epicenter of creativity. In the early days, bands like Krok offered a preview of what was to come. Described by Bardetskyi as “The first real Kyiv supergroup,” Krok was led by guitarist Volodymyr Khodzytskyi and featured musicians from local Beat bands. In addition to backing the biggest pop acts of the day, the versatile collective explored a spectrum of styles in their own recordings, including fusion and electro-funk. They are represented here with the mellow “Breath of Night Kyiv.”

By the late 80s, Kyiv “was buzzing like a beehive,” recalls Bardetskyi. “It was a period of very active socialization and exchange of musical information and ideas; local musicians evolved with supersonic speed, absorbing decades of the world's musical background and transforming it into their sound.” While rock bands comprised much of this era’s first wave, artists continued to expand their repertoire as new influences pervaded the scene. The global rise of DIY recording technology and electronic instrumentation, meanwhile, also contributed to the growing sonic landscape.

Highlights from this period include the avant-garde improvisations of violinist Valentina Goncharova. Recordings like 1989’s “Silence” were created by a series of layered tracks and custom pickups. Similarly, composer Iury Lech paints a warm ambient soundscape with 1990’s “Barreras.” On the other end of the spectrum is the industrial “90” by Radiodelo (the project of Ivan Moskalenko—aka DJ Derbastler), which combines frenetic drum machine beats and haunting, reverb-soaked instrumentation. Post-punk was also thriving, with acts like Yarn (a large, loosely based collective) dominating the scene. “The interests of [Yarn’s] members extended all the way to medieval chamber music, which would clearly be noticeable in ‘Viella,’” writes Bardetskyi. The track features two of Yarn’s co-founding members: multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer Oleksander Yurchenko (who became a significant figure in modern Ukrainian music) and Ivan Moskalenko. Yurchenko is also represented here as part of Omi, a parallel project by the chart-topping electronic group, Blemish. 1994’s dramatic “Transference” (which features contributions by legendary Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and American singer-songwriter Diamanda Galas) serves up horror-movie-soundtrack vibes, particularly with the addition of eerie vocalizations.

Cukor Bila Smert’ (which translates to “Sugar White Death”) were also major players in the Kyiv underground. Interestingly, Bardetskyi notes, “In the reality of the general dominance of post-punk, the aesthetic message of Cukor Bila Smert’ was countercultural to the countercultural process itself.” For their contribution to the compilation, the experimental quartet provides 1995’s “Cool, Shining.”

In the years following Ukraine’s independence, Kyiv’s underground scene continued to flourish, particularly as Western trends became more accessible and Ukrainians found themselves at the forefront of their own cultural output. While the country’s music would largely evolve in new directions throughout the 90s, the final entry on Even the Forest Hums... provides a glimpse at what the future held. The album closes with 1996’s “Lion,” by Belarusian transplant German Popov, whose project, Marble Sleeves, was “one of the few Kyiv formations that tried to master jungle/drum-n-bass,” per Bardetskyi.

Though this compilation only scratches the surface of Ukraine’s vast and diverse music scene, Even the Forest Hums offers an in-depth overview of a significant period in the country’s cultural history and unites a number of influential figures in the same collection for the first time. As Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Schegel writes in the foreword, “This is our Ukrainian treasure. It is impossible to lose and impossible to win.”

Light in the Attic Records proudly presents Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996—the first comprehensive collection of Ukrainian music recorded prior to, and immediately following, the Ussr’s collapse. From subtly dissenting Soviet-era singles to DIY recordings from Kyiv’s vibrant underground scene, the compilation chronicles the development of Ukraine’s rich musical landscape through rare folk, rock, jazz, and electronic recordings.

“This record is a labor of love and a long time coming,” says label owner Matt Sullivan. Over the course of the last five years, Sullivan, alongside producers David Mas ("dbgo”), Mark “Frosty” McNeill, and Ukrainian label Shukai Records worked tirelessly to compile a carefully curated, chronological playlist. But behind the scenes, ongoing war & politics would shape the evolution of the tracklist, which originally featured both Ukrainian and Russian artists. “We found ourselves in the midst of a larger political issue; what began as a broader overview of a sonically underrepresented region suddenly became quite the controversial project,” Sullivan continues, “so we decided to pivot and focus only on Ukrainian music. There were times when it felt impossible to bring this project to fruition, so to be sharing it with the world today is truly humbling and long overdue.”

Guiding listeners through the physical editions of the album are insightful liner notes and track-by-track details by Vitalii “Bard” Bardetskyi—a Kyiv-based filmmaker, DJ, and writer. The 2xLP is housed in a beautiful gatefold package showcasing Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko’s beloved and iconic folk paintings. The vinyl edition features a 20-page booklet with artist photos & liner notes in both English and Ukrainian, pressed on Clear Blue Sky & Sunflower Yellow wax; the CD edition features bonus content housed in a deluxe, 64-page hardbound book.

Light in the Attic will donate a portion of proceeds directly to Livyj Bereh, a Kyiv-based volunteer group working to rebuild in the regions affected by ongoing war in Ukraine.

“Music has always pulled Ukrainians out of the abyss,” writes Vitalii “Bard” Bardetskyi in his liner notes for Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996. “When there is no hope for the future, there is still music. At such moments, the whole nation resonates under a groove. Music, breaking through the concrete of various colonial systems, is an incredible, often illogical, way to preserve dignity.”

While the songs collected in Even the Forest Hums were recorded during periods of immense societal and political upheaval—and certainly reflect the resilience of the Ukrainian people—they are rooted in the universal spirit of exploration: from post-war teenagers seeking fresh rhythms and artists experimenting with DIY recording technologies to an entire nation being introduced to decades-worth of previously-embargoed albums. Yet, until now, it has been nearly impossible for anyone outside Ukraine to explore the country’s flourishing music scene for themselves.

Much of this can be attributed to Soviet-era restrictions. Music, much like any other commodity, was tightly controlled before the fall of communism. “Only state-authorized performers who had gone through hellish rounds of the permit system could record at the few monopolistic, state-run studios,” explains Bardetskyi. While many of these compositions were released and performed to mass audiences, however, they weren’t necessarily what they seemed. “Some of the artists managed, even under difficult ideological circumstances, to build a whole aesthetic platform which was essentially anti-Soviet.”

Bands could slide under the radar by changing the lyrics of rock songs to reflect Soviet ideals or by performing traditional folk music with subtle outside influences. “This resulted in a whole scene that combined central-eastern Ukrainian vocal polyphony, Carpathian rhythms, and overseas grooves,” writes Bardetskyi, who refers to this era of music as “Mustache Funk.”

Examples featured in Even the Forest Hums... include 1971’s “Bunny” by Kobza. While the folk-rock group was known for their polyphonic vocals, this particular composition is an instrumental waltz, which blends elements of traditional Ukrainian music with progressive rock, British beat, and jazz-rock. Another example of “Mustache Funk” comes from the latter half of the decade, with the Caribbean-influenced “Remembrance” by Vodohrai. While the group—which included some of the best jazz musicians in the country—had a multitude of traditional hits, inspired jams like this one could, for a lucky few, occasionally be heard live.

While the 70s proved to be a golden age for Ukrainian music (complete with pop stars, large-scale tours, and legions of adoring fans), the excitement was short-lived. “The Soviet system finally understood that funkified beats quite strongly contradict[ed] [its] principles,” notes Bardetskyi, who adds that by the 80s, “The once prolific scene was almost completely colonized, appropriated, and largely Russified; the state radio and TV waves were occupied by banal VIAs and cheezy schlager singers.”

With tighter restrictions, however, came the rise of the underground. While the decade leading up to Ukraine’s independence was marked by great turmoil—including the political reform of Perestroika in the Ussr and the Chernobyl disaster—it also marked a time of incredible creativity.

Mirroring global trends, the first half of the decade found many composers and producers experimenting with electronic music. Among them was Vadym Khrapachov, whose scores have appeared in over 100 films. His moody, Moroder-esque “Dance” (written for Roman Balaian’s iconic 1983 film, Flights in Dreams and Reality) is notable in that it was recorded on the Ussr’s only existing British EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer.

Producer Kyrylo Stetsenko, meanwhile, was reimagining traditional songs for the dancefloor. Among them is 1980’s “Play, the Violin, Play,” by Ukrainian pop star Tetiana Kocherhina. Stetsenko, who produced the album for Kocherhina, created a hypnotic remix of the folk tune that was fit for a disco. Stetsenko is also featured here with 1987’s “Oh, how, how?,” in which he transforms a melancholic ballad by Natalia Gura into a synth-forward, breakbeat jam.

As the fall of communism approached, the scene continued to diversify—particularly as music from around the world became increasingly available. Kyiv, in particular, became an epicenter of creativity. In the early days, bands like Krok offered a preview of what was to come. Described by Bardetskyi as “The first real Kyiv supergroup,” Krok was led by guitarist Volodymyr Khodzytskyi and featured musicians from local Beat bands. In addition to backing the biggest pop acts of the day, the versatile collective explored a spectrum of styles in their own recordings, including fusion and electro-funk. They are represented here with the mellow “Breath of Night Kyiv.”

By the late 80s, Kyiv “was buzzing like a beehive,” recalls Bardetskyi. “It was a period of very active socialization and exchange of musical information and ideas; local musicians evolved with supersonic speed, absorbing decades of the world's musical background and transforming it into their sound.” While rock bands comprised much of this era’s first wave, artists continued to expand their repertoire as new influences pervaded the scene. The global rise of DIY recording technology and electronic instrumentation, meanwhile, also contributed to the growing sonic landscape.

