During the Band’s original run (from 1968 to 1976), Robbie Robertson may have been the group’s strongest songwriter and the idea man behind most of their best work, but Levon Helm was truly the group’s heart and soul with his tough, sinewy Arkansas vocals and his indomitable, loosely tight drumming. Robertson’ solo work since leaving the Band has been the product of a man whose lofty ambitions outstrip his ability to make them interesting, but Helm’s music has been the greater disappointment; with the exception of 1980’s American Son, most of his solo recordings have been thoroughly disposable, offering plenty of good-time boogie but none of the gravity one might hope for from the man who made “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” come to such compelling life years ago. Which is why Dirt Farmer is such a pleasant surprise; it’s easily Helm’s best recorded work since American Son, and an absorbing look back at his roots as the son of a farm family in the rural South. Dirt Farmer was produced by Larry Campbell, a session guitarist and member of Bob Dylan’s road band, in collaboration with Amy Helm, Levon’s daughter, and they’ve assembled a solid but clutter-free acoustic band for these sessions, and the simple but iron-strong backdrops and superb songs are just what was needed to bring out the best in Levon. Helm survived a bout with throat cancer that was diagnosed in 1998, and his voice is noticeably more weathered than it once was, but in many respects the additional nooks and crannies suit this material beautifully; his interpretations of traditional rural folk songs like “Poor Old Dirt Farmer,” “Little Birds,” and “False Hearted Lover Blues” sound thoroughly authentic but with a bracing sense of force and commitment in Helm’s vocals, and if Steve Earle’s “The Mountain” and Buddy & Julie Miller’s “Wide River to Cross” aren’t venerable classics, they sound like they should be once Levon’s done with them. Though Helm adds a touch of boogie to “Got Me a Woman” and a jumped-up interpretation of the Carter Family’s “Single Girl, Married Girl,” in this context they add some welcome spice to the stew, and Helm’s drumming remains superb. Dirt Farmer is a hard-edged but compassionate and full-hearted set of roots music from a master of the form, and it’s a welcome, inspiring return to form for Levon Helm after a long stretch of professional and personal setbacks. - Mark Deming

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Track List

01. False Hearted Lover Blues
02. Poor Old Dirt Farmer
03. The Mountain
04. Little Birds
05. The Girl Left Behind
06. Calvary
07. Anna Lee
08. Got Me a Woman
09. A Train Robbery
10. Single Girl, Married Girl
11. Blind Child
12. Feelin’ Good
13. Wide River to Cross

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Grateful Dead
Dave’s Picks Volume 2
1974-07-31 Dillon Stadium, Hartford, CT

This three-set wonder features the entire show from Hartford’s Dillon Stadium during the heart of the Wall of Sound era, July 31, 1974, four days after the release of the Dead’s fine Mars Hotel album. Dwarfed by the Wall’s irregular columns of speakers on a hot and humid Wednesday afternoon, the band thrilled the sold-out crowd of 20,000 with a far-ranging collection of tunes and jams that showed how far they’d come as musicians, songwriters and interpreters of others’ songs in their decade together. - dead.net

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Track List

DISC 1
1. Scarlet Begonias
2. Me And My Uncle
3. Brown-Eyed Women
4. Beat It On Down The Line
5. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo>
6. It Must Have Been The Roses
7. Mexicali Blues
8. Row Jimmy
9. Jack Straw
10. China Cat Sunflower>
11. I Know You Rider
12. Around And Around

DISC 2
1. Bertha
2. Big River
3. Eyes Of The World>
4. China Doll
5. Promised Land
6. Ship Of Fools
7. Weather Report Suite
8. El Paso
9. Ramble On Rose
10. Greatest Story Ever Told

DISC 3
1. To Lay Me Down
2. Truckin’>
3. Mind Left Body Jam>
4. Spanish Jam>
5. Wharf Rat
6. U.S. Blues
7. One More Saturday Night
8. Uncle John’s Band

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The Tedeschi Trucks Band was founded in 2010 after both Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi put their solo bands on hiatus to form a new group that lets the married couple focus on making music together, and allows them to spend more time together while touring and recording.

The Live EP: Revelator features Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi and their Tedeschi Trucks Band in their element: Live.

