APPLE RECORDS CATALOG REMASTERED & REISSUED

When it was launched by The Beatles in 1968 Apple Records made musical history right from the start as the label built an eclectic roster of artists such as James Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy and Jackie Lomax. Apple Corps Ltd and EMI Music are raising the curtain on remastered CD – mostly with bonus material – and digital download releases of 15 key albums from Apple Records. All titles will be released on October 25 (October 26 in the US). Apple Records gave The Beatles the unique opportunity to sign both new and established artists who appealed to each of them, and its utopian artist-orientated mission instantly set it apart from other labels. Diversity was celebrated and artists were encouraged to record and release their music in a friendly and creative environment. Between 1968 and 1973 Apple Records gave the world a hugely eclectic spectrum of releases, with fans well-informed about the individual involvements of The Beatles in nearly every project. The first release was the 1968 self-titled debut from US singer-songwriter James Taylor which included Paul McCartney and George Harrison on ‘Carolina In My Mind’. Paul McCartney produced the debut single from Welsh singer Mary Hopkin, George Harrison produced and played on the Apple debut from Billy Preston and was also one and the producers and performers (along with Ringo Starr) on the first album by Jackie Lomax. John Lennon was much taken with the music of The Modern Jazz Quartet, while Ringo Starr was intrigued by the music of contemporary British classical composer John Tavener. Badfinger (below from their 1972 album ‘Straight Up’) had a track on their debut album written and produced by Paul McCartney. Each of the albums has been digitally remastered at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London by the same dedicated team of engineers behind The Beatles hugely successful remastered catalogue releases last year. The 15 Apple Records’ reissues are: ‘James Taylor’ (1968) by James Taylor ‘Magic Christian Music’ (1970) by Badfinger ‘No Dice’ (1970) by Badfinger ‘Straight Up’ (1972) by Badfinger ‘Ass’ (1974) by Badfinger ‘Post Card’ (1969) by Mary Hopkin ‘Earth Song, Ocean Song’ (1971) by Mary Hopkin ‘That’s The Way God Planned It’ (1969) by Billy Preston ‘Encouraging Words’ (1970) by Billy Preston ‘Doris Troy’ (1970) by ‘Doris Troy’ ‘Is This What You Want?’ (1968) by Jackie Lomax ‘Under The Jasmin Tree’ (1968) and ‘Space’ (1969) by Modern Jazz Quartet ‘The Whale’ (1970) and ‘Celtic Requiem’ (1971) by John Tavener

Grupo Fantasma, El Existential

After earning a Grammy Award nod for its 2008 album, Sonidos Gold, Austin-based Latin funk act Grupo Fantasma returns with another international concoction of sound with its latest release, El Existential. And this time around, the group adds even more musical ingredients into the mix. With an old-school flavor, the track “Realizando” is a near-perfect fusion of funk and salsa that features psychedelic guitar, expressive strings and funky saxophone. And the jazzy salsa number “Sacatelo Bailando” borrows a horn riff from Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” creating an irresistible blend of piano montuno patterns and big-band excitement. Elsewhere, a reggae vibe is heard on the cut “Hijo,” “Juan Tenorio” is a slow-grind bolero channeling the Buena Vista Social Club, and “Telaraña” calls to mind David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” but with a Latin twist. Tightly weaving Anglo, Afro and Latin musical genres, El Existential takes on an identity of its own.   Read more...

PLANS UNDERWAY FOR ZAPPA DEDICATION AND TRIBUTE CONCERT

Since last month’s confirmation of the September 19th date for Baltimore City’s dedication of a bust of Frank Zappa, community support has been growing for a concert and festival in tribute to the legendary musician, composer and social icon, whose birthplace is Baltimore. The bust, donated by a Lithuanian fan club, will be placed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Southeastern Anchor Branch in Highlandtown, and plans now include an outdoor concert featuring Zappa Plays Zappa (fronted by Frank’s son Dweezil), and various events at the library and nearby Patterson Theatre in support of the dedication ceremony.   Read more...