Highlights from this period include the avant-garde improvisations of violinist Valentina Goncharova. Recordings like 1989’s “Silence” were created by a series of layered tracks and custom pickups. Similarly, composer Iury Lech paints a warm ambient soundscape with 1990’s “Barreras.” On the other end of the spectrum is the industrial “90” by Radiodelo (the project of Ivan Moskalenko—aka DJ Derbastler), which combines frenetic drum machine beats and haunting, reverb-soaked instrumentation. Post-punk was also thriving, with acts like Yarn (a large, loosely based collective) dominating the scene. “The interests of [Yarn’s] members extended all the way to medieval chamber music, which would clearly be noticeable in ‘Viella,’” writes Bardetskyi. The track features two of Yarn’s co-founding members: multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer Oleksander Yurchenko (who became a significant figure in modern Ukrainian music) and Ivan Moskalenko. Yurchenko is also represented here as part of Omi, a parallel project by the chart-topping electronic group, Blemish. 1994’s dramatic “Transference” (which features contributions by legendary Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and American singer-songwriter Diamanda Galas) serves up horror-movie-soundtrack vibes, particularly with the addition of eerie vocalizations.

Cukor Bila Smert’ (which translates to “Sugar White Death”) were also major players in the Kyiv underground. Interestingly, Bardetskyi notes, “In the reality of the general dominance of post-punk, the aesthetic message of Cukor Bila Smert’ was countercultural to the countercultural process itself.” For their contribution to the compilation, the experimental quartet provides 1995’s “Cool, Shining.”

In the years following Ukraine’s independence, Kyiv’s underground scene continued to flourish, particularly as Western trends became more accessible and Ukrainians found themselves at the forefront of their own cultural output. While the country’s music would largely evolve in new directions throughout the 90s, the final entry on Even the Forest Hums... provides a glimpse at what the future held. The album closes with 1996’s “Lion,” by Belarusian transplant German Popov, whose project, Marble Sleeves, was “one of the few Kyiv formations that tried to master jungle/drum-n-bass,” per Bardetskyi.

Though this compilation only scratches the surface of Ukraine’s vast and diverse music scene, Even the Forest Hums offers an in-depth overview of a significant period in the country’s cultural history and unites a number of influential figures in the same collection for the first time. As Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Schegel writes in the foreword, “This is our Ukrainian treasure. It is impossible to lose and impossible to win.”

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!

R&B, soul singer Wilson Pickett's classic third album

Features "In the Midnight Hour," "Land of a Thousand Dances" and "Ninety-nine and a Half (Won't Do)"

180-gram 45 RPM double LP

Pressed at Quality Record Pressings

Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing

The Exciting Wilson Pickett, released in 1966, was R&B and soul singer Wilson Pickett's third album, charting at No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart and No. 21 on the popular albums chart, becoming the highest-charting studio album of Pickett's career.

The making of the album saw Pickett end his relationship with Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had cut his early singles, and move to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he would record for the next two years. According to AllMusic, this album firmly established Picket's "stature as a major '60s soul man," launching four major crossover hits.

The chart-toppers include "In the Midnight Hour" reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and No. 21 on the pop singles chart. "Land of a Thousand Dances" reached No. 1 and No. 6 respectively, his biggest pop hit. "Ninety-nine and a Half (Won't Do)" reached No. 13 and No. 53. "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)," a song which Pickett had not on first hearing liked, reached No. 1 and No. 13.

The deeper album cuts hold significant appeal as well and include standards "Something You Got," "Barefootin'" and "Mercy Mercy" as well as several original tunes with Memphis Soul greats Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, and David Porter.

Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

Second compilation by Habibi Funk, following the success of the first part, featuring a wide range of music from North Africa and the Middle East.

Das Album Songwriter entstand im Jahr 1993 als Cash ein Album mit selbst geschriebenen Songs aufnahm. Jedoch vergaß er dieses Album prompt wieder, als er bei American Recordings unterschrieb und sich daraufhin nochmal einer komplett neuen Generation von Fans als einer der besten Songwriter der Welt präsentierte. Diese (fast) vergessenen 11 Songs des Songwriters wurden nun von seinem Sohn John Carter und dem langjährigen Produzenten von Cash, David Ferguson, überarbeitet. Diese sind nun erstmalig als LP verfügbar.

Before I’m gone I’d like to see us turn the corner and give up being spoilers of the land . . .

In 1975 Wallace ‘Wally’ Smith Broecker published a paper that popularised the term ‘global warming’ and against a backdrop of change and environmental uncertainty, a musical concept album was commissioned. ‘Wilderness America / A Celebration of the Land’ - is a musical exploration of our place within the cycle of living things. All compositions were specially commissioned for the album and blended with natural sounds recorded in the wild – lending the entire project a conceptual air that still feels fresh today.

The journey begins with the sun rising in the atmospheric haze of 'Dawn' - a track composed by new-age innovator Iasos. Gospel singer Walter Hawkins soon drops in with the soulful but ever so funky 'Metropolis' backed by a heavy array of session musicians with Patrick Gleeson, Ed Bogas and Tom Salisbury all adding their own misty magic to the album. David Riordan is the sorcerer conjuring up many of the compositions and also takes vocal duties on the evocative 'Mountain' and the climatic 'Before I'm Gone'.

‘Wilderness America / A Celebration of the Land’ was born when environmentalist Emily DeSpain Polk assembled a group of California residents to participate in a groundbreaking conservationist project. Christening the group Swap (Small Wilderness Area Preservation) Emily needed funds and began a project to produce a promotional nature based music album. To acquire the financial backing Emily would need to source a musician of some calibre. Contacting Cliff Branch from ‘Warehouse Sound Co.’ she was told the man she was looking for was David Riordan.

David Riordan had been around the music business for several years, first with The Yankee Dollar, then Sugarloaf and then Sweet Pain, he saw huge success with the single 'Green Eyed Lady'. David had worked on Cliff Branch’s 'Warehouse Sound Co. & Friends' albums and then released his solo album, 'Medicine Wheel'. But bored of touring he made the move to more concept-driven albums. First with ‘Christmas in San Francisco’ and then, in quick succession, 'Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land'.

Riordan, along with Peter Scott, a music producer friend in San Francisco, began piecing together an idea for the album. They brought in Ed Bogas to do string arrangements and Tom Salisbury to conduct. David had also asked his friend Patrick Gleeson if he knew of any R&B/Gospel singers in the Bay Area, and they soon added gospel singer Walter Hawkins into the mix.

Other than the track ‘Metropolis’, which was recorded in LA, the rest of ‘Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land’ was recorded and mixed by Richard Beggs at the San Francisco studio of Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was filming ‘Apocalypse Now’ at the same time – so in between studio sessions, the musicians were able to view the seemingly never-ending film rushes arriving from the Philippines.

Eventually, the record produced by David Riordan and Peter Scott drifted onto the radar of vinyl obsessives and selectors as several of its key tracks began popping up on mixtapes and sales lists. It wasn’t long before this privately pressed, art-funded masterpiece became something of a holy grail for collectors. At long last, a re-issue of this masterpiece is now available on Ebalunga!!! Records.

Coyote Butterfly is the first album of new songs in two years from singer-songwriter, Simon Joyner, following the overdose death of his son, Owen, in August of 2022. Drawing on the kaleidoscopic nature of grief, Joyner explores his loss through a series of imagined dialogues and raw confessions. The album is a tribute to Owen, but what Joyner generously delivers is an intimate glimpse at his attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible.

The album is bookended by field recordings overlaid with minimalist guitar laments. The first, a spring thrum of sparrows and red-winged blackbirds, functions as an invitation to the elegies which follow, while the last, the late-August drone of cicadas returns us to a life of sweat on the skin, sirens in the distance, and the things we cannot change but must somehow accept. In between these instrumentals, Joyner grapples with regret and fear, shame and love. From the opening song, “I’m Taking You With Me” to the gut-wrenching remorse of “My Lament,” Joyner lays bare the struggles of those left in the wake of personal devastation. On the title track, we hear Joyner perform an elemental incantation, a heartbroken ode infused with forgiveness. The final song of the album, “There Will be a Time,” is a meditation on a future where such suffering, both personal and universal, might be softened by understanding.

The musicians playing alongside Simon on Coyote Butterfly are among his closest friends; David Nance, James Schroeder, Kevin Donahue, Ben Brodin, and Michael Krassner. It’s thanks to their sensitive arrangements and loving support that the songs on Coyote Butterfly could be performed and documented.