Three of the four tracks are from the upcoming live album Everybody’s Talkin’ (coming May 22) along with a live version of “Don’t Let Me Slide”

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Track List

1. Don’t Let Me Slide (6:51)
2. Midnight In Harlem (10:23)
3. Learn How To Love (9:28)
4. Bound For Glory (12:54)

Time: 39 minutes 36 seconds

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Levon Helm and Rick Danko 
28 January 1983 
Starry Night 
Portland, Oregon 

In early 1983, Helm and Danko did this tour as an acoustic duet. Rick is heard on the guitar and vocals, while Levon covers the mandolin, harmonica and vocals. 

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Track List

01 prolog
02 Caledonia
03 Evangeline
04 Down South in New Orleans
05 It Makes No Difference
06 Wealthy Old Farmer
07 Long Black Veil
08 tuning break
09 Rag Mama Rag
10 Sick and Tired
11 A Letter to Tom
12 Milk Cow Boogie
13 Java Blues
14 Short Fat Fanny
15 encore break
16 Every Night and Every Day
17 Willy And The Hand Jive
18 encore break 2 
19 The World’s Gone Mad
20 Let’s Go Out in a Blaze of Glory

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Norah Jones’ debut album, 2002’s Come Away With Me, sold so many copies — roughly 20 million worldwide, making it one of the best-selling records of the previous decade — that she’s seemed fairly liberated ever since, especially once expectations of future blockbusters settled to something more realistic. Without losing her knack for impeccably classy professionalism, Jones has kept pushing her sound beyond the warmly accessible pop-jazz that launched her career, whether in the roots-country band The Little Willies or in her guest-vocal spots on last year’s Rome, the album Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton) recorded with Italian composer Daniele Luppi and Jack White.

Ten years after her debut, Jones is ideally positioned for the subtle sonic makeover she undergoes on Little Broken Hearts. Written and recorded with Burton, who as producer gives the album a sonic edge that never overwhelms its star, Little Broken Hearts sounds like Norah Jones without bearing much resemblance to the work that once got her pegged as the world’s most commercially dominant jazz star. Trafficking in alternately sweet and icy singer-songwriter pop, it’s a reinvention, but not a radical one.

It helps that these songs delve into deep, dark matters of betrayal and loss — and address them in myriad ways, from the wounded grace of “She’s 22” to the vengeful hurt of “Miriam.” Along the way, Jones coos and struts her way through a handful of crackerjack pop songs: “Say Goodbye,” the smoothly sinister title track and the single “Happy Pills” all meet at the midpoint between Jones’ past work and the fizzy pop Burton makes with Broken Bells. Always more versatile than most people think, Jones fits all of this smart material to perfection, marking her second decade as a star while making her sound cooler and more unflappably sophisticated than ever. —NPR

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Track List

01 – Good Morning
02 – Say Goodbye
03 – Little Broken Hearts
04 – She’s 22
05 – Take It Back
06 – After the Fall
07 – 4 Broken Hearts
08 – Travelin’ On
09 – Out on the Road
10 – Happy Pills
11 – Miriam
12 – All a Dream

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In a musical career that has spanned six decades, Levon Helm has made more than a few excellent albums working with other folks — most notably as drummer and vocalist with the Band, as well as backing Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, John Martyn, Rufus Wainwright, and literally dozens of others. But as a solo artist, Helm’s record has been considerably spottier, with well-intended disappointments outnumbering genuine successes, so it’s good to report that at the age of 69, Helm has found his second wind as a recording artist, cutting two of his most satisfying solo sets in a row. Following 2007’s excellent Dirt Farmer, Electric Dirt is every bit as impressive and finds him sounding even stronger than he did on that comeback set. Dirt Farmer was Helm’s first album after a bout with throat cancer nearly silenced him, and his vocals sounded firmly committed but just a bit strained; two years on, Helm’s voice is nearly as supple as it was during his days with the Band, and even when it shows signs of wear and tear, his sense of phrasing and his ability to bring the characters in these songs to life are as good as they’ve ever been. While Dirt Farmer leaned toward acoustic music in the Appalachian tradition, Electric Dirt aims for a broader and more eclectic sound; “Golden Bird” sounds as if it could have been gleaned from the Harry Smith anthology, but the opening cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Tennessee Jed” swings with a solid New Orleans groove like an outtake from the Rock of Ages concerts, a pair of Muddy Waters numbers are subtle but passionate acoustic blues, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” is joyous gospel-infused R&B, and “White Dove” is fervent and heartfelt traditional country. Larry Campbell, who co-produced Dirt Farmer, returned for these sessions, as did most of the same band, bringing a similarly organic touch to the music, and the bigger sound of this album seems to suit everyone involved, with Helm’s drumming sounding especially lively and well-grounded. And though Helm only wrote two songs for this album, they’re two good ones, especially “Growin’ Trade,” a tale of an aging farmer who has taken to raising marijuana, and what could easily have been played as a joke is a moving account of one man’s conscience as it wrestles with his heritage and love of the land. Not unlike his old buddy Bob Dylan from Time Out of Mind onward, Levon Helm seems to have rediscovered his knack for making great records in what some might have imagined would be the latter days of his career; Electric Dirt sounds fresh, emphatic, and as effective as anything Levon has cut since the mid-’70s, and one can only hope he has a few more discs in him just this good. — allmusic.com 

