LATEST ADDITIONS

The Oscar Peterson Trio’s seminal 1964 release We Get Requests features his classic trio at a creative peak. This fine recording is an especially fantastic listen in a pristine new Verve Records/Acoustic Sounds Series 180g 1LP presentation that’s coming out August 19 via UMe. This reissue delivers on so many levels, and is in every way better than my original 1960s-era vinyl pressing. Read on to learn why this new edition is worth pre-ordering right now. . .

Gregg Allman left his mark on the music world at large as a natural-born blues-hewn vocalist, insightful and revelatory songwriter, and a consummately influential keyboardist. To properly fete him in style, a multi-generational all-star lineup of musicians from the worlds of rock, blues, and country joined together at Atlanta’s historic Fox Theatre on January 10, 2014 for All My Friends, a once-in-a-lifetime concert event tribute. Eight years later, All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman will finally be made available on vinyl via a 4LP box set that will be released on September 30, 2022 by Rounder Records. Read on to learn more about this historic release, and all its color-vinyl variants. . .

Fleet Foxes’ new live and mostly acoustic A Very Lonely Solstice LP leans more toward the full-album concert experience I was hoping for on record. There is a nice sense of the church ambiance — this performance was recorded live at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York in December 2020 — that wonderfully captures the woody essence of Fleet Foxes bandleader Robin Pecknold’s strummy nylon-string guitar. Read on to learn more. . .

To slightly modify a line from “Let the Good Times Roll” . . . hey y’all, tell everybody Ray Charles is back on wax — and this time, he's got the Count Basie Orchestra with him. To wit: Tangerine Records will re-release the October 2006 album Ray Sings, Basie Swings on September 23, 2022, in a 140g 2LP collection pressed by IRP.