The third volume of the Goldwax singles is the story of music industry decline. If not exactly riches to rags – Goldwax sales were never that good – it is the tale of an independent label slowly losing its way in an increasingly difficult environment. This was not just about a failure to sign talent, but about changes within the business, and that meant that it became more difficult for regional independents to survive and thrive.
Buck Owens turned Bakersfield, California into the epicenter of hip country music in the mid-'60s. All it took was a remarkable streak of number one singles that steam rolled right through Nashville with their electrified twang, forever changing the notion of what constituted country music and codifying the Bakersfield sound as hard-driving rhythms, trebly Telecasters, and lean arrangements suited for honky tonks, beer joints, and jukeboxes all across America. Half-a-century later, these remain sonic signifiers of Bakersfield, so the term no longer conveys a specific sound, place, and era, a situation the weighty Bear Family box The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital of the West 1940-1974 intends to rectify.
There have been a lot of Sun compilations over the years; this three-CD, 74-song compilation strikes the medium ground between abridged single-disc highlights and overkill ten-album box sets. What this means is that you get virtually all the key sides of this vastly influential blues, country, and rockabilly label, including the biggest Sun hits cut by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, and Roy Orbison. There's also a lot of the pioneering electric blues cut by label head Sam Phillips before he made rockabilly Sun's focus, including sides by Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, Junior Parker, and James Cotton. Then there are the interesting small hits and flops by minor rockabilly figures like Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Malcolm Yelvington, Onie Wheeler, and Carl Mann…
The Fab T-Birds were considered the best bar band to come out of Austin, Texas, in the late '70s. Which is saying a lot, since we're talking about a musical hotbed. Frontman and harmonica player Kim Wilson and Stevie Ray Vaughan's older brother, Jimmie Vaughan, melded together two of Austin's favorite sounds–blues and rock–scoring a major-label deal and eventually becoming the only band to be produced, at separate times, by both Rockpile leaders, Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. You won't find the Edmunds stuff here, nor "Tough Enough," their one Top 40 hit. Still, these tracks are taken from the group's first three Chrysalis LPs as well as their Tacoma indie-label debut, the albums most aficionados still consider their best.
Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Graceland, Paul Simon's groundbreaking album that continues to influence and inspire generations. Following its Sundance Film Festival premiere in the US, the Joe Berlinger-directed documentary Under African Skies, chronicling the creation and lasting influence of Graceland, it has its UK premiere at Sundance London. The documentary garnered critical acclaim on the film festival circuit with screenings at SXSW 2012, where it received an Audience Award, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival. To help commemorate the anniversary and celebrate the indelible musical legacy of Graceland, this is a special Graceland 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition Box Set with two CDs and two DVDs including the re-mastered original album, audio narrative The Story of 'Graceland as told by Paul Simon, Under African Skies, documentary film with extended interviews, the original 1987 African Concert from Zimbabwe, three original music videos and the iconic Saturday Night Live performance of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"; replicas of an original Graceland poster, handwritten lyrics pad; deluxe 80-page book featuring new and archival photos and interviews with Paul Simon.
The recorded legacy of Elvis Presley continues to be discovered by new generations that never saw him or heard him perform live. It's hard to appreciate that he started so much of what we take for granted now in popular music. Until 1956, the teenagers of suburban America, and the rest of the world, had to endure ditties by Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como but everything was about to be tossed upside down. On January 28 on a cold night in New York, Elvis took America by storm as he appeared on CBS-TV's Stage Show hosted by Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey. On February 4 for his second appearance he sang a song that literally changed the world of popular music "Heartbreak Hotel". Its unique sound and style literally blew everything before it away while at the same time inducing the blueprint for everything that was to come; by April, it would be #1 on Billboard.
The King of Rock & Roll's 1968 Christmas television special and corresponding LP needed no other title than ELVIS (emblazoned in letters as tall as the record itself), but it became enshrined as "The '68 Comeback Special." During the late '60s, several years removed from live performance of any kind, Elvis had become something previously unimaginable: safe. His recorded output and material were strictly controlled to maximize profits, his appearances were limited to movie theaters, and only his friends saw the uninhibited rebel that had shocked America during the mid-'50s.
This is the definitive collection: all 711 master recordings as released during Elvis’ lifetime, mastered from the original analog master tapes where available. Each recording has been carefully restored to achieve the best sound reproduction ever without compromising the audio quality of the original master. The collection also contains 103 additional rare recordings and a 240-page hardbound book featuring an annotated discography, original album artwork, rare and classic photos, a complete song index and an essay by Peter Guralnick. Housed in a beautiful, limited edition display case, THE COMPLETE ELVIS PRESLEY MASTERS is an indispensable piece of music history and the one collection no true connoisseur should be without.