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Track List

1) Tennessee Jed (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) 5:58
2) Move Along Train (Roebuck Staples) 3:22
3) Growing Trade (Levon Helm, Larry Campbell) 4.22
4) Golden Bird (Happy Traum) 5:11
5) Stuff You Gotta Watch (Muddy Waters) 3:38
6) White Dove (Carter Stanley) 3:29
7) Kingfish (Randy Newman) 4:24
8) You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had (Muddy Waters) 4:01
9) When I Go Away (Larry Campbell) 4:32
10) Heaven’s Pearls (Anthony Leone, Byron Isaacs, Fiona McBain, Amy Helm, Glenn Patscha) 4:09
11) I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel To Be Free (Richard Carroll Lamp, Willy E. Taylor) 3:25

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For all the records that have borne his name over the past five years — Dead Weather, Raconteurs, multiple guest spots and productions — it feels like we haven’t really gotten any unadulterated Jack White music since the White Stripes’ swan song, “Icky Thump.” And one listen to “Blunderbuss” shows why: He’s been woodshedding, carefully developing a template and a manifesto for a solo career that (incongruously, given his prolific output) begins with this album.
 
“Blunderbuss” has elements of nearly every project he’s worked on — even some of the 1950s bounce of the White-produced Wanda Jackson album on “I’m Shakin’” and “Trash Tongue” — but also shows sides that the self-imposed, regimented simplicity of the White Stripes didn’t allow. There are softer piano-driven songs (“Love Interruption”) and, at the opposite extreme, filthy guitar raunch (“16 Saltines”), but also elaborate tracks reminiscent of late-’60s psychedelia, like the Zombies or Small Faces: “Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy” in particular is unlike anything White’s ever done, with a complex, hopscotching melody and rhythm; similarly, “I Guess I Should Go to Sleep” has a soaring vocal, a jazzy tempo and a violin solo. With a sound that’s vintage and organic but also very clean, the album is so diverse that virtually every song comes as a surprise — a trend that will continue on White’s forthcoming tour, where he’ll be bringing along two different backing bands (one all-male, one all-female, as seen on his recent “Saturday Night Live” performance) and deciding on the morning of each gig which band will accompany him that night.
 
“Blunderbuss” is familiar enough to please the fan base, adventurous enough to forge a new path ahead, and satisfying enough to make fans realize anew just how much we’ve missed Jack’s songs. But perhaps most of all, the album’s diversity and musical ambition show that the White Stripes were as on-message musically as they were sartorially — it wasn’t that Jack White couldn’t write complex songs, he just didn’t, and now that he is, Blunderbuss isn’t just (arguably) the best album of the year so far, it opens up a whole new world for him. —billboard.com

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Track List

01 – Missing Pieces
02 – Sixteen Saltines
03 – Freedom at 21
04 – Love Interruption
05 – Blunderbuss
06 – Hypocritical Kiss
07 – Weep Themselves to Sleep
08 – I’m Shakin’
09 – Trash Tongue Talker
10 – Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy
11 – I Guess I Should Go to Sleep
12 – On and On and On
13 – Take Me with You When You Go