Sheryl Crow, 100 Miles From Memphis

For Sheryl Crow, the title of her seventh album isn’t just a location; it’s a state of mind. “I grew up in a small town 100 miles from Memphis, and that informed not only my musical taste, but how I look at life,” she says. “The drive to Memphis is all farmland, and everyone is community-oriented, God-fearing people, connected to the earth. The music that came out of that part of the world is a part of who I am, and it’s the biggest inspiration for what I do and why I do it.” So for the Kennett, Missouri native, calling the disc 100 Miles From Memphis is a statement of purpose, both musical and emotional. It also marks a long-awaited return by the nine-time Grammy winner to the sounds that first drew her to making music. “This is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” says Crow. “When (manager Scooter Weintraub) first started working with me twenty years ago, what he heard in me was that I had heavy influences from the South—Delaney and Bonnie, all the Stax records. So for years he’s been asking me, ‘When are you going to make that record?’” The results evoke a time when soul and passion filled the radio waves, when the sweat and joy of a recording session could be captured forever on wax. Sometimes the musical references—Al Green, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder—are made apparent, but the album’s eleven songs are characterized more by capturing a classic spirit than by imitating any specific style. Crow explains that the way 100 Miles From Memphis was recorded is crucial to its slinky grooves and rolling rhythms. Produced by Doyle Bramhall II and Justin Stanley (“I knew they could get that old soul feeling with authenticity,” she says), and cut mostly live with a regular crew of musicians, the album presented a new set of challenges for her as a singer and a songwriter. “This wasn’t like any other record I’ve made,” she says. “We cut two, three, sometimes four tracks a day, for ten or twelve days. We wrote a lot of music, and then I had to write lyrics later, to catch up. That was definitely a new experience, feeling like I had to do homework. It was super-daunting.” With the musical direction already established, the album’s messages crystallized in one night at Crow’s farm, outside of Nashville. “Having a three year old, you don’t get too much quiet time,” she says, “but I sat up one night, and I worked all night long and came up with the better part of five lyrics.” What emerged was a set of songs that are unusually open and direct for someone often celebrated for the care and craft of her writing. “This music called for emotion, a place of sensuality and sexuality, and that’s a little challenging for me,” she says. “Sometimes it’s easier for me to hide behind more intellectual lyrics. So it was a great stretching experience to show more vulnerability in my writing.” The songs on 100 Miles From Memphis display impressive range, in feeling and performance. First single “Summer Day” is a delightfully breezy slice of glory-days AM radio pop. “I wanted to experiment with writing something simple and positive,” says Crow. “The feeling of a great, solid love—not just a new love, but something everlasting.” The spare, dramatic ballad “Stop” (the one song on the album for which Crow has sole writing credit) is a powerful vocal showcase that struggles with some hard truths. “That one is really a plea to make everything quit going so fast,” she says. “Life has reached this epic point of being out of control. There’s so much chaos everywhere you look. And especially when you have a little kid, you just want to protect the people you love from all that pain.” Though the album features a tighter focus on Crow’s voice than ever before, a few high-profile guest stars did stop by the sessions. When she cut “Eye to Eye,” with its loping reggae groove, there was only one guitarist she could imagine adding his signature slashing riffs to the mix—her old friend Keith Richards. “He has been such a champion for me, and the Stones gave me so many breaks along the way, from very early on,” she says. (When Richards recorded his part at Electric Lady studios, the New York City facility built for Jimi Hendrix, he started reminiscing about the incomparable guitar wizard; “we were all like little kids at story hour,” says Crow.) Citizen Cope appears on a hazy, impassioned duet of his “Sideways,” a song Crow says she has long wanted to record and one of several string-heavy arrangements on 100 Miles From Memphis. Another guest demonstrates her appeal across generations. A Memphis native named Justin Timberlake dropped by one of Crow’s sessions at Henson Studios in Los Angeles (the former A&M studio), and offered to contribute background vocals to a version of Terence Trent D’Arby’s 1987 smash “Sign Your Name” that was being recast in the style of Al Green, right down to the distinctive thud of the Hi Records drums. “He’s hysterical and super-smart, and he knows a lot about a lot of different kinds of music,” Crow says. “I’m totally impressed in every way.” The final surprise, for both the singer and the listener, came out of a run through of an obscure Marvin Gaye song called “It’s a Desperate Situation.” The melody reminded Crow of “I Want You Back,” the Jackson 5’s breakthrough 1970 hit, and she started singing those words. Her natural vocal range sounds uncannily like Michael Jackson’s, and when Bramhall and Stanley heard it, they insisted on recording the song then and there. The album’s “bonus track” was done in one take; they even had to add the song’s introduction afterwards because they had gone straight into the lyric. Crow, of course, first reached the spotlight as a back-up singer with Michael Jackson, and adds that “I Want You Back” was the first single she ever bought. “It wasn’t a conscious choice to do an homage, but it wound up being a very bittersweet thing,” she says. “Michael’s death brought a lot of stuff back for me, so it was nice that we could include this.” For Sheryl Crow, 100 Miles From Memphis is the right album at the right moment. “My last record (2008’s Detours) was pretty political, extremely personal, and more lyric-driven,” she says, “so it seemed like a great time to do something soulful and sexy and more driven by the music.” It took a lot of years, but with this set of songs, she finally made it back home.

