Tag: vinylcollection
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Squeeze, Sweets From a Stranger, 1982 on A&M
Fifth studio album from Squeeze, this one including Don Snow, John Bentley, and Gilson Lavis alongside Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook. and featuring “Black Coffee in Bed” with backing vocals from Elvis Costello and Paul Young. Lover the overlay flap on the front – “When it comes to Squeeze, they can’t be called ‘critics’” –…
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Nick Lowe, Labour of Lust, 1979 on Columbia
Second album released under the Nick Lowe name, recorded with the same personnel from Rockpile and in the same year as Dave Edmunds’ Repeat When Necessary. The US and UK versions have different track list – this is the US version, including “American Squirm” as track A4. This has “Cruel To Be Kind” which became…
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Grateful Dead, Anthem of the Sun, 1968 on Warner Bros / Seven Arts
Second LP from the Dead, assembled together by Garcia and Lesh out of a mixture of live and studio recordings to make a new hybrid. Very much a psychedelic and experimental record, as the cover and song titles would suggest. My copy is the Vinyl Me, Please reissue from 2023, which was manufactured for Rhino.…
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Thelonious Monk, The Unique Thelonious Monk, 1956 on Riverside
Monk recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, with Oscar Pettiford on bass and Art Blakey on drums, produced by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer – originally Riverside RLP 12-209 with a different cover. My copy, via Academy Records in NYC, is the 1983 reissue in the Original Jazz Classics series, issued by Fantasy which acquired the…
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Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 2: The Cowboy Arms Sessions, 2020 on High Top Mountain
Follow up to Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1, released a couple of months later. More bluegrass renditions of Simpson’s catalog. The band again includes many well known bluegrass musicians: Stuart Duncan, Sierra Hull, Miles Miller, Mark Howard, Tim O’Brien, Scott Vestal,and Mike Bub. Although there isn’t an explicit recorded-at credit, The Cowboy Arms is Jack Clement’s…
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Erykah Badu, Worldwide Underground, 2003 on Motown
This was Badu’s third album, following Baduizm (1997) and Mama’s Gun (2000). It was produced by Freakquency (Badu along with Rashad Smith, James Poyser, and RC Williams) and features dead prez (Stic Man and M1) on “The Grind.” Lenny Kravitz guests on guitar, Roy Hargrove on trumpet and vocals, and Queen Latifah, Angie Stone, and…
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Townes Van Zandt, At My Window, 1987 on Sugar Hill
Van Zandt’s eighth studio album and only one recorded in the 1980s, originally released on the bluegrass label Sugar Hill. I never miss a chance to pick up a Townes Van Zandt record in good shape. Recorded at Jack Clement’s studio in Nashville (“Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa”) and produced by Clement and Jim…
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Tom Waits, Closing Time, 1973 on Asylum
Tom Waits’ debut album, after David Geffen met him performing at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. Amazing how fully-formed Waits is here, kicking off his debut album with “Ol’ 55” and “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You” – all originals. Tom Waits always feels to me like he could have come…
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Junior Wells, It’s My Life, Baby, 1966 on Vanguard
Junior Wells’ sophomore album, released on Vanguard in 1966 after Hoodoo Man Blues came out on Delmark. From the liner notes: Some of this album, Junior Wells’ first solo record for Vanguard, was recorded in Pepper’s Lounge on Chicago’s south side, to get the feeling of a blues band working with its blues audience. The…
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Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 (The Butcher Shoppe Sessions), 2020 on High Top Mountain Records
Sturgill Simpson is one of my favorite contemporary artists, who generally gets classified as a Country artist but here breaks out into bluegrass. The Butcher Shoppe is actually a studio in Nashville set up by David Ferguson and John Prine. (There’s also a Nashville studio called The Butcher Shop, operated by Butch Walker). The band…
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Camouflage, Voices & Images, 1988 on Atlantic
Camouflage were a synth-pop trio from Bietigheim-Bissingen in West Germany (near Stuttgart). Voices & Images was their debut album and included “The Great Commandment” which was a hit in Germany and broke through to the US. My copy via Pitchfork Records in Concord NH, has the gold promo stamp and a hype sticker listing the…
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Nick Lowe, Pure Pop for Now People, 1978 on Columbia
Issued as Jesus of Cool in the UK and elsewhere, but as Pure Pop for Now People in the US and Canada. this was NIck Lowe’s solo debut. The track list also differs between the North American and European releases. Yep Rock put out an expanded reissue in the US in 2008 under the name…
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Oscar Peterson Trio, 1961 Cologne Gürzenich Concert Hall, 2011 on Jazzline
Part of a series of Jazzline releases called WDR The Cologne Broadcasts, which collects concerts recorded by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (German public radio), including this 1961 appearance of the classic Oscar Peterson Trio with Ed Thigpen and Ray Brown. Recorded at the Gürzenich on April 11th, 1961 by an unkown recording engineer and mastered by Thomas…
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Billie Holiday, Songs for Distingué Lovers, 1958 on Verve
Great set of recordings, with liner notes by Norman Granz. No real detail on the sessions on the record itself, but apparently recorded during sessions in January 1957 in Hollywood – the same sessions that yielded All or Nothing at All and Body and Soul. Wonderful versions of “Stars Fell on Alabama” and “One For…
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Guadalcanal Diary, Flip Flop, 1989 on Elektra
The fourth and final (original) full length from Marietta Georgia’s Guadalcanal Diary. Guadalcanal Diary is kind of the most underappreciated indie 80s band from Georgia – they weren’t R.E.M. or the B-52s or Pylon or even Let’s Active, but this is a great album. It takes some guts to label one side of your fourth…
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Specials, Specials, 1979 on Two-Tone
Ska greats The Specials (later renamed The Special AKA) in their debut full length on Coventry label Two-Tone, started by Jerry Dammers (of the Specials). The Specials included Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Dammers, Lynval Golding, Roddy Radiation, Horace Panter, John Bradbury, Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez. This album was produced by Elvis Costello, and features…
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Dave Brubeck Quartet, 1960 Essen Grugahalle, 2010 on Jazzline
Brubeck with Paul Desmond, Gene Wright, and Joe Morello, recorded live in Essen Germany (at the Grugahalle) in 1960. Jazzline is a German label, and has a series of “WDR Original Masters” recorded by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) which is basically West German NPR/PBS – a public service radio and TV broadcaster. These are great…
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Various Artists, Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records, 2021 on Craft
Craft Recordings release from 2021 – but all the original recordings are from the 1950s (and a few from the 40s). Wonderful collection – the Little Richard tracks are likely the most well known, but I love the early Sam Cooke, Percy Mayfield, Lloyd Price, and Jesse & Marvin. Tracklist: Released on yellow vinyl via…