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Yes had fallen out of critical favor with Tales from Topographic Oceans, a two-record set of four songs that reviewers found indulgent. But they had not fallen out of the Top Ten, and so they had little incentive to curb their musical ambitiousness. Relayer, released 11 months after Tales, was a single-disc, three-song album, its music organized into suites that alternated abrasive, rhythmically dense instrumental sections featuring solos for the various instruments with delicate vocal and choral sections featuring poetic lyrics devoted to spiritual imagery. Such compositions seemed intended to provide an interesting musical landscape over which the listener might travel, and enough Yes fans did that to make Relayer a Top Ten, gold-selling hit, though critics continued to complain about the lack of concise, coherent song structures.. —allmusic.com

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Track List

1. Gates Of Delirium (22:55)
2. Sound Chaser (9:25)
3. To Be Over (9:08)

Total Time: 41:28

Bonus tracks:
4. Soon (single edit) (4:18)
5. Sound Chaser (single edit) (3:13)
6. The Gates of Delirium (studio run-through) (21:16)

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The band’s crowning achievement, Close to the Edge, contains only three lengthy “songs,” but each one is an absolute epic. The title track dominates all of side one of the original LP, rushing in with a burbling, dissonant intro, Howe’s jagged riffing and Wakeman’s fluttering fingers building a dense, overpowering texture. Squire’s bass in the majestic “Total Mass Retain” section could liquefy solid tissue at the right volume; it’s almost impossible to believe it hasn’t been made into a hip-hop sample yet. Most importantly, the title track has a sense of coherent progression, tension and release that most of the band’s other side-filling epics lack. “And You and I” is arguably the ten most gorgeous minutes Yes ever laid to tape. It begins humbly, with twelve-string acoustic guitar, rises through mellotron-soaked crescendos, and then does it all again, building to a huge closing climax called “Apocalypse”, essentially laying out the blueprint for Sigur Rós. That leaves “Siberian Khatru” to close out the album with nine minutes of hook-stuffed organ and guitar interplay, understated harmony vocals and more of Squire’s chunky, front-and-center bass playing. This record is an essential document of just how powerful prog could be when focused. —pitchfork.com

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Track List

1. Close To The Edge (18:50)
2. And You And I (10:09)
3. Siberian Khatru (8:57)

Total Time: 37:56

Bonus tracks:
4. America (Single Version) (4:12)
5. Total Mass Retain (Single Version) (3:21)
6. And You and I (Alternative Version) (10:17)
7. Siberia (Studio Run-through of “Siberian Khatru”) (9:19)

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“The Yes Album” was actually the third album from the group spearheaded by singer John Anderson, but represented enough significant differences from its two predecessors to constitute a new and bigger beginning for the progressive rock group. Guitarist Steve Howe had replaced Peter Banks (who had gone off to join Blodwyn Pig), the album featured only original material, and the songs now tended to be much longer tracks. The four longer tracks—“Yours Is No Disgrace,” “Starship Trooper,” “I’ve Seen All Good People,” and “Perpetual Change”—are structured similarly, although each allows for considerable instrumental freedom. Usually a melodic theme is introduced by one member of the band and then echoed by the others. Science fiction concepts are combined with folk melodies and transformed into soaring showpieces for vocal and musical instruments alike. On this particular album the stand out musician is, rather surprisingly, bassist Chris Squire. Sometimes I think they made a mistake on the mix and pumped up the volume on the bass, but then it becomes clear this is by design. Howe’s guitar work as well as the organ played by Tony Kaye are given their moments to shine while Bill Bruford’s drumming just stays out of the way. However, the defining element of Yes is probably the vocal harmonies, with Howe and Squire blending with Anderson in the falsetto range, highlighted on “All Good People.” It was this that made Yes unique from their most obvious British progressive rock counterpart Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

“All Good People” was also the group’s second American single to crack the Top 40 and really became the song that introduced them to a larger listening audience. However, the best is yet to come, with the additional of Rick Wakeman as the keyboard player and Anderson’s continued exploration of oblique lyrics. This is the second remastered CD version of the album and offers annotations by Yes scholar Bill Martin and a trio of bonus tracks: single edits of both “Your Move” and the “Life Seeker” segment of “Starship Trooper,” and the studio version of the Steve Howe acoustic guitar solo “Clap.” These are minor but welcome additions to what was already a five star album.—amazon.com

