Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sights and Sounds: Rush, Leonard Cohen, Woody Guthrie

Rush, Leonard Cohen, and a slate of artists honoring Woody Guthrie all have wonderful collections set to arrive soon. Here are several news releases worth sharing!

Rush Unveil "TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND"; 2-CD Set Recorded During Legendary Trio's Recent World Tour; Band Simultaneously Release Live Version of Landmark Album "MOVING PICTURES" on Vinyl; "TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND" and "MOVING PICTURES: LIVE 2011" Will Both Be Available November 8


Legendary rock band Rush have announced details for the first offerings through their recently announced partnership with Roadrunner Records. On November 8, Anthem/Roadrunner will simultaneously release a two-disc live album entitled TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND as well as MOVING PICTURES: LIVE 2011 on vinyl and digital formats.

Captured in April at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena during the renowned trio's extensive Time Machine World Tour, TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND marks the band's first live album recorded at a U.S. show, a deliberate nod of gratitude to the first city to support Rush on its radio airwaves. The wildly popular tour featured a set filled with classic hits, fan favorites, and a glimpse into Rush's forthcoming 20th studio album CLOCKWORK ANGELS. As a centerpiece for the concerts, the band performed their landmark album MOVING PICTURES in its entirety -- a first in the band's long and illustrious career. Rave reviews of the tour included The Hollywood Reporter's declaration that "the current Time Machine jaunt is nothing less than a must see... for nearly three hours, with intermission, Rush proved why it remains among rock's elite live acts." Full track listing for TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND attached below.

MOVING PICTURES: LIVE 2011 marks the first live recording of the band's most successful album to date. Originally released in 1981, this year marks the 30th anniversary of MOVING PICTURES, which features some of Rush's most well-known songs like "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight," and "YYZ."


In related news, Rush is also releasing Time Machine 2011: Live In Cleveland on BluRay and DVD formats on November 8 via Rounder Records in the U.S. and Eagle Rock Entertainment abroad. VH1 will be airing a 2-hour concert culled from the footage as part of their annual "Rushashana" program on September 29. This fall, Rush will be returning to the studio to resume work on their highly anticipated 20th studio album, CLOCKWORK ANGELS due out in 2012.

With more than 40 million records sold worldwide and countless sold-out tours, Rush -- Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart -- is not only one of the most inventive and compelling groups in rock history, but remains one of the most popular. The RIAA has certified Rush for the third most consecutive gold/platinum studio albums by a rock band, topped only by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Rush's vast catalog includes such classics as 1974's self-titled debut, 1976's 2112, 1981's MOVING PICTURES, 1996's TEST FOR ECHO, and 2002's VAPOR TRAILS. Rush's most recent studio album, 2007's SNAKES & ARROWS, debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, marking the band's highest chart debut since 1993, as well as their eleventh top 10 album in the U.S. In addition to their commercial success, Rush has also been recognized with a number of Juno Awards and multiple Grammy nominations, including one for the acclaimed documentary Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage at this year's gala event. Enjoying a recent pop culture renaissance, Rush made a rare television appearance -- their first in over 30 years -- on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" and a memorable cameo in the film "I Love You, Man." A career-chronicling Rolling Stone feature summed up the renowned rock trio's continuing artistic vitality by observing, "It's true that Rush doesn't mean today what it did in '76 or even '96. It may mean more."

(TRACK LISTING BELOW)

RUSH
"TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND"
(ANTHEM/ROADRUNNER)
Available November 8, 2011

DISC ONE

1. The Spirit Of Radio
2. Time Stand Still
3. Presto
4. Stick It Out
5. Workin' Them Angels
6. Leave That Thing Alone
7. Faithless
8. BU2B
9. Free Will
10. Marathon
11. Subdivisions
12. Tom Sawyer
13. Red Barchetta
14. YYZ
15. Limelight

DISC 2

1. The Camera Eye
2. Witch Hunt
3. Vital Signs
4. Caravan
5. Moto Perpetuo (featuring Love For Sale)
6. O'Malley's Break
7. Closer To The Heart
8. 2112 Overture/The Temples of Syrinx
9. Far Cry
10. La Villa Strangiato
11. Working Man