RSD First, Limitation: 1000

Native American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis was the “go-to” guy for a remarkable group of musicians. Starting in the mid-‘60s, he toured with Conway Twitty, then became a key part of Taj Mahal’s band, playing on several albums and tours including an appearance in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, and, perhaps most famously, accompanied George Harrison during the Concert for Bangladesh, followed by work on various solo albums by John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Gene Clark, Leonard Cohen, and Jackson Browne (that’s Jesse taking the solo on his 1972 breakout hit “Doctor My Eyes”).
All this activity caught the eye of ATCO Records, who released his debut LP Jesse Davis in 1971. The album featured Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Gram Parsons, Merry Clayton, Ben Sidran, John Simon (producer of The Band), Alan White (of Yes), and many others including Delaney Bramlett behind the mixing desk. A year later, Atco released Ululu containing some of the same all-stars, plus Duck Dunn, Jim Keltner, and Dr. John – and a version of George Harrison’s “Sue Me, Sue You Blues” before even George recorded it.
Of late, there’s been something of a Jesse Ed Davis revival. Besides Real Gone Records releases, Davis was a major figure in the documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World…and now this fall comes a full-fledged biography, Washita Love Child: The Life and Times of Jesse Ed Davis, by Dr. Douglas Miller.
To honor the man and the occasion of the book’s release (and to slake guitar-heads the world over thirsting for more tasty Jesse Ed licks), Real Gone Music releases Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day: The Unissued Atco Recordings 1970-1971, a double-LP collection consisting of, as the title says, all unreleased recordings taken from Jesse’s sessions for his two Atco solo records. Along the way you’ll find completely unreleased songs (“Slinky Jam”), unexpected covers of “Ain’t No Beatle,” “Kansas City,” and “Tracks of My Tears,” unissued instrumentals (including a version of Dylan’s “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”), and an entire side featuring alternate versions of Jesse’s masterpiece, “Washita Love Child.”
Remastered by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision, and featuring notes by Dr. Miller festooned by photos contributed by Jesse’s son William “Billy” Noriega, Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day: The Unissued Atco Recordings 1970-1971 represents a major archival find from one of rock’s most intriguing characters, out on Cobalt “Blue Jean” vinyl limited to 1500 copies worldwide.

Limited Clear with Black Splatter Colored Vinyl. Johnny Cash recorded an album's worth of self-penned songs in 1993. Shortly thereafter, he released the American Recordings albums and re-established himself as one of the world's greatest songwriters, introducing him to a new generation of fans. Songwriter's unreleased 11 songs have been updated and produced by his son John Carter Cash and co-producer David Ferguson.

Emily Nenni has written a follow-up to 2022’s critically acclaimed record, On The Ranch. Her debut album garnered her much success and introduced her to a devoted audience of music fans who celebrate the traditional side of country music while embracing the modern indie aesthetic that comes with that nod to the past. While writing her latest record, Drive & Cry, Nenni looked in the rearview mirror for inspiration but kept focus on the sound that she has become known for. “This is the first record I have completely written on my own. I spent a good bit of solitary time ruminating on things that had happened over the last year or two. Rethinking what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, who with, even in just the everyday. Change is hard but also such a gift.”

Nenni worked with producer John James Tourville (The Deslondes, Sunny War) to broaden her sound and bring in nuance to the recording. The record was engineered by Jake Davis and mixed by Matt Ross-Spang in Memphis, TN. The resulting recording is a matured country sound that focuses on the fun and the tears that come with all changes in life.

Reverse board tip on with silver pantone print. The first ever reissue of Dorothy Carter's 1978 folk/psych/drone masterpiece. A truly unique album in Dorothy's catalog of otherwise traditional psaltery folk music, Waillee Waillee's essence sits in the confluence of Dorothy's mastery of the dulcimer; its shimmering notes fully enmeshed with the tremulous, cavernous drones of Bob Rutman's bowed steel cello. The core of this album, Dorothy's only with a full band, lies in the contradiction of traditional psych-folk idioms and the minimal avant-garde, referencing Henry Flynt and Laraaji as much as Karen Dalton. This LP version includes 12 page booklet with unpublished manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and songbooks of the songs from the album, as well as extended liner notes from friends and family of Dorothy Carter, including notable musicians such as Laraaji, Bob Rutman, and Alexander Hacke (of Einstürzende Neubauten). Drops soon - a joint release between Palto Flats & Putojefe Records.

Dorothy Carter was many things - a virtuoso player, storyteller, historian of Celtic and Appalachian folk music, avid lifelong busker, avant-garde musician, and itinerant troubadour, laying a framework for music that existed both within and outside of standard folk idioms - never better represented than on her 1978 masterwork, Waillee Waillee. Underscored by Bob Rutman’s cavernous bowing of the steel cello, the richness of Waillee Waillee’s sound produces an album unlike any other in her discography. In particular, its two side-ending pieces, “Summer Rhapsody” and “Tree of Life,’’ glide with the shimmering filigree of hammered dulcimer and Dorothy Carter’s ephemeral voice floating over Rutman’s droning buzz of the steel cello. The elements of these two tracks suggest something akin to a transcendental Appalachian raga or whirling cosmic folk music, an effortless combination that serves to add additional substance to the remaining tracks on the album.

The title track is one of her most enduring compositions, often performed in stripped down versions throughout her career, and one of her sole recordings featuring a full band, with the contrapuntal interplay of tremulous flute, vibrating steel cello, bass and drums. Lyrically and tonally, her voice would never sound as stirring and refi ned as on this, her most outwardly accessible song.

She counted musical colleagues as diverse as Constance Demby, Einstürzende Neubauten and Laraaji, as well as her lifelong artistic partner and friend Bob Rutman, whose imprint is felt throughout the grooves of this record. The master tapes for this recording were fortuitously discovered in Rutman’s Berlin studio, many, many years later. As recounted in Laraaji’s contribution to the liner notes, Dorothy was “someone who really influenced my early zither exploration and vocabulary and inspired my shift toward hammered zither performance and recording,” after encountering him busking on the sidewalk one day in the 1970s. Later, when living in Berlin in the early 1990s, Dorothy would begin work on manuscripts detailing the history of the dulcimer family and providing extensive sheet music, selected material of which is reproduced in the twelve page booklet included with this release. Dorothy would find later success touring and performing in the late 90s with the ensemble Mediæval Bæbes, which she led with British musician Katherine Blake, playing a prominent role on their first four albums.

The Endless Coloured Ways is a collection of songs by legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences From Fontaines D.C. to Guy Garvey, Aurora to Feist, and Self-Esteem to David Gray, each artist has offered their own incredible take on a timeless classic "Nick Drake was not that concerned with promoting himself as an artist but I think he would have been overjoyed to hear his art promoted by so many vibrant and talented artists such as the ones we approached. Each track is an example of a fellow artist adopting Nick's art as if it was their own, submitting to the song, and the results prove to me that talent can so often win out over mere skill or 'personality'. We are honoured and so grateful to all our friends, old and new, who took part in the making of this set." - Cally Calloman, Bryter Music "Having initially exchanged a list of our favourite artists and realised how much our tastes overlapped, Cally and I set out on this venture with one simple brief - to ask the artists to ignore the original recording of Nick's in terms of arrangement, production and singing style; basically, we were asking them to reinvent the song. First of all, it was humbling to hear so many similar responses, saying how important Nick's music was to them, and how much they wanted to be part of this project. But as the results came in one by one, we were staggered by the brilliance and invention that each artist had shown. They had done what we asked - they had made the song their own." - Jeremy Lascelles, Chrysalis Records

A further exercise in musical curation, Child Of Nature is our latest sonic confluence of self-released tracks from the loners, hippies and outsiders of the 70s and early 80s. A collection of privately pressed music, able to breathe and be created free from the constraints of heavy handed commercialism, yielding a pure vision of artistic expression. Child Of Nature features ten songs of brooding soft rock and psychedelic folk steeped in melancholia. Some ache for better times or past lovers, while others seek spiritual fulfillment or social progress.

A compilation to evoke the raw and unobstructed, to summon the occult, to fundamentally conjure a vivid portrait of our untamed natural environment. Recorded on the north coast of California, Luellen Reese’s ethereal “Silvery Waterfalls” drifts and swirls with electric guitar as her unearthly vocals transcend across a seven minute opus, fit for the golden age of labels like 4AD or Dedicated. “The flowers are dancing just for you …”, Reggie Russell croons over glistening Key Of Creek’s title track “Child Of Nature”, evoking a utopian world of natural harmony free from the present day realities of industrial decay.

Tap into your inner primal being, to embrace wholeheartedly, with frivolity and without reserve, your own child of nature.

The Blind Date Party hosted by Bill Callahan and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and featuring Azita, Matt Sweeney, Alasdair Roberts, Matt Kinsey, Sean O’Hagan, Bill MacKay, George Xylouris, Dead Rider, David Pajo, Mick Turner, Meg Baird, Ty Segall, Emmett Kelly, Cory Hanson, Six Organs of Admittance, David Grubbs, Cassie Berman, Cooper Crain and Sir Richard Bishop happened online in the fall and winter of ’20–’21 — but the party planning dated back to the spring of 2020. Stuck at home, with no gigs in the foreseeable future, Bill, Bonnie and Drag City needed an outreach program to keep themselves busy, not to mention sane. In the absence of any company or anything on the calendar, playing songs they loved was an idea; playing with people they loved, the desire. And making it fun — so pairing someone with someone else having no say in the matter, the essence of the blind date, was the plan. Favorite songs were chose; players from around the Drag City galaxy were messaged. Pretty soon, songs were flying back and forth — music in the air! And thus, they were entertained throughout the summer of 2020, when so much else in the world seemed so completely wrong. By the fall, the songs started to appear online: Bill and Bonnie singing a song by someone they loved and admired; each song cut by another another artist they loved and admired, then sent to Bill and Bonny to provide the finishing touches. The spotlight pointed in every direction each week: toward the singers and writers who’d originally played the songs (Yusuf Islam, Hank Williams Jr., Dave Rich, The Other Years, Billie Eilish, Steely Dan, Lou Reed, Bill Callahan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Wyatt, Lowell George, Johnnie Frierson, Air Supply, Will Oldham, Leonard Cohen, David Berman, Iggy Pop and John Prine), toward their featured collaborators, the artists whose artwork adorned each digital single and videos made by still more collaborators. And you, the listener. Like the best parties, it turned out to be everything and more than they’d even hoped for. So many more people were involved in the process that we can get on the page here. Suffice to say, making records over the years has required a broad sense of community and an always-surprising mix of independence and unity, inspiration and utility. Some of our best memories are those where as many of our folks as possible were together in one place at one time. In those moments, it was just a great thing just to be there. And with others looking in . . . this was a joy one could only be infinitely lucky to feel and to take for granted, as well. The Blind Date Party was one of these, maybe the most improbable one yet. It’s for everyone who’s here and it’s in the name of everyone who’s gone but will never go and will always live with us here. This album will too. And thus, we are entertained.