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Track List

1. Yours Is No Disgrace (9:36)
2. The Clap (3:07)
3. Starship Trooper: Life Seeker / Disillusion / Wurm (9:23)
4. I’ve Seen All Good People: Your Move / All Good People (6:47)
5. A Venture (3:13)
6. Perpetual Change (8:50)

Total Time: 41:56

Bonus tracks:
7. Your Move (single version) (2:59)
8. Starship Trooper: Life Seeker (single version) (3:27)
9. Clap (studio version) (4:01)

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Mistitled by bootleggers back in the ’70s as LA Friday, the recording was actually made on Sunday 13th July 1975, at the final performance of the Rolling Stones’ five night residency at the Los Angeles Forum. The show was part of the Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas, which started with a bang, the band playing on a flatbed truck driving down 5th Avenue in New York City, showcasing their new guitarist, Ronnie Wood. The lineup for the show is Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Ian “Stu” Stewart, Billy Preston, Ollie E. Brown and Trevor Lawrence. Remastered by Bob Clearmountain, the album contains an incredible versions of “Fingerprint File” and “Angie”.

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Track List

01 – Honky Tonk Women
02 – All Down the Line
03 – If You Can’t Rock Me
04 – Get Off Of My Cloud
05 – Star Star
06 – Gimme Shelter
07 – Ain’t Too Proud To Beg
08 – You Gotta Move
09 – You Can’t Always Get What You Want
10 – Happy
11 – Tumbling Dice
12 – Band Intros
13 – It’s Only Rock N Roll
14 – Heartbreaker
15 – Fingerprint File
16 – Angie
17 – Wild Horses
18 – That’s Life (Billy Preston & The Rolling Stones)
19 – Outta Space (Billy Preston & The Rolling Stones)
20 – Brown Sugar
21 – Midnight Rambler
22 – Rip This Joint
23 – Street Fighting Man
24 – Jumping Jack Flash
25 – Sympathy for the Devil

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For many Pink Floyd fans the Immersion and Experience release of Dark Side of the Moon last year was the most keenly anticipated of the collections, offering delicious insights into how the 1973 classic was recorded and how many of the tracks transformed from demo to final cut (as it were).

1979’s The Wall is a very different album. After Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals continued to display Floyd’s melodic side with all four members fully involved, this 1979 album reveals how cracks had started to appear. The band was heading towards the now infamous spilt.

The Wall was the brainchild of Roger Waters, who took almost full control for the recording; so much so Rick Wright was jettisoned during the sessions (he later returned for live dates). To review it now seems pointless. Most people have made their minds up on whether it is a classic piece of rock opera or overblown and over-rated. No one is going to change their mind now that they have even more versions of the tracks to listen to.

What these releases offer though, is the chance to discover how the album developed. The journey that led to the final recordings of Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) and the epic Comfortably Numb for example. All this and more is offered here in a wonderfully and lovingly put together collection. The Doctor is a section that explores Comfortably Numb’s transformation to a rock classic, with early demos also included of Run Like Hell.

There is plenty here to keep The Wall fans busy for many hours, and more than 30 years later, it underlines what an extraordinary record it is. There is no way such an album would be released now. It marks the end of an era for the 70s concept albums. Punks hold on the popular music scene was about to give way to New Romantics and the hatred towards the perceived over-indulgence of prog-rock was to fade, as its popularity faded.

For Floyd this was the last album recorded as a cohesive unit (the subsequent Final Cut is a Waters solo record in all but name) and it is a thousand miles away from where they started in the 70s. The journey for the band and their fans was a fascinating one and the snippets we get into the whole process in this Immersion box-set remind you just how special it all is. 

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Track List

The Wall (Digitally Remastered by James Guthrie, 2011):

Disc 1:

01. In The Flesh? [3:20]
02. The Thin Ice [2:27]
03. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1 [3:12]
04. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives [1:51]
05. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 [3:59]
06. Mother [5:35]
07. Goodbye Blue Sky [2:47]
08. Empty Spaces [2:08]
09. Young Lust [3:30]
10. One Of My Turns [3:37]
11. Don’t Leave Me Now [4:16]
12. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3 [1:14]
13. Goodbye Cruel World [1:17]

