Folk, World, & Country

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by Bob Dylan, released in March 1967 on Columbia Records. It contains every Top 40 single Dylan enjoyed through 1967. It peaked at #10 on the pop album chart in the United States, and went to #3 on the album chart in the United Kingdom. Greatest Hits serves as Dylan's de facto singles collection for the 1960s. With the exception of "The Times They Are a-Changin'," "It Ain't Me Babe," and "Mr. Tambourine Man," all tracks on this album were released as 45 RPM singles in the United States during that decade. It is worth noting that in 1963 "Blowin' in the Wind" became a #2 hit single for Peter, Paul and Mary, and that in 1965 "Times" made it to #9 as a single release in the United Kingdom. That same year of 1965 a truncated rock and roll version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" had been a number one hit for The Byrds in the summer, and the Turtles took a folk-rock version of "It Ain't Me Babe" to #8. The remaining six tracks all made the Billboard Top 40 in 1965 and 1966.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2021 release. Following the success of her 2019 Grammy-nominated album Norman F***ing Rockwell, Lana Del Rey releases her highly anticipated, seventh studio album. Chemtrails Over The Country Club features eleven songs, including singles "Let Me Love You Like A Woman" and the title-track "Chemtrails Over The Country Club".

Music of Many Colours is a joint album between Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti, recorded after a three week tour of Nigeria's major cities in 1979, during which Ayers performed as the opening act for Fela's band. The two artists decided to record the album as a round-up to the tour. Ayers describes the experience saying, "I met Fela Kuti in Nigeria in 1979, and we fell into a great relationship, good personal and music vibes, and we recorded that album together. Fela also came to USA in the eighties and we performed at NYC's Madison Square Garden. Amazingly energetic, Fela Kuti had a very original concept that was called Afro Beat - a genre with a very unique identity and exceptional music. One of Fela Kuti's most impressive qualities was that he was undeniably a brilliant show man, as a musician and as a huge dancer as well. His African concept was truly original... The tour was about two black men together coming together, one from Africa and other from USA, a very exciting collaboration."

In 1962, Karen summoned Richard Tucker to join her in Colorado, extolling the healthier lifestyle, and plentiful gigs at Boulder folk club The Attic. Upon his arrival, the pair solidified their personal and professional relationship, riding horses in the mountains, and performing as a duo at parties and venues throughout Denver and Boulder. Stories of the spell they conjured - and rumours of tapes! - have circulated among friends and musicians who witnessed them, but until now, no recorded evidence had turned up. Shuckin' Sugar is the glorious result of three reel to reel tapes that miraculously found their way to us in November, 2018; which featured two complete shows from The Attic in January '63, and a benefit concert for The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recorded the following February. Their gigs would often include brief solo sets from Karen and Richard, in addition to the duets, and all seven solo songs of Karen's found on the three reels are included here, as well as five duets, sequenced as close to how it all went down as humanly possible. To describe the record would take a poet, but all I can say is that unveiling a missing chapter in the Karen Dalton story - with six songs we've never heard her sing before - is cause for celebration in Delmore's world.

"From her opening, jaw-dropping lift-off with early blues standard "Trouble In Mind," the unique otherworld Karen conjured springs into vivid life. Playing to audiences inevitably bound to the era's formalities and traditions, Karen instinctively pushed the envelope, straying into uncharted territory beyond the established borders. She must have bewildered many who came to see her in those winsome Peter, Paul and Mary times." From the liner notes by Kris Needs SELLING POINTS * Previously unreleased Karen Dalton performance featuting seven never before heard songs * RSD release limited to 3500 copies pressed at Third Man on transparent, natural vinyl * Old style, Tip-On Jacket, and 8pp heavy insert featuring a treasure trove of newly discovered photos, and a 6,000 word essay by Kris Needs

Behold…

The dark, etheric carnival of broken Nashville delights – Deathly Oracular Visions, Cuckolds, Wastrels, Chain Gang Laments and Fiery Apocalyptic Fever-Dreams. Sometimes grim, often beautiful – this extraordinary collection of knowns and unknowns, battered Opry legends and forgotten backwoods-poets and preachers features tales of Tenement Tragedies, Vengeful Vegetation, Proselytizing Playground Philosophies, Windswept Abandonment and Deathbed Confessions. Originally waxed in often penurious amounts, these Troubled Troubadours sing of Fatal Infidelities, Aching Hypocrisies, Deep Dark Depressions, Penal Punishments, Flaming Prophecies and Rapturous Revelations.

Years in the making – ‘Hillbillies In Hell’ (13) presents 16 timeless tribulations – a Lovecraftian clutch of Ancient Terrors, Sinful Seductions, Grinding Poverty, Debilitating Disfigurement, Hell’s Eternal Maze of Hardships and God’s Blazing Light of Redemption.

A misty shroud of marginal 45s – some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your cautionary listening pleasure.

