Time of Legend

Broadcast Easter night 2018 on NBC, this electric live presentation of the Tim Rice/ Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera chronicling the final week in the life of Christ offers unforgettable performances by John Legend in the lead, as well as Sara Bareilles (Mary Magdalene), Brandon Victor Dixon (Judas), and Alice Cooper (King Herod). All the favorites from the score–“Heaven on Their Minds,” "I Don't Know How to Love Him," "Gethsemane," "Everything's Alright," and the rest–are memorably presented.

This double-disc reissue documents one of the more curious careers in country music. Both 1978's White Mansions and 1980's The Legend of Jesse James are Southern song cycles that were conceived by Britain's Paul Kennerley, then an unknown songwriter who somehow recruited a high-profile cast for each. A Civil War saga from the Southern perspective, White Mansions suffers from caricature and cliché but benefits from signature contributions by Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Eric Clapton. Jesse James has more focus and narrative momentum, with Levon Helm, Johnny Cash, and Emmylou Harris in lead roles. Though the albums are more noteworthy for artistic ambition than memorable material, Kennerley subsequently became a successful Nashville songwriter.