Disc 2:
01. Hey You [4:40]
02. Is There Anybody Out There? [2:42]
03. Nobody Home [3:23]
04. Vera [1:33]
05. Bring The Boys Back Home [1:27]
06. Comfortably Numb [6:22]
07. The Show Must Go On [1:37]
08. In The Flesh! [4:16]
09. Run Like Hell [4:24]
10. Waiting For The Worms [3:57]
11. Stop [0:31]
12. The Trial [5:19]
13. Outside The Wall [1:46]

Is There Anybody Out There: The Wall Live (Digitally Remastered in 2011 by James Guthrie):

Disc 3:
01. Master of Ceremonies [1:14]
02. In the Flesh? [3:00]
03. The Thin Ice [2:49]
04. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1 [4:09]
05. The Happiest Days of Our Lives [1:45]
06. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 [6:19]
07. Mother [7:55]
08. Goodbye Blue Sky [3:14]
09. Empty Spaces [2:16]
10. What Shall We Do Now? [1:39]
11. Young Lust [5:19]
12. One of My Turns [3:42]
13. Don’t Leave Me Now [4:01]
14. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3 [1:21]
15. The Last Few Bricks [3:26]
16. Goodbye Cruel World [1:42]
 
Disc 4:
01. Hey You [4:56]
02. Is There Anybody Out There? [3:09]
03. Nobody Home [3:17]
04. Vera [1:23]
05. Bring The Boys Back Home [1:25]
06. Comfortably Numb [7:25]
07. The Show Must Go On [2:35]
08. Mc; Atmos [0:38]
09. In The Flesh [4:22]
10. Run Like Hell [7:04]
11. Waiting For The Worms [4:14]
12. Stop [0:30]
13. The Trial [6:03]
14. Outside The Wall [4:32]

The Wall album demos (previously unreleased):

Disc 5:
01. Prelude (Vera Lynn) — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:24]
02. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 — Roger Waters Original Demo [1:04]
03. Mother — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:23]
04. Young Lust — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:14]
05. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:19]
06. Empty Spaces — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:19]
07. Mother — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:08]
08. Backs To The Wall — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:36]
09. Don’t Leave Me Now — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:28]
10. Goodbye Blue Sky — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:40]
11. Don’t Leave Me Now — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:13]
12. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3 — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:38]
13. Goodbye Cruel World — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:25]
14. Hey You — Roger Waters Original Demo [1:09]
15. Is There Anybody Out There — Roger Waters Original Demo [1:23]
16. Vera — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:28]
17. Bring The Boys Back Home — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:38]
18. The Show Must Go On — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:52]
19. Waiting For The Worms — Roger Waters Original Demo [1:17]
20. Run Like Hell — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:51]
21. The Trial — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:35]
22. Outside The Wall — Roger Waters Original Demo [1:04]
23. Prelude (Vera Lynn) — Roger Waters Original Demo [0:56]
24. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1 — Band Demo [4:49]
25. The Thin Ice — Band Demo [3:32]
26. Goodbye Blue Sky — Band Demo [2:23]
27. Teacher, Teacher — Band Demo [2:50]
28. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 — Band Demo [1:31]
29. Empty Spaces — Band Demo [1:53]
30. Young Lust — Band Demo [4:27]
31. Mother — Band Demo [4:39]
32. Don’t Leave Me Now — Band Demo [4:35]
33. Sexual Revolution — Band Demo [5:00]
34. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3 — Band Demo [1:26]
35. Goodbye Cruel World — Band Demo [1:13]
36. In The Flesh — Band Demo [3:25]
37. The Thin Ice — Band Demo [2:36]
38. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1 — Band Demo [3:42]
39. The Happiest Days Of Your Lives — Band Demo [1:44]
40. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 — Band Demo [1:57]
41. Mother — Band Demo [4:37]
 