Released in 1975, “Continente Nero” is the perfect flip side of “Africa” (1972), an album that significantly expanded Piero Umiliani’s music perspectives, incorporating partially explored rhythmic variations already used in “Percussioni ed Effetti Speciali” and “To-Day’s Sound”. It does so by taking inspiration from a tradition that starts from the divine Fela Kuti and reaches the amateur and field recordings by musicologists such as David Toop, but also from the Afro-American jazz history of Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Max Roach and hundreds of others.

Continente Nero (1975) Released via the Omicron label in 1975, three years after Africa, Continente Nero is the perfect flip side of an album that significantly expanded Piero Umiliani’s music perspectives, incorporating partially explored rhythmic variations already used in records such as Percussioni ed Effetti Speciali and To-Day’s Sound or experimenting new solutions that drew from a musical heritage little known at the time such as the African one. Without bothering with the usual alias M. Zalla, Umiliani reveal his birth name and surname for a second foray into a territory that pays homage to an entire continent. And it does so by taking inspiration not only from a tradition that starts from the divine Fela Kuti and reaches the amateur and field recordings by musicologists such as David Toop, invaluable documents of an artistic heritage still today almost impossible to map in its complexity, but also from the Afro-American jazz history by Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Max Roach and hundreds of others. It sounds clear in tracks such as Nuovi Fermenti, Rivoluzionari, Riscossa or Ultimo Stregone that show Umiliani’s extraordinary ability to grab a distant tradition essential traits and put them effortlessly into a personal imaginary world, as much exciting as the original one.

Siren was the debut album by Kevin Coyne with Siren, the band he founded with former Bonzo Dog Band bassist Dave Clague and pianist/guitarist Nick Cudworth. The album was originally issued on John Peel’s Dandelion label in 1969. An artist who would later inspire John Lydon, Sting, Ben Watt and Will Oldham and would collaborate with Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Dagmar Krause, Brendan Croker, Gary Lucas and The Mekons’ Jon Langford, Kevin Coyne deserves a royal place between the likes of Syd Barrett, Peter Hammill and Daevid Allen. Standing on the verge of british blues, folk and rawk’n’roll Siren could have been easily labeled as the british answer to Canned Heat, but there’s even more. ‘And I Wonder’ is clearly an anticipation of what would happen next, with the solo career of Coyne, more focused on acid folk songwriting. “Most of the album is good time rock-on-out-music a la the Flamin’ Groovies… one of those (albums) you keep coming back to when the night gets cold and the wine is almost out. I play it a lot, and that’s the nicest thing I can say about an album.” Ed Ward – Rolling Stone “Siren just came as a breath of fresh air really, in the same way that like a generation later The Ramones did. When you just thought ‘Thank God for that!’ You hadn’t realised how bored you’d become…” John Peel.

Originally released by Wounded Wolf Press as a limited release (only 100 cassettes were made) back in 2016, "Loopworks" compiles Turkish visual and sound artist Koray Kantarcioglu's (Ankara, 1982) loop based work composed of samples taken from Turkish records released in 60's and 70's as source material. "Loopworks"
impacts almost instantly mainly because it shows some familiarity with the recent work of Leyland Kirby as The Caretaker, particularly with the "haunted ballroom" effect. Koray explores the usage and the dynamic of these sounds as ambient music for different scenarios as well as the importance of a newfound life with the raw
material he used to create these songs. The source material appears as enigmatic as
these new sounds and activate a sense of discovery and constant wonder throughout
"Loopworks". With the vinyl release of "Loopworks" we continue to manifest the
importance of showing how technology and geography create different and original
approaches to the standard western interpretation of field recordings and sound
manipulation. Koray Kantarcioglu's work here is a strong manifestation of that and
how "haunted music" can express a myriad of feelings and sensations. "Loopworks"
has a tremendous vision of the metamorphosis that's been occurring in ambient music
during the last decade. Sometimes it's dreamy and calm as aquarium music is
("500606" or "22 47 91 Take 1"); surprising and infinite as "263 Loop", one of the few
tracks with a voice, in this case a mysterious and transcendental one; or part of a John
Carpenter & David Lynch film yet to be made ("Organ Extract KP 001"). A fantastic
voyage, from earth to space, through time or simply as the most beautiful and peaceful
dive into the ocean. Old music transformed into something new, unique. That's
special.

You take a trio of the fnest traditonal griot musicians from Mali and put them in a studio with Western music's most revolutonary string quartet - and the resultng album is one of the most richly rewarding musical collaboratons you are likely to encounter. Together the Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali have created an album that is rich in texture, hauntngly melodic and strikingly inventve as violins, viola and cello combine with balafon, ngoni and the powerful female voice of Hawa 'Kassé Mady' Diabaté in transcendental style. David Harrington, who founded the Kronos Quartet in 1973, describes the album as one of the most beautful Kronos has done in forty years.' All three Da Kali members come from hereditary musical families, Balafon player and musical director Lassana Diabaté was a long-tme member of Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra and has recorded with Salif Keita, Taj Mahal and many others. A musician of great subtlety and inventon he has honed a virtuoso two-balafon technique to perfecton. Bass ngoni player Mamadou Kouyaté is the eldest son of the instrument's greatest exponent, Bassekou Kouyaté and he holds down the groove in his father's band 'Ngoni Ba'. Singer Hawa 'Kassé Mady' Diabaté is the daughter of Mali's greatest traditonal singer, Kassé Mady Diabaté, and the power, range and phrasing of her voice led David Harrington to compare her to the late queen of American gospel, Mahalia Jackson.
Kronos Quartet have earned an enviable reputaton collaboratng with contemporary composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Laurie Anderson and with world music icons from Argentnian tango hero Astor Piazzola to Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle.

Judee Sill was an American singer and songwriter. She released two albums and partially completed a third album before her death in 1979. Sill encountered Graham Nash and David Crosby and toured with them for a time as their opening act, a year before the release of her eponymous debut album.

Limited Edition of 1,500 copies on Seaweed Green vinyl.David Gray is back doing what he does better than almost anyone,and fans of complex, serious, lyrical songcraft should rejoice. Dear Lifemay be the deepest, strangest,...

Canterbury-based progressive jazz-rock act Ben only released one obscure album, issued on Philips’ prog subsidiary Vertigo in 1971, but it’s a lovely collective of extended instrumental jams, worthy of discovery for those that missed it the first time around. Peter Davey’s saxophone and clarinet melodies push the material to high peaks, against an understated backing from future Nashville Teens bassist, Len Surtees and former Graham Bond drummer, David Sheen, keyboardist Alex Macleery and guitarist Gerry Reid adding flourishes at key moments. The songs “The Wooing Of The Child” and “The Wooing Of The Man” credit a certain K Jarrett as songwriter, making this rare beast all the more intriguing.

Luther Dickinson, 10-time Grammy nominated North Mississippi All Star, joins up with noted Bay Area mensch David Katznelson to chase the spirits and get weird. World Boogie is Coming!This is the debut project from Luther Dickinson and David Katznelson, who famously signed The Flaming Lips. It also features the last known audio of Jim Dickinson and is limited to 400 foil stamped numbered vinyl copies.

David Gray is back doing what he does better than almost anyone,and fans of complex, serious, lyrical songcraft should rejoice. Dear Lifemay be the deepest, strangest, loveliest album this pioneering Britishsinger-songwriter has ever delivered. Years in the making, it is analbu...

Transcendental poetry meets Southern Nightmare Jazz on the third album by Alabama-based artist Johnny ColeyMister Sweet Whisper is the meeting of poet & artist Johnny Coley and the band Worst Spills, led by guitarist & arranger Joel Nelson. (Imagine "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown," but more like "William Burroughs Meets Lounge Lizards in Ghost Swamp"). Joined by vibraphone player and recordist of the group, Jasper Lee, Mister Sweet Whisper centers Coley as a gifted writer and unique elder voice, supported by an eclectic cast of friends & collaborators.Tapping into French surrealism and transgressive American poets such as John Ashbery, the songs in Mister Sweet Whisper evolve, cinema-like, with Coley as an uninhibited, almost mystical, narrator. Textural, jazz-like playing complements Coley's decadent landscapes, which glide by like cigarette-inspired invocations. Echoing, and at times, dissonant notes of saxophone, crystalline tones of vibraphone, and jagged guitar arrangements punctuate Coley's dreamlike visions, populated by ballet dancers, haunting nightclubs, and ghostly car drivers. Wistful and expansive, the songs in Mister Sweet Whisper speak of Coley's talent and natural ability to channel his poetic world into songs.A remarkable follow-up to Coley's first two albums_Antique Sadness, from 2021, and Landscape Man, from 2022_which were praised as "exquisitely haunting, sublime, hilarious" and falling "somewhere between Robert Ashley, David Wojnarowicz, and Intersystems," Mister Sweet Whisper arrives in full form: unpredictable and brilliant.LP comes with a 4-page booklet featuring artwork and writing by Johnny. Pressed in black vinyl.

Cover is missing.