Leonard Cohen: THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION

17-ALBUM DELUXE BOX SET GATHERS HIS LIFETIME OF STUDIO AND CONCERT RECORDINGS, FROM 1967 TO 2009

MINI-LP REPLICA CD JACKETS HOUSE EVERY ALBUM - FROM HIS COLUMBIA DEBUT SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN (1967) THROUGH 2009's SONGS FROM THE ROAD (CHRONICLE OF 2008-2009 TOURS)

Every album has been remastered from the original analogue master tapes
Limited edition release via www.LeonardCohen.com available starting October 11, 2011, through Columbia/Legacy


Spanning 42 years of studio and concert albums released from 1967 to 2009, THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION box set gathers together a lifetime of recordings from Leonard Cohen. Every album has been remastered from the original analogue master tapes. Cohen celebrates his 77th birthday on September 21, 2011.

THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION contains all 17 of Cohen's albums, each in a mini-LP replica CD jacket of the original release. Along with these, a lavish 36-page booklet will include all discographical annotations and recording information, as well as a brilliant 1,300-word essay by Pico Iyer. This limited edition box set is available now for pre-order via www.LeonardCohen.com in advance of the October 11th release date through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

From the 1960s to the '00s, the transcendent beauty of Leonard Cohen unfolds over the course of THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION. Individually, the 17 albums in the box set comprise:


•SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN (released December 1967);
•SONGS FROM A ROOM (April 1969);
•SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE (March 1971);
•LIVE SONGS (April 1973);
•NEW SKIN FOR THE OLD CEREMONY (August 1974);
•DEATH OF A LADIES' MAN (November 1977);
•RECENT SONGS (September 1979);
•VARIOUS POSITIONS (February 1985);
•I'M YOUR MAN (February 1988);
•THE FUTURE (November 1992);
•COHEN LIVE – LEONARD COHEN IN CONCERT (June 1994);
•FIELD COMMANDER COHEN: TOUR OF 1979 (February 2001);
•TEN NEW SONGS (October 2001);
•DEAR HEATHER (October 2004);
•LIVE IN LONDON (March 2009);
•LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT 1970 (October 2009);
•SONGS FROM THE ROAD (October 2009).

"Cohen sits outside every category," writes Iyer, "and throws together high culture and street slang, Buddha and the blues, so you never know what's coming next... He's lived in Nashville, in L.A. (and in the high dark mountains behind L.A. at the Mount Baldy Zen Center) as well as on the carless Greek island of Hydra, known for its donkeys and faraway monasteries. He's inspired filmmakers from Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Oliver Stone and acted as the head of Interpol on Miami Vice. He's written a classic Old Testament book of psalms and sung on Duets with Elton John. Everything you know of him is wrong."

Pico Iyer, who annotated Columbia/Legacy's The Essential Leonard Cohen double-CD collection nearly a decade ago, is a confidante of Cohen, who personally chose him for the job. The Oxford-born and Eton-educated author, essayist, novelist, biographer, and world-renowned travel writer has contributed articles to Conde Nast Traveler, Civilization, the New York Review of Books, Sports Illustrated, and the Times of London. Iyer's books, which have been translated into many languages and published around the world, include Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, the novels Cuba and the Night and Abandon.

As Iyer makes clear, Cohen's four decades-plus odyssey at Columbia Records is impossible to categorize or pin down. Prolific and productive, he has shepherded at least three generations of music fans along on his journeys. Sabbaticals and hiatuses have ensued, always marked by album comebacks and concert tours that have left his followers breathless and awestruck.