Disc 6:
01. Is There Anybody Out There (Roger Waters Original Demo) [1:53]
02. Vera (Roger Waters Original Demo) [2:19]
03. Bring The Boys Back Home (Roger Waters Original Demo) [0:43]
04. Hey You (Band Demo) [4:07]
05. The Doctor (Comfortably Numb — Band Demo) [3:15]
06. In The Flesh (Band Demo) [4:35]
07. Run Like Hell (Band Demo) [3:08]
08. Waiting For The Worms (Band Demo) [3:54]
09. The Trail (Band Demo) [4:06]
10. The Show Must Go On (Band Demo) [2:07]
11. Outside The Wall (Band Demo) [1:19]
12. The Thin Ice (reprise — Band Demo) [1:32]
13. Outside The Wall (Band Demo) [1:53]
14. It’s Never Too Late (Band Demo) [1:32]
15. The Doctor (Comfortably Numb — Band Demo) [3:20]
16. One Of My Turns (Band Demo) [2:30]
17. Don’t Leave Me Now (Band Demo) [4:05]
18. Empty Spaces (Band Demo) [0:51]
19. Backs To The Wall (Band Demo) [1:33]
20. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3 (Band Demo) [1:23]
21. Goodbye Cruel World (Band Demo) [1:06]
22. Comfortably Numb (David Gilmour Original Demo) [3:15]
23. Run Like Hell (David Gilmour Original Demo) [3:03]

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Wynton Marsalis brings you this self-curated collection for The Music of America series. This 2-CD set blends the diverse musical languages that personify this unique American artist and composer. The compositions are performed by a diverse group of musicians including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orion String Quartet, musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and members of The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in various configurations. Speaking through the voice of a bluesman, parishioner, sophisticate, slave, griotor philosopher, Marsalis bring an eye of a musical historian as he takes us through a musical journey of some of his most outstanding works. This collection truly personifies Marsalis as the formidable trumpet player, the world-class composer and an extraordinary contributor to The Music of America.

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Track List

CD1:

01 – Express Crossing (Astride from Horses)
02 – ‘D’ in the Key of ‘F’ (Now the Blues)
03 – Jump
04 – Station Call
05 – The Caboose
06 – Church Renewing Vows
07 – Go, Possum, Go
08 – Jean-Louis is Everywhere
09 – For My Kids at the College of Marciac
10 – Sunflowers
11 – Hellbound Highball
12 – The Fiddler’s March
13 – Movement 1 Jubal Step
14 – Movement 12 I Am (Don’t You Run from Me) (Edit)

CD2:

01 – The Majesty of the Blues (The Puheeman Strut)
02 – The Dance
03 – Move Over (Edit)
04 – Double Rondo on the River (Pedro’s Getaway)
05 – Spring Yaounde
06 – Soul for Sale
07 – Altar Call
08 – In the Sweet Embrace of Life Sermon Holy Ghost
09 – The Death of Jazz
10 – Oh, But on the Third Day (Happy Feet Blues)

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Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

Two years ago Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone that he had just written his first song about a “guy that wears a tie.”  The songwriter had spent much of his career writing about characters struggling in tough economic times, but the financial crisis convinced him it was time to write about the people and forces that brought America to this ugly point.

The result was Wrecking Ball, a scathing indictment of Wall Street greed and corruption and a look into the devastation it has wrought. “This is as direct a record as I ever made,” Springsteen tells Rolling Stone. “That’s with the possible exception of Nebraska, which this record has a lot in common with.”

The stark subject matter is paired with an experimental sonic palette that Springsteen created with producer Ron Aniello. “The record basically started out as folk music – just me and a guitar singing these songs,” says Springsteen. “Then Ron brought a large library of sound that allowed me to explore – like  maybe a hip-hop drum loop or country-blues stomp loop. The actual drums came later. There was no preconceived set of instruments that needed to be used, I could go anywhere, do anything, use anything. It was very wide open.”

Album opener “We Take Care of Our Own” poses a question: Do Americans take care of their own? The songs that follow make the answer clear: The narrator of the slow waltz “Jack of All Trades” struggles to find work, while the anti-hero of the country-folk stomper “Easy Money” decides to imitate “all them fat cats” on Wall Street by turning to crime. The similarly uptempo “Shackled and Drawn,” meanwhile, offers a political analysis worthy of Woody Guthrie: “Gambling man rolls the dice, workingman pays the bill/ It’s still fat and easy up on banker’s hill/ Up on banker’s hill, the party’s going strong/ Down here below we’re shackled and drawn.”

The album’s themes shift midway through, as economic despair gives way to a quest for spiritual redemption.  It ends on a hopeful note with the ambitious “We Are Alive.” The song takes on an Irish-wake feel, as Springsteen celebrates Americans (and aspiring ones) who died fighting for progress: “I was killed in Maryland in 1877/ When the railroad workers made their stand/ I was killed in 1963 one Sunday morning in Birmingham/ I died last year crossing the Southern desert my children left behind in San Pablo… We are alive/ And though we lie alone here in the dark/ Our souls will rise/ To carry the fire and light the spark/ To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.”

