Retro R&B, old-school punk, jam-band legends, a slew of veteran singer-songwriters, grunge nostalgia and even vintage comedy — next week’s big albums are definitely giving off a classic vibe. Or maybe I’m just old. Either way, here’s the skinny:
Leon Bridges
Gold-Diggers Sound
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Gold-Diggers Sound is the third album from Grammy-winning R&B recording artist and songwriter Leon Bridges. The album, which Leon spent over two years conceptualizing, writing and recording, features Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin and Ink. Gold-Diggers Sound is an album birthed from extended late nights at the Los Angeles speakeasy and studio of the same name. The album celebrates Leon’s immersive experience of creating music in the same East Hollywood room where he lived, worked and drank over the course of two years. What began as nightly all-night jam sessions where Leon and his fellow musicians could just vibe and let loose away from crowds, cameras and structured studio schedules, quickly began to form into what he realized was an album. The soulful collaboration between Leon as an artist and the space itself was so encompassing that he chose to name the album after the soon-to-be legendary complex.”
The Brothers
March 10, 2020 / Madison Square Garden / New York, NY
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Brothers — Jaimoe, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones, joined by Duane Trucks, Reese Wynans and — celebrated 50 years of music by The Allman Brothers Band at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 10, 2020. This one-time concert event was a celebration of The Allman Brothers Band’s illustrious career. It notably marks the first time in more than five years that these legendary players were together on stage to perform their iconic hits, and the first time since the passing of founding members Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks.”
Jackson Browne
Downhill From Everywhere
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Songwriting is a mysterious thing,” says Jackson Browne. “Sometimes it feels a bit like consulting the oracle.” Take a listen to Downhill From Everywhere, Browne’s first new album in six years, and you might begin to suspect that he’s speaking quite literally. Though the songs here were recorded prior to the tumultuous events of the past year, the collection feels remarkably prescient, grappling with truth and justice, respect and dignity, doubt and longing, all while maintaining a defiant sense of optimism that seems tailor-made for these turbulent times. Like much of Browne’s illustrious catalog, Downhill From Everywhere is fueled by a search — for connection, for purpose, for self — but there’s a heightened sense of urgency written between the lines, a recognition of the sand slipping through the hourglass that elevates the stakes at every turn.”
David Crosby
For Free
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On his new album For Free, David Crosby shares the latest offering from a life devoted to the pure and powerful alchemy of music. Arriving just a month before his 80th birthday, For Free finds the folk-rock legend continuing to tap into the tremendous surge of creativity he’s experienced since the making of his acclaimed 2016 album Lighthouse, this time collaborating with the likes of Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, and Grammy-winning artist Sarah Jarosz. With a transcendent quality that lies somewhere between poetry, prayer, and wild-eyed rock-and-roll, For Free yet again reveals Crosby’s rare gift for imparting essential truths with both undeniable warmth and a profound sense of wonder.”
Rodney Crowell
Triage
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This new collection of songs was written during the great political, climate and economic upheaval that has marked recent years. The noise of that chaos encouraged veteran singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell to go inside for solace and answers. The result is this series of songs that contend with these themes but approach them from a place of healing love and solution. That they are being released while we find ourselves walking through a global pandemic, is a gift of perfect timing. Crowell says: “Near the end of 2018, I began scribbling the first few lines that would become songs on yet another album. With monotheism, climate change, and cultural divide foremost on my mind, adequately framing the healing power of Universal Love became my primary goal. I’d learned from experience that writing and recording songs with the desire to make a difference, be it small or large, in an increasingly complex world is a tricky business. Steering clear of self-importance while, at the same time, believing deeply in what one has to say, calls for striking a near perfect balance.”
Descendents
9th & Walnut
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 2002, Descendents’ original four-piece lineup — bassist Tony Lombardo, drummer Bill Stevenson, guitarist Frank Navetta (d. 2008), and vocalist Milo Aukerman — entered the studio to finally record the songs with which they first forged their genre-defining sound. The 18-track result, 9th & Walnut, features new versions of the band’s earliest material, written from 1977 through 1980. “9th & Walnut is where our first practice room was, in Frank’s sister’s garage,” Stevenson recalls. “His brother and sister lived there, and The Pagan Babies, Frank’s band with his brothers, played there too. Some of these songs were written when Frank was only 14 years old.” When the band reconvened to record them, it was just like the earliest days: “We just fell right into our old mode. It was so natural.”
Mudhoney
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the spring of 1991, Mudhoney made Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. The resulting album is a whirlwind of the band’s influences at the time: the fierce ’60s garage rock of their Pacific Northwest predecessors The Sonics and The Lollipop Shoppe, the gnashing post-hardcore of Drunks With Guns, the heavy guitar moods of Neil Young, the lysergic workouts of Spacemen 3 and Hawkwind, the gloomy existentialism of Zounds, and the satirical ferocity of ‘80s hardcore punk. The quartet’s special alchemy meant these fond homages never slid into pastiche. Ultimately, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge epitomised the best of Mudhoney: here was a band reconnecting with its purest instincts, and in the process reinventing itself. This 30th anniversary edition, remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, stands as testimony to the creative surge that drove them in this period. The album sessions yielded a clutch of material that would subsequently appear on B-sides, compilations, and split-singles. This edition includes all those tracks, and a slew of previously unreleased songs, including the entire five-track Music Source session.”
Andy Partridge
My Failed Songwriting Career Vol. 1
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “When XTC finally downed guitars after Wasp Star, their last album to date, one of Andy’s ideas about what to do next was to become a songwriter in the traditional sense, writing songs for others. Songs were written. Songs were sent. Sometimes speculatively, often specifically requested, many tailor-made for an artist’s requirements. Still, songs are like children. A songwriter gives birth to them, feeds them, watches them grow before sending them out into the world. As a loving parent, Andy brought them all back together, re-Andy-fied them and buffed them up in his home studio, et voila! Here is the first selection of song siblings that resulted from all of this work, four brothers and sisters, happily reunited and presented as a family group aural snapshot for your entertainment and delight.”
Richard Pryor
Live At The Comedy Store, 1973
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After the release of his self-titled debut album in 1968, Richard Pryor further sharpened his skills but never stopped pushing forward. In preparation for a show in D.C. and a club date in San Francisco (that would produce the top-selling That Nigger’s Crazy) Pryor booked four nights at the relatively new Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard to woodshed new material. It was never meant to be heard beyond its original audience, but luckily tape not only rolled, but survived. Fourteen tracks were issued in 2013 as a limited-edition promotional CD. Six additional performances found their way into the public as bonus material on the retrospectives …And It’s Deep Too!: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968–1992) and Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966-1974). Now, all 20 tracks are pulled together for the first time.