"You'll meet the earnest troubadour," writes Iyer, "with 'one hand on a hexagram and one hand on a girl' and you'll see the grave old philosopher who could be met on the backstreets of Jerusalem. You'll hear the sound of a soul, alone, raising a cry to the heavens, and that of the silky man of the world accompanied by a chorus of female voices. You'll think you're listening to one of the great ironists of rock 'n' roll -- 'We met when we were almost young' -- and then you'll hear him calling out for surrender."

www.legacyrecordings.com


WOODY GUTHRIE NOTE OF HOPE LAUNCHES CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION NEXT WEEK 9/27/11

NOTE OF HOPE OUT SEPTEMBER 27, 2011


Woody Guthrie's Words Inspire Contributors

Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Kurt Elling, Michael Franti, Nellie McKay, Tom Morello, Van Dyke Parks, Madeleine Peyroux, Lou Reed, Pete Seeger,Studs Terkel, Tony Trischka, Rob Wasserman And Chris Whitley

Collection Will Be Amazon.com's "Daily Deal" On September 26th


As the centennial of his birth approaches, the words of Woody Guthrie - America's greatest folksinger - seem more relevant than ever on the forthcoming album Note of Hope (429 Records). The Amazon.com Mp3 Store (www.Amazonmp3.com) will make Note of Hope the "Daily Deal" on September 26, 2011 and MSN.com will host a listening party on September 27, the day of its release. Jackson Browne's radio single from the album, "You Know the Night," is already topping AAA radio charts across the U.S.

"I was startled by how down to earth, funny and sophisticated Woody's lyrics were. Urban. They could have been written yesterday," says Lou Reed, who hits a nerve with a first-person tale of a man wandering Coney Island and contemplating "The Debt I Owe."


Reed is one of a stellar group of artists who collaborated with GRAMMY®-winning bassist Rob Wasserman to create Note of Hope's 12 tracks, which are based on primarily unpublished words and writings penned by Guthrie between 1942 and 1954 while he was living in New York City and Brooklyn.


Jackson Browne recently explained to Rolling Stone how Guthrie's 30-page notebook entry about the evening he met Marjorie Mazia, his second wife, became the nearly 15-minute "You Know the Night." You can get the details and hear both the album version and the 4-minute radio edit at http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/listen-jackson-browne-creates-epic-love-song-from-woody-guthries-diary-20110826.


"Woody Guthrie has been hugely inspirational to my solo Nightwatchman work," notes Tom Morello. "'Revolutionary Mind' is a great lyric combining fury and humor, a story of love and longing in the midst of a class war throwdown."


Michael Franti brings to light another side of Guthrie with the earthy "Union Love Juice." "Woody is known for his story telling, and his socially conscious lyrics, but this song came from a poem which is about him expressing his sexual freedom," observes Franti.


"I love 'Old Folks' because it's beautiful and noble, in a way only the very old and nature can be. It's about the essence of life - so many otherwise perceptive people fall into the facile trap of youth worship. Woody's song is an honest breeze blowing through," says Nellie McKay, who confesses that, as she wrote the song: "I kept wanting to ask his advice."


"It was in deep Brooklyn that I heard my father tear up and crackle while singing (or song-speaking) the lyrics to 'This Land Is Your Land.' 'As far as I'm concerned, that is the American national anthem,' he said, "recalls Madeleine Peyroux, who contributes the sultry, politically charged "Wild Card in the Hole." "At this later time in life, I feel as close to the new songs of Woody as I did to my father's wet cheeks."


The collection kicks off with the evocative Van Dyke Parks' instrumental arrangement "The Note of Hope." Parks observes: "Guthrie fueled the counter-culture of the '60s. If it weren't for his prime example of unbartered love, courageous songsmiths like Phil Ochs et al would not have had a template to contemplate."


Ani DiFranco, Kurt Elling, Pete Seeger, Studs Terkel, Tony Trischka and Chris Whitley also contributed to Note of Hope, which The Australian hailed as "an extraordinary achievement that defies generic pigeonholing. "The release is the first of a series of events leading up to the 2012 centennial celebration of Guthrie's birth. Note of Hope was conceived by Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, who asked Rob Wasserman to lead the project. You can check out their interviews with American Songwriter at:


http://www.americansongwriter.com/2011/08/nora-guthrie-discusses-note-of-hope-woodys-legacy/


Woody Guthrie was born on July 14th, 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma, and wrote over 3,000 songs in his lifetime. In February 2012, The GRAMMY Museum, in conjunction with Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. and the Woody Guthrie Archives, will kick off a yearlong celebration that will include tribute concerts at the Brady Theater in Tulsa, OK (March 10, 2012) and at L.A. Live in Los Angeles (April 14, 2012). Details on these and other centennial events can be found at www.woody100.com.

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