•SEE Little Richard Miller witness THE FIRE CAME DOWN!
•HEAR Dee Mullins declare I AM THE GRASS!
•ATTEST to Eddie Noack’s brutal final fate in BARBARA JOY!

• Limited to 666 copies
• 222 (randomly inserted) ‘Revelation Red’ LPs / 222 (randomly inserted) ‘Mark Of The Beast’ Splatter LPs / 122 (randomly inserted) ‘Final Night’ Black LPs / 100 ’Diablo’s Smoke’ Private Member’s Edition!
• Deluxe Gatefold LP with exclusive scholarly liner notes by Alvin Lucia!
• Full dynamic range 2022 remasters direct from the first generation analogue master tapes!

Tracklist

1. the carter family - 2001 (ballad to the future)
2. henson cargill - skip a rope
3. porter wagoner - julie
4. eddie noack - barbara joy
5. waylon jennings - the road
6. sammi smith - birmingham mistake
7. norma jean - one's on the way
8. wendy bagwell and the sunliters - this train
9. dee mullins - i am the grass
10. hank thompson and the brazos valley boys - i cast a lonesome shadow
11. porter wagoner - lonely comin' down
12. henson cargill - the pain will go away
13. the carter family - poison red berries
14. bobby bare - when i've learned
15. roger miller - i know who it is (and i'm gonna tell on him)
16. little richard miller - the fire came down

Vinyl LP pressing. After a decade in the wilderness, David Berman has returned to record-making - this time around as Purple Mountains, leaving his iconic Silver Jews brand to history. Fortunately for all the fans, he's retained his iconic songwriting style, with a new batch of tunes conveying an astonishing variety of 21st-century mid-life crises. Featuring full-on technicolor production intervention from Woods' Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earle, Purple Mountains debut stands tall among Berman's classic albums, with knee-slappers and eye-wipers alike - ten new tracks ready to go into suffering jukeboxes across the land.

Vinyl LP pressing. Bob Dylan's sixth studio album, Highway 61 Revisited, was originally released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad "Desolation Row".

Here’s another choice reissue forthcoming from the Canadian label, We Are Busy Bodies – with this meeting of Motown and West African musicians – on Eboni Band’s self-titled 1980 debut album. It’s the first reissue of the album, featuring musicians such as Fred Wesley, first released more than 40 years ago. This label has hit the ground running hard with some choice picks of South African jazz and Ghanian grails recently. Eboni Band is out June 18th. Worth noting, as one or two bits from the Busy Bodies catalogue have quickly sold out on vinyl.

The album is a tour-de-force of cross continental soul and funk, an outernational classic and featuring session musicians from Motown and Ivory Coast’s Eboni Records – alongside the legendary Wesley, one of the all-time funkateers who kicked it with The J.Bs and Parliament/Funkadelic. It was produced by Motown great, Art Stewart (producer of Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It Up and Rick James’ breakthrough album, Come Get It!) and arranged by Greg Middleton

The horns and hum of Detroit and Motown – with vocals, harmonies and traditions of West Africa (djembe, kora) – makes this record such a significant one, and was a product of a casual meeting between Motown Studios alumni Gerald Theus (who set up Eboni Records in Ivory Coast in the 1970s) and Abdoulaye Soumare, who was based in the US, but met with Gerald on a whim and a stopover in Abidjan. Theus not only convinced Soumare to stick around Abidjan, but to immediately begin work on a series of four concurrent recordings by the label’s roster of local talent. It wasn’t long before a group of musicians flew from the Ivory Coast to Los Angeles.

Motown musicians – alongside James Brown’s bandleader, Wesley – included Nolan Smith (Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder), Ernie Fields, Jr. (Rick James, Marvin Gaye) and Quentin Dennard (Aretha Franklin, BB King). Their musicianship, when combined with the production and arrangments of Stewart and Middleton, is simply irresistible.

The musicians comprising the four musical groups signed to the Ivory Coast-based Eboni Records were Mamadou Doumbia, Gun Morgan, Amadou Doukoure, Abdoulaye Soumare, Lamine Konte and Fode Drame. The album was later mastered at Motown’s Hitsville Studios.

This time, the album has been remastered by Noah Mintz of Lacquer Channel Mastering for vinyl and digital, released via We Are Busy Bodies, on 18th June.

Vinyl LP pressing. Time, Tequila & Therapy sees Old Dominion presenting 13 tracks, where the boys survey the ups, downs, trials, and tribulations of life, love, and friendships while infusing their signature country sound with songwriting eloquence and arena rock ambition. Each band member-Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Brad Tursi, Whit Sellers, and Geoff Sprung-notably participated in the songwriting alongside Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne. In addition, Old Dominion recently earned a nomination for "Vocal Group of the Year" for the 2021 CMA Awards.

The Innocents is Weyes Blood's second album, originally released in 2014 and now available again on Nuclear Pond blue vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day 2022. Limited to 4,000 copies.