There are genuine musical surprises throughout. The cinematic “Rocky Ground” expands on the hip-hop-inspired vibe of “Streets of Philadelphia,” while prominently featuring the voice of gospel singer Michelle Moore, who even delivers a brief, apparently Springsteen-penned rap. “Death To My Hometown”  is a Celtic-influenced foot-stomper that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dropkick Murphys album. “We Are Alive” borrows the horn riff from Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire,” while “Land Of Hope And Dreams” (originally written and played live with the E Street Band in 1999) has been re-worked with electronic drums and a gospel choir.

“Hope and Dreams” also has a saxophone solo by the late Clarence Clemons. The Big Man’s sax can also be heard on “Wrecking Ball,” alongside trumpeter Curt Ramm – who will be in the five-piece horn section (which also includes Clemons’ nephew Jake) that will be hitting the road with Springsteen on his upcoming tour. - Andy Greene

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Track List

01. We Take Care of Our Own
02. Easy Money
03. Shackled and Down
04. Jack of All Trades
05. Death to My Hometown
06. The Depression
07. Wrecking Ball
08. You’ve Got It
09. Rocky Ground
10. Land of Hope and Dreams
11. We Are Live

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Call it Mardi Gras, or call it Carnivale. Galactic captures the modern vibrancy of this annual bacchanal - and blazes a trail to its future - on Carnivale Electricos, the group’s most ambitious release to date, set for release on Mardi Gras Day, Feb 21, via Anti- Records. Over the course of thirteen tracks, Galactic explores the connections between the Mardi Gras in their native New Orleans and the mighty megacarnivals of Brazil, whisking listeners between neighborhoods and cultures on a parade of genres from blistering rock, hip hop and r&b, to samba, zydeco, jazz and of course, funk.

NOLA guests on the record span several generations and styles from Neville brothers Cyril and Ivan, to rappers Mannie Fresh and Mystikal (making one of his first recordings since being released from prison); from Big Chief Juan Pardo, one of the youngest Mardi Gras Indians, to the KIPP Renaissance High School Band, one of the city’s most riotous marching bands.

Brazilian influences on the album are similarly diverse including a cover of the Sergio Mendes Carnivale classic “Magalenha” and Galactic’s new composition, “Guero Bounce,” which pairs Brazilian rhythms with a New Orleans Bounce beat. “Julou,” named for the band’s own off-the-grid Mardi Gras parade, is inspired by another popular Carnivale melody, while ” O Côco da Galinha” features rising Rio samba star Moyseis Marques.

Galactic will tour the US extensively this winter and spring, headlining some of its largest venues to date, including a stop at NYC’s Terminal 5 on Feb 25 for a show that will feature special guests Steel Pulse. Corey Glover (Living Colour) and Corey Henry (Rebirth Brass Band) will join the group as special guest vocalists, while openers on the tour will include Orgone and the Soul Rebels. See below for complete dates.

Following the breakout critical success of their previous two albums From The Corner To The Block (2007), and Ya-Ka-May (2010), Carnivale Electricos represents an unparalleled cross-section of contemporary carnival music that required Galactic to draw on all the skills, stamina, and funk they deploy at their annual all-night Lundi Gras concerts, which like the band itself have become a NOLA institution. In the nearly two decades since the band began, they’ve performed or recorded with everyone from BB King and Jeff Beck to Jurassic 5 and The Roots, playing every major US festival along the way including Coachella, Austin City Limits, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, and of course JazzFest. 

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Track List

01. Ha Di Ka (feat. Big Chief Juan Pardo and the Golden Camanche)
02. Hey Na Na (feat. David Shaw from The Revivalist & Maggie Koerner)
03. Magalenha (feat. Casa Samba)
04. Voyage Ton Flag
05. Out In The Street (feat. Cyril & Ivan Neville)
06. JuLou
07. Move Fast (feat. Mystikal & Mannie Fresh)
08. Karate (feat. KIPP Reniassance High School Marching Band)
09. Guero Bounce
10. Carnival Time (feat. Al “Carnival Time” Johnson)
11. Attack
12. O Côco da Galinha (feat. Moyseis Marques)
13. Ash Wednesday Sunrise

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