Received an 8.1 rating from Pitchfork. "Sadly, many will hear Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt's latest LP, Made Out of Sound, as 'not-jazz,' though it would be more aptly described as 'not-not-jazz.' In a better world, it would warrant above-the-fold reviews in Downbeat, or an appearance on David Sanborn's late-night show (if someone would only give it back to him). More likely, we can hope for a haiku review on Byron Coley's Twitter timeline to sufficiently connect the various improvised terrains trodden by this long-time duo—but if you've been able to listen past the overmodulated icepick fidelity of Harry Pussy, it should surprise you not an iota that Orcutt's style is rooted as much in the fractal melodies of Trane and Taylor as it is in Delta syrup or Tin Pan Alley glitz. As for Corsano, well, it may seem daft to call this particular record 'jazz' (because duh, it has a drummer), but to me Corsano is beyond jazz, almost beyond music, his ambidextrous, octopoid technique grappling many stylistic levers and spraying a torrent of light from every direction. Corsano's ferocity has elevated many 'mere' improv records to transcendence, but here he's crafted his polyrhythms within more narrative channels, bringing to mind his 'mannered' playing in the lamented Flower-Corsano duo. It's not 'groove' playing precisely, but it follows many grooves simultaneously, much like Orcutt's own melodic musings—which is why they're so naturally lock-in-key here. Which maybe makes it all the more surprising that Made Out of Sound was in fact recorded in different rooms on different coasts at different times, and stitched together by Orcutt on his desktop. Corsano recorded the drums in Ithaca, NY, and (as Orcutt states), 'I didn't edit them at all. I overdubbed two guitar tracks, panned left/right. I'd listen to the drums a couple times, pick a tuning, then improvise a part, thinking of the first track as backing and the second as the 'lead', though those are pretty fluid terms. I was watching the waveforms as I was recording, so I could see when a crescendo was coming or when to bring it down.' Fluidity ties the tracks together. With a little more groove and a little less around-the-beat maneuvering, one could almost hear the boiling harmonic layers as Miles-oid in 'Man Carrying Thing,' but with new-found Sharrockian modalities, Corsano accentuating the tumbling nature of the falling notes. The Sharrock vein continues with 'How to Cook a Wolf,' its Blind Willie-esque melodic simplicity and repetition extrapolated 360-style in a repetitive descending riff that falls into Cippolina-isms (by way of Verlaine ) until the end crashes upon the shore. Much like Orcutt's last solo album, Odds Against Tomorrow, there's a gentler, almost pastoral flow to some tracks ('Some Tennessee Jar,' 'A Port in Air,' 'Thirteen Ways of Looking') that calls to mind the mixolydian swamplands of Lonnie Liston Smith—but unlike Odds , other tracks ('The Thing Itself') smash that same lyricism into overdriven, multi-dimensional melodic clumps that push several vector envelopes at once in an Interstellar Space vein. With the help of Corsano, Orcutt has managed to slither even further out of the noise/improv pigeonhole lazy listeners/writers keep trying to shove him into. Looking at the back cover of Made Out of Sound , we should not see Orcutt hurling a guitar into the air with post-punk bravado, Corsano toiling behind him in the engine room—we should witness an instrument levitating from his hands, rising on invisible major-key tendrils of melody, fired by percussion, spiraling into an invisible event horizon..."—Tom Carter

Mega rare UK private album (99 copies originally pressed in 1969) by singer/songwriter Jeremy Harmer, featuring David Costa of psych-folk band Trees on guitar. Melancholic, introspective psych-folk with chamber/ baroque feel. Guitar, flute, viola, bass, drums… Jeremy Harmer started singing and playing at school and university, where his circle of friends included aspiring folk musicians like Nick Drake and pre-Trees David Costa. Jeremy has a long history as a singer/songwriter and performer, along with his work in the field of English language teaching. “Idiosyncratics and Swallows’ Wings” was recorded one night in 1968 at the studios of Anglia Television, Norwich, while Jeremy was at the University of East Anglia. Along with Jeremy singing and playing guitar, the album features a mini-chamber ensemble of flute, viola, bass and drums with orchestral arrangements written by John Trevitt from the School of Fine Arts. Jeremy’s friend David Costa (prior to forming the psych-folk band Trees) played guitar on several tracks and co-wrote “Tuesday P.M.” Only 99 copies were pressed at the time and all were sold to people at the University, making it impossible to find now.

MYRNINEREST is the new Hallucinatory Cartoon channelled by David Tibet in order to work, outside of CURRENT 93, with some of the artists and friends he admires the most. ""Jhonn," Uttered Babylon", their harrowing and haunted debut, featuring James Blackshaw and David Tibet, is centered on Davids friendship with, and love for, the late Jhonn Balance of COIL as well as Jhonns death and how it affected the circle of friends around Jhonn. With all lyrics by David and all music written by James, the album was recorded during February 2012 with James Blackshaw on classical guitar and harmonium and David as vocalist. Both LP and CD formats contain the same songs, but with very different mixes by different artists, and the tracks on the 2 formats have also been given different names.The vinyl version is mixed by The Bricoleur and comes in a full-colour, reverse-board, sleeve with a 4-page insert containing the albums text and reproductions of two charco...

At it’s core, Watchhouse (formerly known as Mandolin Orange) is a duo - Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz - from Chapel Hill, NC. Their harmonies are ethereal, their chemistry vibrant, bringing to mind the atmosphere invoked by classic duos such as Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, or Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Andrew and Emily provide the foundation of the group's timeless Americana sound, while enlisting a full band to flesh out their dynamics. This Side of Jordan is the group's 3rd full length album and debut release on Yep Roc Records. Since signing to the label and releasing This Side of Jordan in 2013, the band has made quite a bit of noise on the folk/Americana circuit. They’ve received critical acclaim from NPR Music, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Garden & Gun, No Depression and more. Their catalog has surpassed over 500 million streams and they’ve sold out worldwide tours. They have headlined Red Rocks and have graced the stage of the Ryman, Bonnaroo, and Newport Folk Festival.

Japanese pressing without obi, includes insert | Faintest discoloration on front cover otherwise VG+

Vinyl is close to NM.

clear vinyl. 2012 reissue. With insert

Cover has one ding bottom right corner.

Original inner sleeve. close to NM

Das Album Songwriter entstand im Jahr 1993 als Cash ein Album mit selbst geschriebenen Songs aufnahm. Jedoch vergaß er dieses Album prompt wieder, als er bei American Recordings unterschrieb und sich daraufhin nochmal einer komplett neuen Generation von Fans als einer der besten Songwriter der Welt präsentierte. Diese (fast) vergessenen 11 Songs des Songwriters wurden nun von seinem Sohn John Carter und dem langjährigen Produzenten von Cash, David Ferguson, überarbeitet. Diese sind nun erstmalig als LP verfügbar.

Noelle & The Deserters bring South-Western honky tonk and songs of heartbreak from the high deserts of New Mexico to the golden hills of California. Fronted by singer-songwriter Noelle Fiore, their music draws inspiration from the likes of Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, J.J Cale, Gene Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and the great outlaw country players. The Deserters include seasoned players Graham Norwood (Bryan Scary, Graham Norwood) on guitar, Alicia Vanden Heuvel (The Aislers Set) on bass, David Cuetter (Tarnation) on pedal steel, and Jerry Fiore (Sonic Love Affair)on drums, all based in the Bay Area and Sacramento. Fiore was raised in Taos, New Mexico. As a guitar player and vocalist, she was a founding member of Sweet Chariot, singing and playing guitar / banjo. Later, she and Tim Cohen (The Fresh & Onlys) founded the band Magic Trick, recording four full length albums for labels Hardly Art and Captured Tracks. Fiore is also a current member of the Shannon Shaw Band, on guitar and vocals.

High Desert Daydream is Noelle & The Deserters debut album, out on Speakeasy Studios SF. The songs on the album, written by Fiore, touch on life in the west, growing up in Taos, living in California, songs of love, memory, marriage, work, good times, and bad times. Like all classic country music, the songs are infused with a sense of real-life struggles and living life in the everyday. Fiore’s incredible voice carries the album, and her songs are at once moving, powerful, tender, humorous, and intimately relatable.

Produced by Noelle Fiore and Alicia Vanden Heuvel, High Desert Daydream feels country, yet of the west, of California and New Mexico, of experimental fronts in country music, and is truly a work of beauty.

The thirteen edition in the Imaginational Anthem series features renditions of Bruce Cockburn tunes by James Toth (Wooden Wand), Kyle Hammett Duo (ft. Luke Schneider), Wet Tuna (Matt Valentine), Jerry DeCicca (ft Bill Callahan), and others.

Emily Nenni has written a follow-up to 2022’s critically acclaimed record, On The Ranch. Her debut album garnered her much success and introduced her to a devoted audience of music fans who celebrate the traditional side of country music while embracing the modern indie aesthetic that comes with that nod to the past. While writing her latest record, Drive & Cry, Nenni looked in the rearview mirror for inspiration but kept focus on the sound that she has become known for. “This is the first record I have completely written on my own. I spent a good bit of solitary time ruminating on things that had happened over the last year or two. Rethinking what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, who with, even in just the everyday. Change is hard but also such a gift.”

Nenni worked with producer John James Tourville (The Deslondes, Sunny War) to broaden her sound and bring in nuance to the recording. The record was engineered by Jake Davis and mixed by Matt Ross-Spang in Memphis, TN. The resulting recording is a matured country sound that focuses on the fun and the tears that come with all changes in life.