Opaque Gold Vinyl. It's the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn't be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren't turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That's where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, "the supplemental reading" for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. "My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way." Plus one cover that felt "of the era" in which that particular albums was made - a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

Tracks

1 Trash One (Lowlands Studio Band)
2 Live My Life Today (Insight Out)
3 Simple House (Mother Lion)
4 She's My Daughter (Sassy)
5 Yellow River (Bobby Welch)
6 It Makes You Feel So Bad (Insight Out)
7 I Still Remember (Linda Crowe)
8 Love of the Morning (Circus)
9 Where's Love Gone Today (Mourning Sun)
10 I'm the Fool (Mother Lion)
11 I Found My Music (Sage)
12 Benshaw Glenn (Boby Welch)
13 Tomorrow (Hope)
14 Take a Look at Your Friends (Next Exit)
15 Give Me Time (Circus)
16 No Control (Boot Hill)
17 Lady Tell Me Why (D.O.A.)
18 Everyday Is Saturday (Sage)
19 Dream Away (Hope)
20 Let's Take a Walk in the Woods (Mourning Sun)
21 You Know I Love You (Roy Briggs & Alton Tew)
22 Calling Me Home - Demo (Donald Thomas)

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Collection of early recordings by the country/pop superstar. These were recorded a few years before her commercial breakthrough.

180 gram vinyl LP pressing. Afrodisiac was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road studios in London. The best known song on 1973's Afrodisiac is "Jeun Ko Ku," a satire about gluttony and Fela's first major hit in West Africa. In Broken English, the title means "chop and quench," which, in turn, means "eat and die" in Standard English. Lyrically, the standout track is the closing "Je'Nwi Temi" ("don't gag me"), a critique of the Nigerian political/military establishment and a defense of free speech. Fela vows that he will always tell it like it is, no matter what. This proved to be prophetic stuff, given the police and army assaults, intended to silence him, which were just around the corner. "Alu Jon Jonki Jon" draws on the interaction between animals and humans that is part of Yoruba mythology, in a tale about a dog who betrays his friends. Like many of Fela's lyrics of the period, the lyric employs parable and metaphor to encourage ethical conduct in everyday life. In "Eko Ile," Fela sings that there is no place like home (Eko was the pre-colonial name of Lagos).

American Epic: The Soundtrack (LP) highlights recordings heard on the three-part documentary airing on PBS. Includes original recordings by The Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt, Charley Patton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and more. All audio is restored to unprecedented levels of sonic fidelity. LP version is 150-gram vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2020 release. Few artists understand the human condition like six-time Grammy nominee Brandy Clark. Working again with acclaimed producer Jay Joyce, Your Life is a Record takes her unerring eye for detail and a genre-melting sense of melody to examine personal truths, revelations and emancipations with wit, grace and compassion. Working with just four acoustic-based musicians, intimacy was the goal. Memphis strings and horns, guest appearances from Randy Newman ("Bigger Boat") and guitarist John Osborne color in the sketches - creating a depth to what is easily Clark's most revelatory record yet.

On limited Opaque Black & White Explosion color vinyl. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that Richard Youngs's 'Sapphie' was all about a dead dog.  I don't know if someone insinuated this idea in front of me or if I psychologically tethered the title to the tenderly printed dog paw on it's cover. Either way, I've gone over a decade thinking this remarkable, windswept album of torch songs was about a dearly departed pet. And yet, as we approached a reissue of this Jagjaguwar classic and a new, reimagined version by artists Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Moses Sumney, Sharon Van Etten, and Perfume Genius, Richard Youngs was straightforward and unsentimental about it's meanings. "The lyrics are not about anything in particular," Youngs wrote. The paw prints on the cover are, in fact, that of a friend's dog ("The first dog I ever loved," Richard said.), but there is no devastating loss at it's center. And so, I want to tell Richard how this album has become a centering album for a great many of us, a transcendent and meditative piece of art. "What does 'the mindfulness drill' have to do with it?" Richard asks dryly me in a note. It's about being relentlessly present, Richard. It's how when we listen to your album, we feel like a lonely traveler in a foreign country. How everything has a newness to it and there's no one to share it with but the you inside of you. And that fine, fine line is where 'Sapphie' lives, Richard. Thank you for this, Richard.

Vinyl LP pressing. Grammy-winning producer, Ian Brennan (Zomba Prison Project, Tanzania Albinism Collective, Tinariwen) and Italian-Rwandan photographer and filmmaker, Marilena Delli, travelled to rural northern Ghana to seek out the voices of those persecuted for alleged "witchcraft." The resulting album, I've Forgotten Now Who I Used to Be, was recorded across three clandestine villages in northern Ghana housing witches for their own protection. All but one had never played music or written songs before.

Opaque Gold Vinyl. It's the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn't be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren't turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That's where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, "the supplemental reading" for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. "My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way." Plus one cover that felt "of the era" in which that particular albums was made - a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.