Dale Ann Bradley has just released a new album, "Don't Turn Your Back," on Compass Records on Tuesday (May 19). The album is an eclectic mix of new songs, as well as solid remakes of Fleetwood Mac's "Over My Head," Patty Loveless' "Last Thing on My Mind" and Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down." Bradley is the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) reigning female vocalist of the year.
Other new independent releases include singer-songwriter Ashley Cleveland's "God Don't Never Change" (Koch), Gregory Alan Isakov's "This Empty Northern Hemisphere" (self-released), Red Stick Ramblers' "My Suitcase Is Always Packed" (Sugar Hill), Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out's self-titled album (Rural Rhythm), Chris Pandolfi's "Looking Glass" (Sugar Hill), Angie Stevens' "Queen of This Mess" (Boss Koala) and the Tractors' "Trade Union" (Koch). Additionally, Sony Music Entertainment has digitally released Ashley Monroe's 2006 album, "Satisfied," a Columbia Records project that was sidelined during Sony's corporate merger with BMG.
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Concord Issuing Ray Charles' Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music Volumes 1 & 2
Back in 1962, the legendary Ray Charles electrified the musical world with his soulful take on many popular country and western music of the day with his LP "Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music." The album would became his first #1 hit on the Pop Albums chart, staying there for an amazing 14 weeks, and included four charting singles ("Born to Lose," "Careless Love," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "You Don't Know Me"). In response to the overwhelming success of this record, later that same year, Charles released Volume 2, which produced three more hits ("You Are My Sunshine," "Take These Chains From My Heart" and "Your Cheating Heart").
Concord Records has released the following press release and talks about the making of these classic albums:
“Since joining ABC’s roster in late 1959 after permanently altering the rhythm & blues landscape that sired soul, Charles had been contemplating an LP of country chestnuts for years,” Dahl writes. “So to him it wasn’t a radical concept. What was earth shattering was the way he redefined each song. When Ray unleashed the roaring horn section from his recently formed big band, those country evergreens swung like never before.”
In preparation for the album, Charles asked Feller to bring him the biggest country and western hits from the preceding 20 years. According to Ward, “Completely confused and wondering what possible use Ray could make of such material, Sid began collecting songs. The more he thought about Ray’s idea, the more excited Sid became. And by the time the sessions rolled around, he was nearly the most enthusiastic person on the studio.”
Initially skeptical at first themselves, ABC Records gave Charles artistic freedom and was pleased when Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music became the label’s first million-selling album. A lot of this was due to the success of its first single, I Can’t Stop Loving You. Never intended to be a single, the Don Gibson-penned track was buried deep in the album sequence. Yet when actor Tab Hunter covered the song, Feller quickly edited Charles’ rendition to single length and got it into the marketplace in enough time to bury the Hunter version. It topped the pop and R&B hit parades and won a Grammy for Best R&B Recording. You Don’t Know Me also proved a massive R&B and pop seller.
A few months later, Ray and his team convened at Capitol Studios in New York to plan Volume 2, Ray mining another dozen country standards. Within the month, the album was at retail and proceeded to reach #2 on the pop album chart. Hank Williams’ Take These Chains From My Heart, which kicked off the “ballad side” of Volume 2, became another huge Charles hit in mid-1963.
Having made countless new country converts by giving these 24 songs a soul-steeped urban dimension, Charles continued to dip into the country and western songbook. He covered Johnny Cash’s hit Busted to Grammy-winning acclaim in 1963, and his remakes of Buck Owens’ Cryin’ Time and Together Again hit during the mid-‘60s. “Then again,” Dahl writes, “Ray’s unique vocal interpretations inevitably made any song from any genre entirely his own.”
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In an earlier post, I had shown the new album cover art for this release- why it is causing quite a stir is anyone's guess, here is the album ocver again and the response for the band:
MANIC STREET PREACHERS - MANICS BLAST CENSORS OVER COVER ART ROW
MANIC STREET PREACHERS frontman JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD is baffled by the decision to censor the band's new album cover - insisting critics have misunderstood the artwork.
A number of stores in the band's native U.K. are issuing Journal For Plague Lovers in plain cases, because the original cover - a painting by artist Jenny Saville - shows a face that appears to be splattered in blood.
But Bradfield is annoyed, insisting the image isn't blood, and accusing stores of looking for controversy.
He tells the BBC, "We just thought it was a beautiful painting. We were all in total agreement. It is her brushwork. If you're familiar with her work, there's a lot of ochres and browns and reds and browns and perhaps people are looking for us to be more provocative than we are being.
"You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out".
It's not the first time the Manics have teamed with Saville - they used one of earlier paintings of an overweight woman in just underwear on the cover of their 1994 album, The Holy Bible.
Buy Manic Street Preachers Music Here
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New 'Brimful' Of Cornershop Music
Here's something that doesn't happen very often, a new record from one of the UK's most cherished bands, Cornershop.
They will be releasing the 1st single from their forthcoming album on Tuesday 26 May. The new single is titled 'The Roll Off Characteristics (Of History In The Making)' and will be released on Cornershop's own Ample Play Records imprint. The Devil has a twitchy house remix of the single available for download for a limited period.