Circus of Desire is the much anticipated third studio album from Grammy-nominated folk singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney. Worked up over five eventful years, this collection of lovingly wrought songs was recorded in NYC with long-time collaborator, producer and musician Thomas Bartlett (David Byrne, the Magnetic Fields, Sufjan Stevens, The National, St. Vincent, Father John Misty)

Consisting of ten originals and one cover (a revoicing of Dory Previn’s haunting ballad ‘Lady with the Braid’), this album is Olivia set free. Taking their departure from real life experiences, these songs strain towards the universal. The title track blends the carnivalesque and meditations on ancient wisdom with an anthemic, dancy refrain. ‘Calliope’ is a tribute to Olivia’s daughter, named after the Greek muse of music and epic poetry, picturing this little life as part of the ever-revolving cosmos. ‘To the Lighthouse’ tells the story of her sister who left the capital to live on a remote island. Like ‘Mirror, Mirror’ and ‘Why’, a pair of tracks about erotic love, this song reflects upon our capacity to flee and transcend inherited trauma. ‘Zero Sum’ is a setting of a metaphysical number poem by Olivia’s grandfather, a mathematician and poet. ‘I Wish’ - the album closer, is the ultimate breakup song.

Whilst staying true to her folk roots, Olivia enters new musical territories with Circus of Desire, venturing into the realms of pop and dance. The record features cameos from a number of friends, including string arrangements by Nico Muhly and banjo and guitar from Sam Amidon. The result of this rich blend of musical influences is an album that looks honestly, sometimes despairingly, but primarily hopefully at the carnival that is life - ‘we’re in a dance with death, with fire…we’re all in a circus of desire’.

Available for the first time and on CD only, the live sessions of Baba Stiltz second LP „Paid Testimony“ recorded earlier this year at the legendary „Atlantis Studios“ in Stockholm. Full Music info below: When he‘s not writing or recording, Baba Stiltz immerses in fearless fiction by the likes of Denis
Johnson and Dodie Bellamy; prose where pedestrian details become transcendent in aggregate and the inner lives of marginal characters are examined as though they were kings. A similar thesis runs through „Paid Testimony“, the essential second tape of minimalist guitar music from the Filipino-American-Swedish artist.
In recent years, Stiltz has made like Lee Hazelwood‘s Cowboy In Sweden in reverse, making annual pilgrimages from Stockholm to California and reconnecting with his roots via a guitar and a Fostex 4- track. He‘s drawn to the less glamorous corners of the golden state, an observant habitué of unkempt
streets and dive bars stretching from LA to Vacaville. It‘s a long stretch from the jetset techno clubs where Baba originally plied his musical trade, but it‘s where he finds characters and ideas worth writing about.
The characters on „Paid Testimony“ are on the edge and on the run. Surrounded by flawed men with big schemes since childhood, he extrapolates characters who plot bank heists and order milk and vodka in AM hours, the type of confrontation- prone characters who „say some shit, make everyone
uncomfortable and then just split.“ To focus on the rawness of this document would discount the humor and sympathy with which he treats his characters, not to mention the subtly- psychedelic songwriting recalling David Berman, early Smog, the original indie rock minimalist poets.
On the final song, Stiltz looks back on the city that raised him, „Stockholm,“ referencing „young professionals carelessly living“ before adding „I can‘t say I‘m not jealous even though I live my life just like they do.“ There‘s an honesty in the small details revealed on „Paid Testimony“, and a defined
sense of place, be it Stockholm, Sacramento or some dim barroom across from the Bank Of America. Baba doesn‘t quite fit in anywhere. This outsider quality has often been used as a marketing tool, yet here, it lends a writerly aspect to the proceedings, an unreality to the everyday.

Critically-acclaimed, criminally-overachieving Glasgow-based singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts is known as a superlative original songwriter as well as an interpreter of traditional songs from Scotland and beyond. For the past twenty years, his recordings have alternated between these two complimentary poles, with "pop" records such as The Amber Gatherers and A Wonder Working Stone nestling in his expansive back catalogue alongside "folk" albums such as No Earthly Man and What News (with Amble Skuse and David McGuinness). Additionally, all of these records possess a further dimension, derived from their collation of songs together into one album-length statement. This is part of Alasdair"s great achievement in his career - for him, this thing of music and song hasn"t come the eons it"s travelled to simply entertain.These impulses fully present and well honed, Alasdair returns to his roots with Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, his fifth full-length collection of traditional song. Recorded live in the studio, it is an entirely solo collection of twelve traditional ballads and songs sparsely arranged for acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The majority of the songs originate in Alasdair"s homeland of Scotland, with a couple from Ireland and one from Prince Edward Island on Canada"s eastern seaboard too.The record takes its title from a line in the final verse of one of its songs, "The Baron o" Brackley" - a ballad of feuding clans and matrimonial betrayal from the north-east of Scotland. Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall: it"s a title which goes some way towards encapsulating many of the record"s themes. Collectively the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions - those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging - and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs. That we should never forget!As with many of Alasdair"s recordings, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall contains ballads aplenty...

Still in shrink but opened. Yellow vinyl edition.

Last copies of the record come with minor corner bumps or sight seamsplits. We're therefore selling them at reduced pricing.

Reverse board tip on with silver pantone print. The first ever reissue of Dorothy Carter's 1978 folk/psych/drone masterpiece. A truly unique album in Dorothy's catalog of otherwise traditional psaltery folk music, Waillee Waillee's essence sits in the confluence of Dorothy's mastery of the dulcimer; its shimmering notes fully enmeshed with the tremulous, cavernous drones of Bob Rutman's bowed steel cello. The core of this album, Dorothy's only with a full band, lies in the contradiction of traditional psych-folk idioms and the minimal avant-garde, referencing Henry Flynt and Laraaji as much as Karen Dalton. This LP version includes 12 page booklet with unpublished manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and songbooks of the songs from the album, as well as extended liner notes from friends and family of Dorothy Carter, including notable musicians such as Laraaji, Bob Rutman, and Alexander Hacke (of Einstürzende Neubauten). Drops soon - a joint release between Palto Flats & Putojefe Records.

Dorothy Carter was many things - a virtuoso player, storyteller, historian of Celtic and Appalachian folk music, avid lifelong busker, avant-garde musician, and itinerant troubadour, laying a framework for music that existed both within and outside of standard folk idioms - never better represented than on her 1978 masterwork, Waillee Waillee. Underscored by Bob Rutman’s cavernous bowing of the steel cello, the richness of Waillee Waillee’s sound produces an album unlike any other in her discography. In particular, its two side-ending pieces, “Summer Rhapsody” and “Tree of Life,’’ glide with the shimmering filigree of hammered dulcimer and Dorothy Carter’s ephemeral voice floating over Rutman’s droning buzz of the steel cello. The elements of these two tracks suggest something akin to a transcendental Appalachian raga or whirling cosmic folk music, an effortless combination that serves to add additional substance to the remaining tracks on the album.

The title track is one of her most enduring compositions, often performed in stripped down versions throughout her career, and one of her sole recordings featuring a full band, with the contrapuntal interplay of tremulous flute, vibrating steel cello, bass and drums. Lyrically and tonally, her voice would never sound as stirring and refi ned as on this, her most outwardly accessible song.

She counted musical colleagues as diverse as Constance Demby, Einstürzende Neubauten and Laraaji, as well as her lifelong artistic partner and friend Bob Rutman, whose imprint is felt throughout the grooves of this record. The master tapes for this recording were fortuitously discovered in Rutman’s Berlin studio, many, many years later. As recounted in Laraaji’s contribution to the liner notes, Dorothy was “someone who really influenced my early zither exploration and vocabulary and inspired my shift toward hammered zither performance and recording,” after encountering him busking on the sidewalk one day in the 1970s. Later, when living in Berlin in the early 1990s, Dorothy would begin work on manuscripts detailing the history of the dulcimer family and providing extensive sheet music, selected material of which is reproduced in the twelve page booklet included with this release. Dorothy would find later success touring and performing in the late 90s with the ensemble Mediæval Bæbes, which she led with British musician Katherine Blake, playing a prominent role on their first four albums.

We are proud to present this collection of rare recordings from one of Kenya's most famous players from Kenya’s long traditional of fiddle music. Ayany Jowi creates a raw, hypnotic and frenetic set of sounds backed by a percussive and thumping chorus and was a master of Orutu music. Orutu emerged from the shores of Lake Victoria and was the precursor to Kenyan's famous guitar musical style benga that became popular throughout the 70s and 80s and continues to be popular today. ‘Ayany Jowi’ was born in 1944 as Silvanus Ayany in a small village called Nyamango village in what is now known as Homa Bay county, along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Jowi started playing ohangla music in school using empty jugs and steel tins for drums. He quickly moved on to make an ‘orutu’, the one stringed fiddle of the Luo people of Western Kenya, and his career was born. Because of his wild and uncontrollable nature he was named ‘Jowi’ which means ‘wild buffalo’. Jowi is likely the best-known fiddle player of the classic era of Kenyan recorded music and remains well known and respected as once of the greats in Kenya’s rich musical history. Jowi put out numerous singles on classic Kenyan labels throughout the 1970s, many of which made it to cassettes and CDs that people still listen to even to this day.We are intensely excited to present this restored and remastered (by Third Man Mastering in Detroit, MI) set of rare recordings of some of Kenya's, and by extension Africa's, most important music.”

CD comes in a soft case, instead of the original crystal case. All booklets included.

