Thursday, March 05, 2020

Record Store Day: Omnivore Recordings announces titles featuring previously unheard music from Andrew Gold, America, New Riders of the Purple Sage

This just came my way and this Record Store Day is shaping up to be a great one...




LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Omnivore Recordings has announced its titles for Record Store Day 2020, to be held April 18 at brick-and-mortar record retailers throughout the U.S. and around the world. Released for the occasion will be three titles of previously unheard music: Andrew Gold: Something New: Unreleased Gold on gold vinyl; America: Heritage II: Demos/Alternate takes 1971-1976; and New Riders of the Purple Sage: Field Trip.
 
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the U.S. and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place in 2008. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica. 

It is a day for the people who make up the world of the record store — the staff, the customers, and the artists — to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned stores play in their communities. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day.

Andrew Gold – Something New: Unreleased Gold
 
In the mid-1970s, Andrew Gold’s skills as a musician and an arranger were ubiquitous, appearing on some of the biggest records of the decade by artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkel, and James Taylor. By 1977, he had reached the Billboard Top 10 as an artist and writer with his self-penned hit, “Lonely Boy.” In the mid-’80s and early ’90s, Andrew’s song “Thank You for Being a Friend” was used as the theme for the hugely successful NBC-TV sitcom The Golden Girls. From 1992–1999, Andrew was the TV theme voice of the Paul Reiser-Helen Hunt comedy star Mad About You, and in 2019, Andrew’s “Spooky Scary Skeletons” found new life thanks to a viral dance craze on TikTok that has reached more than 250 million people!
 
But in 1973, like so many singer songwriters in Los Angeles, Gold was just another talented guy looking for a record deal. Brought to Clover Recorders by producer Chuck Plotkin (Bruce Springsteen), Gold set out to lay down the many songs he had written that he’d hoped would land him a recording contract. Over a period of many months, Plotkin and Gold recorded numerous songs that would ultimately land him a deal with Asylum Records, which released his first album in the fall of 1975. Interestingly, none of the songs recorded in 1973 would appear on any of Andrew’s four solo albums over the next several years ... until now!

This set of previously unreleased music, including a gold vinyl disc for Record Store Day, contains liner notes by Grammy® Award-winning producer Peter Asher. The CD and Digital versions will be available one week later on April 24, 2020.

America – Heritage II: Demos/Alternate Takes 1971-1976
 
In 2017, Omnivore Recordings released America’s Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973. And now, due to critical acclaim and commercial demand, here’s the follow-up, Heritage II: Demos/Alternate Takes 1971-1976.
 
This collection picks up where the first volume left off, centering mostly on the beginning of the Sir George Martin era. Martin produced seven albums by America; Heritage II focuses in on demos and alternate takes from the HolidayHearts, and Hideaway albums from 1974-1976. Hear, for the very first time, an unreleased Gerry Beckley song, “Mandy”; demos of songs from Holiday (“What Does It Matter” and “Mad Dog”), outtakes from Hearts (“Simple Life”) and alternate mixes from Hideaway (“Amber Cascades” and “Today’s the Day”).
 
In addition to these gems, there’s a real rarity from 1971, an acoustic instrumental jam by Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek entitled “Jameroony,” lasting nearly 13 minutes. Unearthed from the band’s archives, this track has been rumored for years but only just found recently. An early ’70s soft rock fan’s dream come true.
 
This collection, containing liner notes by band member Beckley, spotlights a new direction in the band’s sound as Sir George Martin takes the reins and leads them to many more platinum albums and hit records. Please enjoy this alternate walk down memory lane as you immerse yourself in the guilty pleasures of America!
 
A CD version of America’s Heritage II: Demos/Alternate Takes 1971-1976 will be available April 24, 2020.

New Riders of the Purple Sage – Field Trip
 
With Billboard magazine hailing the New Riders of the Purple Sage as “the definitive band of the country-rock genre,” 1972 was a year of major growth for the band. By the time summer rolled around, Buddy Cage (who passed away this year) was now firmly entrenched as Jerry Garcia’s replacement on pedal steel guitar, and the band’s second studio album, Powerglide, was getting rave reviews. On the live front, they were beginning to fill concert halls across the U.S. while continuing to emerge from the shadows of the Grateful Dead with an intoxicating mix of classic and original American songwriting from the worlds of country, rock, bluegrass, and soul.
 
August 27, 1972 found the New Riders once again on the bill with the Grateful Dead for what turned out to be one of the more legendary events in this subculture’s history. On the grounds of what is now the Oregon Country Fair, Chuck Kesey (brother of author and Merry Prankster icon Ken Kesey) put together a benefit concert — which quickly became known as the “Field Trip” — for the local Springfield Creamery. As fellow Prankster Ken Babbs recalls, “No one ever suspected it would become a historic event with an attendance of 20,000 on the hottest day ever — they ran out of water, the guitars warped in the heat and now everyone you talk to, hundreds of thousands, were there on that all-time greatest most spectacular day.”
 
Taken from the original 16-track master tapes, Field Trip is a crystallized moment in time-capturing all the elements of the day along with the thumping and driving energy of a smokin’ set delivered by the New Riders. Early versions of “Groupie,” “Whiskey” and “Linda” are offered, along with a blazing “Whatcha Gonna Do.” Once again, the band kicks out the jams with bassist Dave Torbert leading the way on the classics “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Willie and the Hand Jive.”
 
The 2-LP set was produced by NPRS historian Rob Bleetstein and contains liner notes by Ken Babbs.
 
Track listings
 
Andrew Gold
 
Side One:
1. Something New (Band Version) 
2. Come Down To Me (Solo Demo)
3. What You Do Is What You See (Solo Demo) 
4. The World Tomorrow Brings (Solo Demo)
 5. You Are Somewhere Within Me (Solo Demo)
6. Sometimes When A Man’s On His Own (Solo Demo) 
 
Side Two:
1. Prisoner (Band Version) 
2. Ten Years Behind Me (Solo Demo) 
3. Timothy Corey (Solo Demo) 
4. Almost Love (Solo Demo)
5. Penny Arcade (Solo Demo) 
6. Don’t Bring Me Down (Solo Demo)
All tracks previously unissued

 
America
 
Side One:
1. Cornwall Blank (Demo #2)
2. Jameroony (Acoustic Guitar Jam)
3. Mandy (Demo)
 
Side Two:
1. What Does It Matter (Demo)
2. You (Vocal/Strings Excerpt)
3. Mad Dog (Demo/Track Mix With Backing Vocals)
4. Simple Life (Alternate Mix)
5. Lovely Night (Demo)
6. Today’s The Day (Alternate Mix)
7. Amber Cascades (Alternate Mix/Take 3)
8. Letter (Alternate Mix)
All Tracks Previously Unissued
 
New Riders of the Purple Sage
 
Side One:
1. Truck Drivin’ Man 2. Rainbow
3. Lochinvar
4. Groupie
5. Stage Announcement – White Bird Tent
6. Whatcha Gonna Do 
 
Side Two:
1. Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)
2. Hello Mary Lou
3. Stage Announcement –Field Tripping
4. Whiskey
5. Stage Announcement – Salt Tabs & Blue Acid
6. Runnin’ Back To You
 
Side Three:
1. I Don’t Need No Doctor 2. Linda
3. Lousiana Lady
 
Side Four:
1. Last Lonely Eagle
2. Willie & The Hand Jive

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