Marc Cohn

Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Marc Cohn has been obsessed with pop music for as long as he can remember: “I was hooked from day one. My older brother had a band that rehearsed in our basement, so I heard Bacharach, The Beatles, Ray Charles, and Motown coming up through the floorboards from the time I was six years old. By the time I was eleven though, the Beatles were breaking up and singer-songwriters were breaking through, and a lot of that music really resonated for me”   Read more...

Tom Jones, Praise & Blame

What’s new, pussycat? How about a devotional album from Tom Jones so unexpected that the Welsh pop icon’s disarmed label chief was uttering God’s name in varying degrees of vain when he heard about it. But Jones has always been surprising us throughout his four-decade-plus career. And on Praise & Blame, that gusty Northern soul voice sounds as righteous and true as it does when he’s operating in the more carnal regions of his catalog. Producer Ethan Johns gives the 11-song set a rustic “Raising Sand” sound, mixing gospel, rockabilly, folk and blues with guest appearances by Booker T. Jones, Augie Meyers, Benmont Tench, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings and others. Jones skewers sin and seeks salvation on Bob Dylan’s “What Good Am I?,” Susan Werner’s “Did Trouble Me,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Strange Things,” John Lee Hooker’s “Burning Hell” and four originals he composed with Johns. “The door’s wide open, waitin’ for your soul . . . you just walk on in,” he sings in Pop Staples’ “You Don’t Knock.” But Jones, of course, swaggers through.

Robert Randolph & The Family Band, We Walk This Road

With the help of renowned producer T Bone Burnett, pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph takes a backward glance at American roots music to discover the true soul of sacred steel on his latest album, We Walk This Road. The uplifting set includes takes on lost gospel and blues numbers as well as reworkings of Bob Dylan’s “Shot of Love,” John Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama” (featuring guitarist Doyle Bramhall II) and Prince’s “Walk Don’t Walk.” The album opens with a vocal melody from a 1930s recording, then segues into the soulful “Traveling Shoes.” From there, Randolph and the Family Band take a groovy approach to the Will Gray-penned “Back to the Wall.” And Ben Harper makes an appearance on “If I Had My Way,” where he lends slide guitar and vocals. Randolph’s nuanced steel weeps with almost vocal expressiveness behind singers Danyel Morgan and Lenesha Randolph on the gospel closer “Salvation,” which features Leon Russell on piano.

AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES LINEUP

Chicago, Delbert McClinton, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Gloria Gaynor, Village People Headline 5^th Street Main Stage

The 17^th Annual Verizon Wireless American Music Festival will bring a new way to enjoy many of the world’s most popular bands along the oceanfront between Sept. 3-5. For the first time, 300 VIP area tickets for Friday’s and Saturday’s 5^th Street headline concerts are available to the general public.

One of Chicago’s major hits says “And I’ve been waiting such a long time for Saturday,” and that’s how a lot of their fans feel.  When Chicago performs as the featured band on Saturday, they will satisfy thousands of their loyal fans who have requested the band’s presence at AMF through the years.  Chicago has 47 Platinum- and Gold-selling records, and is the first American band to have charted a Top 40 song in five decades.  Billboard Magazine ranked Chicago #13 of All-Time 100 Best Bands, and the highest ranking American act listed.   Read more...

Tom Jones

“We wanted to go back to basics, go back to the source, it was just me singing live with a rhythm section – no overdubbing, no gimmicks, no complicated horn and string arrangements, just get the song down in an entire take, capture the meaning of the song, its spirituality, its life, and capture that moment, right there. And I think that’s what we’ve done,” says Tom Jones, the veteran singer from Wales, who turns 70 this year and who has just completed ‘Praise and Blame’, his follow up to 2008’s acclaimed ‘24 Hours’ and quite simply his finest work to date. “I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved here,” he continues, “It’s such a natural, honest record. And it’s a record that makes you think.”   Read more...

Alejandro Escovedo

There are songwriters who sing their songs, and then there are songs who sing their writers.

Alejandro Escovedo is one with his muse and his music. Over a lifetime spent traversing the bridge between words and melody, he has ranged over an emotional depth that embraces all forms of genre and presentation, a resolute voice that weathers the emotional terrain of our lives, its celebrations and despairs, landmines and blindsides and upheavals and beckoning distractions, in search for ultimate release and the healing truth of honesty. Sometimes it takes the form of barely contained rage, the rock of punk amid kneeled feedback; sometimes it caresses and soothes, a whispery harmony riding the air of a nightclub room, removed from amplification, within the audience.   Read more...