Vinyl copies of the single are to be distributed through Cargo to local shops, however, both vinyl and digital copies are also available for sale directly and securely at the Cornershop On-Line Shop from the group themselves, at www.cornershop.com .
Cornershop Music
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Ash to release 26 new songs in 12 months + “Return of White Rabbit”
With 18 Top 40 UK hits, Ash are one of the most successful ‘singles bands’ of recent times, consistently bothering charts and airwaves with their distinctive, lovable and inventive pop.
In 2007 Ash released the album ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’, bequeathed another brace of hit singles “You Can’t Have It All” and “Polaris,” before promptly announcing they would no longer release albums. Heralding a new approach to record releases, the ultimate singles band will now deliver the ultimate singles collection - a year-long series of fortnightly single releases, with limited edition collectors vinyl.
For the past year they have been holed up in their New York HQ, Atomic Heart Studios, writing and recording a series of songs that will form what Ash is calling the A-Z series.
Starting in October, every two weeks for the next twelve months, Ash will release one single on limited 7” vinyl and digital download…starting with ‘A’ and ending at ‘Z’, all 26 songs will be released on Ash’s own Atomic Heart Records and will be available through shops and by subscription through the band’s website.
Ash kick off this series with a bonus track (not one of the forthcoming 26 songs) — the Mark Hamilton penned song “Return of White Rabbit.”
Fans can currently download this song free of charge on the Ash website, www.ash-official.com and 1000 limited edition 7” singles will be made available through mail order and selected independent record shops starting June 8, 2009.
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Zao Releasing Early Album "Where Blood And Fire Bring Rest" On Vinyl
Zao has issued the following announcement about releasing an early studio album on vinyl:
"Yup. Broken Circles Records is putting out a 1000 copy pressing of Where Blood And Fire Bring Rest on vinyl. First time it's seen a vinyl release. Ever.
"While WE don't really have a hand in this one, we've given our blessing and are sitting on the sidelines watching how it goes down to see if there's enough demand to put OTHER stuff out. I mean, think about it. A certain ANALOG recorded album getting the vinyl treatment it deserves? double picture-disc set of Funeral of God?? the possibilities are endless.
"In the meantime, here's the breakdown of the pressing.
"Dark Clear Red Vinyl (400 copies)
"Opaque Yellow Vinyl (300 copies)
"Brown Marble Vinyl (200 copies)
"Black VInyl (100 Copies) Sold Out!
Hurry- the release is selling out fast- check here to see if they have it!
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L.A. GUNS: ''86 Demo Sessions' To Be Released On Limited-Edition Vinyl
Cleopatra Records will release L.A. GUNS' "'86 Demo Sessions" on limited-edition, hand-numbered vinyl on June 2. The LP, which contains recordings that were made prior to the release of the band's major label debut album in 1988, features the following track listing:
01. Soho
02. Nothing To Lose
03. Bitch is Back
04. Down In the City
05. Electric Gypsy
06. Instrumental
07. Guilty
08. Hollywood Tease
09. Sex Action
10. Midnight Alibi
11. One More Reason
12. One Way Ticket
13. Shoot For Thrills
L.A. GUNS has recently been touring in two competing lineups: one fronted by guitarist Tracii Guns, and another led by his Eighties bandmates, singer Phil Lewis and drummer Steve Riley. "Tracii's L.A. GUNS is bogus," Riley recently told Rolling Stone magazine. "People want to hear the songs sung by the original lead singer." Guns countered, "Those guys are a couple of dirty motherfuckers. I hired them for my band — if you get hired as a manager at McDonald's, you don't take over the McDonald's."
Guns told Rolling Stone that he was going to court, and he hoped to get the name back. "I just want to put it to bed and start a new band," he said. "This has proved beyond 'Spinal Tap' ridiculous. The next chapter would be us trying to book a convenience store and battling over the $300 they'd pay us."
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Handwritten Poem By Teenage Bob Dylan Up For Auction
A two-page poem written by “Bobby Zimmerman,” or Bob Dylan as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame calls him, has been unearthed and is now up for auction at Christie’s. Handwritten by a teenage Dylan in the mid-1950s, “Little Buddy” was penned for The Herzl Herald, the official newspaper of Northwestern Wisconsin’s Herzl Camp, where young Zimmerman was a camper. The handwritten poem is currently on the block until June 23rd, with an estimated price in the $10,000-$15,000 range.
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Echo & the Bunnymen Space Bound
Recently, Echo & the Bunnymen were contacted by NASA astronaut Timothy Korpa about taking the group's music with him on his next space mission. Specifically, what he wants to take is the group's 1984 album "Ocean Rain," which he states as his favorite from their catalog.
Group member Ian McCulloch said in a statement:
"Now it's official. We are the coolest band in the universe. As a kid I dreamt of being an astronaut, and now in a way it feels like I'm fulfilling that dream. I cannot wait to hear from Tim what it is like to listen to The Killing Moon in the actual glow of the moon."
***Buy The LP Here***
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Green Day #1 LP
Despite their unorthodox release date that saw Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" in stores on Friday instead of the conventional Tuesday, Green Day’s newest rock opera has bolted to the top of the charts. The album sold more than 214,000 copies in its short week, giving the band their second consecutive #1 debut after 2004’s American Idiot. **Buy 21st Century Breakdown Here**
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