25th anniversary of this criminally under-appreciated compilation of Brazilian pop music (New! More! Better!), so we're putting it on vinyl for the first time. It's been 10 years since we at Luaka Bop released our first compilation of Brazilian music. Beleza Tropical. It sold extremely well, 350,000 and still going strong, but alot has happened since then. This collection reflects the impact and energy of a new generation who rather than seeking to overturn or discredit the work of ist predecessors, wants to build on it, add to it, and continue absorbing greater and more contemporary influences.

180g 2LP 45rpm. Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!
Crosby, Stills & Nash — The debut studio album from the rock supergroup!
180-gram 45 RPM double LP
Mastered directly from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing

Several unique features set the debut studio album by folk rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, released in 1969 by Atlantic Records, apart. It's the only album by the band before adding Neil Young to their lineup. The album spawned two Top 40 singles, "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which peaked respectively at No. 28 during the week of August 23, 1969, and at No. 21 during the week of December 6, 1969, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album itself peaked at No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It has been certified four times platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 4 million copies.

Instantly lifting the group to stardom, along with the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo and the Band's Music from Big Pink, the previous year, the album is cited by music reviewers for initiating sweeping changes in popular music. In 2021 the album held the rank of No. 161 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Crosby, Stills & Nash was "the perfect blend of David Crosby's social conscience, Stephen Stills's virtuoso musicianship and Graham Nash's ability to craft the perfect pop melody for radio," writes Rolling Stone, in its review.

The band was brought together after Crosby was fired from The Byrds, Stills's band, Buffalo Springfield had broken up (a band which also featured later member, Neil Young) and Nash's departure from The Hollies. The three decided to form a band after an informal jam led them to discover how well their voices harmonized. Released in May 1969, the band would perform nine of the album's 10 songs at Woodstock, which was the second time they ever did, in August of the same year.

The album features some of CSN's most well known and iconic songs; "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Marrakesh Express," "Guinnevere," "Wooden Ships," "Helplessly Hoping" and "Long Time Gone." This album saw a shift in sound to what was popular at the time — blues based rock, opting for a more folk rock, and sometimes jazz-based sound. It would lay the foundations for the California Sound that would be popularised out of Laurel Canyon in the ‘70s. Artists such as The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac would take inspiration from the sound of this record.

All the hallmarks of a top-notch Analogue Productions reissue are here for you to savor: Mastered directly from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman and cut at 45 RPM. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

Every person we meet, every moment we live through, all the love we feel, and the losses we endure, add another layer to the intricate pattern of our lives. Like multicolored threads, these layers twist together to form a complex, vibrant tapestry — a reflection of our life journey until this point. On his new album Layers, Khalab acknowledges and celebrates the encounters that have shaped his ever-evolving musical vision. The record, out on August 25th with his own Hyperjazz Records, represents the culmination of a creative journey that began with his Eunoto EP (Black Acre Records, 2015), evolved with the Afro-Futuristic soundscapes of 2018’s highly acclaimed album Black Noise 2084 (On The Corner Records/!K7), and has since developed further through a series of experiences and deep musical collaborations. Layers summons all the alchemy of Khalab’s live performances, and embodies the transcendental power of music making as a collective art form. Over the past five years, Khalab has shared the stage at Italian and International festivals with many exceptional musicians, an experience which has sharpened the musicality of his compositions and enhanced the depth and complexity of his sound. “Since the release of Black Noise 2084 I’ve increasingly developed the stage and band dynamic, focusing on arranging with the musicians in mind, and this album was almost entirely conceived together with musicians I’ve collaborated with” says Khalab. In a testament to the label’s close-knit and highly collaborative nature, Khalab's live band includes a cadre of musicians from the Hyperjazz family, including David Paulis and Enrico Truzzi of Phresoul, as well Pietro Santangelo, Fabio Sasso, and longstanding creative-partner Nicola Guida. The album’s nine tracks feature an impressive lineup of collaborators old and new, including UK drummer and producer Emanative, Burkinabe singer, guitarist, and m’bira player Gabin Dabiré (passed away a few weeks ago), Italian producer Clap! Clap!, multi-wind instrumentalist Tamar Osborn, drummer and producer Tommaso Cappellato, British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, Bristol’s vocalist and producer Grove, multi-instrumentalist Tenderlonious, Italian jazz singer Alessia Obino and British-born Nigerian spoken-word artist Joshua Idehen. Layers still revolves around the key components of Khalab’s sound — dark and trancey electronics and his research into Black music and all its evolutions — but with a bigger emphasis on harmonic arrangements. Across the album, Khalab’s productions twist and pulsate into mesmerizing motifs, as the interplay between different instruments coalesce into focused melodies and rich, complex textures. Khalab and his collaborators masterfully blend gloomy and radiant tones, eliciting feelings of both doom and hope. The album will be preceded by three lead singles: “Layers” feat. Joshua idehen, “Tunnel Of Jealousy” feat. Lady Blue Eyes, and “Female Side” feat. Tommaso Cappellato.

For Khalab, Layers represents the end point of a journey that began with the synthesis of ancestral rhythms and electronic experimentation on Black Noise 2084, and has taken him on a meandering route through a Mauritanian refugee camp (M’berra, Real World Recordings, 2021), and deep into the catalogs of legendary Italian labels Soul Note and Black Saint (for the Hyperituals compilations, released on his own Hyperjazz label). In Khalab’s own words: “For me this feels like coming full circle, because everything will be more experimental going forward”. Credits All tracks written & arranged by Khalab Produced by Khalab & DJ Knuf With the vital contribution of these amazing musicians: A1. Yazz Ahmed (flugelhorn, trumpet), Alessia Obino (voice), Nicola Guida (synths), Fabio Sasso (drums) A2. Emanative (drums), Tamar Osborn (baritone saxophone), Grove (lyrics, voice) A3. Lady Blue Eyes (voice) A4. Cristiano Crisci (synths), Pietro Santangelo (tenor saxophone) A5. Joshua Idehen (lyrics, voice), Cristiano Crisci (additional synths) B1. Tommaso Cappellato (synths), Enrico Truzzi (drums), David Paulis (electric bass), Cristiano Crisci (additional synths) B2. Gabin Dabiré (voice, m’bira) B3. Tenderlonious (flute) B4. Magnus PI (percussion), Alessia Obino (voice), Pietro Santangelo (tenor saxophone), Enrico Truzzi (drums) Mix by DJ Knuf at Studio 33, Rome Remix by Khalab at Studio 33, Rome Megamix by Satori Stereo Saiyan Mastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London Visual project design by Marco Klefisch

Move into the Luminous is the debut album by the trio Makushin.
Double bassist Jon Thorne (Lamb, Yorkston Thorne Khan), guitarist Peter Philipson (Jane Weaver, Fenella) and singer Nancy Elizabeth (Leaf Label, James Yorkston) lead this inspiring collective whose work explores the intersection between folk, jazz and ambient music.
The album also features contributions from Andrew Wasylyk, Raz Ullah, David A Jaycock and more.
Nancy Elizabeth is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who has released three chamber folk albums under her own name on the Leaf Label. She has also previously played with James Yorkston and recorded with the late ambient composer Susumu Yokota.
Jon Thorne is a double bassist best known as a member of the pioneering electronic band Lamb and, more recently, Yorkston Thorne Khan. He has worked with many other musicians, including Jon Hopkins, Robert Fripp and his mentor Danny Thompson, as well as releasing his own music.
Peter Philipson is a guitarist who has previously performed with Jane Weaver as her guitarist for a decade and has collaborated with her and Raz Ullah on two ambient albums under the artist name of Fenella. He has also released a number of instrumental guitar albums under his PJ Philipson guise.

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Bob Martin began what would become his final studio album in a beach front condominium in Seabrook, New Hampshire in May 2008. The recordings sat dormant for the next 13 years. This album began when James Endeacott of 1965 Records sent Jerry David DeCicca to Charlottesville, Virginia to meet Martin, hoping to reissue Martin’s 1972 debut on RCA Records, Midwest Farm Disaster. DeCicca, who had co-produced the final recordings of folk-funk, Heartworn Highways’ songwriter, Larry Jon Wilson, for 1965 Records (and later reissued by Drag City Records) had played the LP for Endeacott several months earlier. Midwest Farm Disaster is that rare album that feels joyful and yet full of sorrow; Martin’s Lowell, Massachusetts voice yearning with a backbeat from Nashville session musicians, Norman Putnam and Kenny Buttrey, the later fresh from his “Heart of Gold” session. The reissue never happened, as Martin was already in the process of rescuing his forgotten masterpiece for his own self-release. But Bob and Jerry’s breakfast led to Martin’s daughter, Tami, hiring DeCicca and engineer, Jake Housh, who also worked on the Wilson album, to capture her father in a similar manner. After Midwest Farm Disaster, a second album for RCA was under contract, but when a record executive there wanted Martin to put his girlfriend’s poetry to music, Bob bailed on the deal. Martin continued to tour around with a pickup band until advice from his father resonated, and he left the road to raise a family. Bob worked as an educator, teaching math and computers, and even founded a school in West Virginia that taught traditional art forms in Appalachia like fiddle playing and weaving. Bob returned to the studio in 1982 to record Last Chance Rider for the June Appal, a label that focused on music from Appalachia and had released albums by Nimrod Workman, Si Kahn, and Betty Smith. In the late-90’s, Bob returned with two self-released CDs, The River Turns The Wheel and Next to Nothin’ that continued capturing stories of people and places that exhale their own mythologies. He wrote novels, cared for his family, and taught, and played only the occasional gig. But it’s this album, Seabrook, that finds Bob at his most wise and wistful; the histories of Lowell and his own life hanging longest in his voice. New songs about the West Virginia coal mines (“Three Miles Beneath This Mountain”) and living in an extended stay motel (“Midway Motel”) sit beside new and more urgent interpretations of late period classics, like “My Father Painted Houses,” and, for the first time, one of his oldest songs he didn’t record for Midwest Farm Disaster called “Give Me Light”, along with “Stay Awhile Sunshine,” which he had been singing to his family for decades and features Gary Mallaber (“Tupelo Honey”) on vibraphone. After DeCicca and Housh returned from the beach with Bob, they all agreed to flesh out the songs with other instrumentation to present as a draft for what the new record could be with a little more money and time. This was the time when the epilogue of musicians’ work was still of interest to labels. Everyone with a guitar over 65 was still in the shadow of Rubin’s Cash, and recent records by Loretta Lynn, Charlie Louvin, Soloman Burke, and Candi Staton were both fashionable and profitable. But Martin wasn’t as well known and his classic debut was only licensed for a limited physical release, proving him a difficult sell. Labels passed or made unreasonable requests, and Bob eventually lost interest; instead, choosing to record a solo acoustic live album, Live at the Bull Run, and tour Europe for the first time. There were hiccups of hope, like a feature in No Depression and a song in the TV show, Justified, but the new recordings quickly began collecting dusk. In the meantime, DeCicca continued producing records for other older artists, like Ed Askew’s For the World (Tin Angel), two Chris Gantry releases (Drag City), Will Beeley’s Highways and Heart Attacks (Tompkins Square), and reissue projects for the Numero Group (Elyse Weinberg, Rob Galbraith). Then, in 2021, DeCicca received a call from Bob’s daughter, Tami, giving him permission to finish the album as Bob’s health was failing. Upon revisiting the tracks with Housh, the album needed very little tidying up and the songs were completed with DeCicca’s former bandmates, The Black Swans, who had previously played on the original mock up back in 2008. With new technology and a new perspective, the album was completed, but not before Martin’s health had deteriorated more. Bob Martin passed away September 21, 2022 at 80 years of age. Sadly, he never heard his final album.

2023 edition with new artwork and sleeve. Come with insert/liner notes.

"Welcome to the America Dream Reserve, home to husband & wife duos, pub legends, one-man-bands, preachers’ sons, and country-lounge entertainers..."

About: America Dream Reserve is a home for kindred souls. An hour-long journey into the world of lo-fi drumcomputer folk, disco-pop-lounge, haunting ballads, obscure vanity pressings, and synthesized string ensembles. A collaborative compilation between Charles Bals, creator of the inimitable Club Meduse, and Smiling C.

Compiled by: Charles Bals & Henry Jones.

Critically-acclaimed, criminally-overachieving Glasgow-based singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts is known as a superlative original songwriter as well as an interpreter of traditional songs from Scotland and beyond. For the past twenty years, his recordings have alternated between these two complimentary poles, with "pop" records such as The Amber Gatherers and A Wonder Working Stone nestling in his expansive back catalogue alongside "folk" albums such as No Earthly Man and What News (with Amble Skuse and David McGuinness). Additionally, all of these records possess a further dimension, derived from their collation of songs together into one album-length statement. This is part of Alasdair"s great achievement in his career - for him, this thing of music and song hasn"t come the eons it"s travelled to simply entertain.These impulses fully present and well honed, Alasdair returns to his roots with Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, his fifth full-length collection of traditional song. Recorded live in the studio, it is an entirely solo collection of twelve traditional ballads and songs sparsely arranged for acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The majority of the songs originate in Alasdair"s homeland of Scotland, with a couple from Ireland and one from Prince Edward Island on Canada"s eastern seaboard too.The record takes its title from a line in the final verse of one of its songs, "The Baron o" Brackley" - a ballad of feuding clans and matrimonial betrayal from the north-east of Scotland. Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall: it"s a title which goes some way towards encapsulating many of the record"s themes. Collectively the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions - those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging - and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs. That we should never forget!As with many of Alasdair"s recordings, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall contains ballads aplenty...

T his bizarre, Alan Lorber-produced psychedelic album appeared originally in 1969 on Boston Sound. Bobby Callendar was an incredibly gifted poet and lyricist whose complex texts could only be compared to Scott Walker; the concepts of a U.K. artist of Indian heritage post-psychedelia were augmented by the lush arrangements of Paul Harris and Bob Gallo. The cast of musicians on this album included some of the highest-caliber sidemen of the time, most notably Richard Davis, the master bassist of Van Morrison's Astral weeks fame (not to mention a jazz musician in his own right), the guitars of Eric Gale and Hugh McCracken, and the astonishingly subtle Burnard Purdie on drums. The album is a rich and complex exploration of Eastern-inspired psychedelic rock and folk centered on the incredibly complex texts and vocals of Bobby Callendar. When reading the lyric sheet, it is most astonishing how such elaborate poetic evocations were somehow made to fit popular song forms. Sure, at these highly conscious times of the late '60s it was not uncommon for deeply poetic, socially conscious, or hallucinogenic themes to appear in the lyrics of pop music, yet this is album is absolutely brilliant for being one of the most ostentatious animations of the written word, yet absolutely vital and musical throughout. Fans of Scott Walker's solo material, Colin Blundstone, and Duncan Browne should give this album a few hours -- if not a week -- of their attention. This excellent Italian reissue from Akarma is packaged and remastered exquisitely. (All Music)

The Endless Coloured Ways is a collection of songs by legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences From Fontaines D.C. to Guy Garvey, Aurora to Feist, and Self-Esteem to David Gray, each artist has offered their own incredible take on a timeless classic "Nick Drake was not that concerned with promoting himself as an artist but I think he would have been overjoyed to hear his art promoted by so many vibrant and talented artists such as the ones we approached. Each track is an example of a fellow artist adopting Nick's art as if it was their own, submitting to the song, and the results prove to me that talent can so often win out over mere skill or 'personality'. We are honoured and so grateful to all our friends, old and new, who took part in the making of this set." - Cally Calloman, Bryter Music "Having initially exchanged a list of our favourite artists and realised how much our tastes overlapped, Cally and I set out on this venture with one simple brief - to ask the artists to ignore the original recording of Nick's in terms of arrangement, production and singing style; basically, we were asking them to reinvent the song. First of all, it was humbling to hear so many similar responses, saying how important Nick's music was to them, and how much they wanted to be part of this project. But as the results came in one by one, we were staggered by the brilliance and invention that each artist had shown. They had done what we asked - they had made the song their own." - Jeremy Lascelles, Chrysalis Records

On the ninth solo album from the French-based British musician behind Third Eye Foundation, it is near impossible not to draw comparisons to the late great bard Leonard Cohen. Elliott’s accomplished Spanish infused guitar craft further adds to the resemblance.

Although it remains rooted in darkness, Elliott’s approach to folk is also rich with a sense of warmth folk, embellished with gorgeous classical arrangements of composer David Chalmin, Gaspar Claus’ cello, and Jeff Hallam’s bass.

Of course, one could file Matt Elliott in one genre or another. While “Folk” appears to be the general consensus, the Englishman would be more in line with a long running tradition of lamentation songs that can be found on every single continent. Whether it is Greek rebetic songs, Portuguese Fado, Delta Blues, Balkan fanfares, Yiddish melancholy and Cape Verdean Saudade, you can hear it all in Matt Elliott's music.

Those are the songs of an uprooted and stateless artist, a true musical storyteller who’s voice had never felt so free, rough and sincere. Like no other, on "The End Of Days", Matt Elliot sings the infinitely small space that lies in-between intense joy and absolute sorrow, sitting on a fence at the border that separates the unspeakable and what is shared.

Kouyaté without Neerman is Lansiné Kouyaté. A Parisian griot, a balafon virtuoso from the region of Kangaba in Mali, a child born among musicians, an early musical prodigy who learned the ropes with the National Orchestra of Mali before playing with the stars of world music (Salif Keita, Mory Kanté, Omar Sosa, Cheick Tidiane Seck.). Neerman without Kouyaté is David Neerman. A French musician who expanded on his training (classical percussion and the piano) by choosing an instrument that is both keyboard and percussion, the vibraphone, who meandered through various eclectic projects (jazz, world, electro, noise, with Youn Sun Nah, Anthony Joseph, Alice Lewis, Krystle Warren.), as long as they smelled of adventure. With Kangaba, their first album (recorded with a rythm section), released in the summer of 2008 they created a glorious future for themselves. Well received by critics, the record gave the opportunity to the duet to tour alot and as such, to strengthen their performance, provide more substance to their music and discover new energies. Skyscrapers & Deities, their second album recorded last fall in an analog studio in the Parisian suburbs, is the result of this evolution. Lansiné still plays like he's stirring up tropical rains on water lilies and David has still plugged (or even more) his vibraphone on bizarre pedal effects (distortions, wah-wah). The duo is backed up by a new rhythm section, that accompanied them on tour : Antoine Simoni on the double bass and David Aknin on the drums, two musicians open to the rythms of rock and hip-hop. The name of the album, Skyscrapers and Deities comes from the spoken-word lyrics of special guest and only voice on the album Anthony Joseph on the track 'Haiti'. The other guest on the album is the legendary kora player Ballaké Sissoko, long time friend of Lansiné, since the days of the National Orchestra of Mali. Skyscapers inspire modernity, altitude and a panoramic point of view. Deities inspire ancestral magic, spirits, be they from the forest or the clouds. The album floats in between all these things, between the horizon and vertigo, technology and spiritualism.