A musical tour of the universe: Mystery Science Theater 3000, 'Southern Family,' Malawi Mouse Boys

A wide range of new releases truly celebrate the far-flung corners of this world and beyond.

DVD Title: Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXV (Shout! Factory)
You might like if you enjoy: Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic
Tell me more: With the impending re-launch of the comedy sci-fi classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 later this year, now is a great time to rediscover original episodes of the Peabody Award-winning series (also known as "MST3K") that ran 11 seasons on The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central and later the Sci-Fi Channel. The newly-released Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXV features the Joel, Mike, and their robot pals Tom Servo and Crow offering up a galactic spaceship full of quips while watching four B-movies. "Being From Another Planet" will be of particular interest to music fans. The crew of the Satellite of Love delivers dozens of zingers related to all things music; where else will you find references to Abba, Jerry Garcia, Neil Diamond, the Alan Parsons Project, the Monkees, the Bee Gees, Jackson Browne, ZZ Top and even composer John Cage that come amidst the showing of a bad science fiction flick? A bonus feature includes a new interview with composer Richard Band who scored the the film (originally titled "Time Walker"). Other previously-unreleased episodes featured on the new MST3K set include "Teenage Cave Man," "12 to the Moon," and "Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell." Information: shoutfactory.com.

Purchase 'Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXXV' on DVD here



Artist: Enrique Bunbury
DVD Title: El Camino Mas Largo (Eagle Rock Entertainment/700g Films)
You might like if you enjoy: Heroes del Silencio, David Bowie, Alejandro Sanz
Tell me more: American audiences are just catching up to Spanish rocker Enrique Bunbury. Originally a member of the legendary Rock en Español outfit Heroes del Silencio that enjoyed tremendous success throughout the 1980s and early '90s in their native Spain and around the globe, the native of Zaragoza, Spain has enjoyed subsequent success as a solo artist. The aptly-titled DVD title El Camino Mas Largo ("The Longest Road") chronicles Bunbury's 2010 tour, which kicked off on Nov. 11, 2010 when he performed to more than 90,000 fans in a single show in Mexico City; Bunbury's trek eventually brought the Spanish singer to the U.S. with his wife and pet cat in tow for what would ultimately prove to be an experience that was as much about examining his own life as it was reaching new audiences in America. This film (the DVD includes behind-the-scenes, the official trailing, deleted scenes and more) will obviously be of interest to fans of Bunbury, but will likely interest lovers of Spanish rock, world music and compelling music documentaries too. Information: eagle-rock.com.

Purchase 'El Camino Mas Largo' here

Artists: John Paul White, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown, Jamey Johnson, more
Title: Southern Family (Elektra Records)
You might like if you enjoy: Americana, the Civil Wars, Shooter Jennings
Tell me more: "Southern Family" is the latest collection released through the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Spotlight Music program; the 12-track collection features a slew of fantastic recordings showcasing some of today's top-tier Americana and country music artists. Highlights (and there are many!) include John Paul White's affecting "Simple Song," Zac Brown's traditional country-mining "Grandma's Garden," Brandy Clark's beautiful "I Cried" and Jamey Johnson's self-penned acoustic gem "Mama's Table." In addition to the fine musical offerings, the collection comes with recipes from four of the artists (including John Paul White's Black Walnut Cake and Miranda Lambert's Mama's Meatloaf). Information: "Southern Family" is available exclusively at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store locations and online at crackerbarrel.com.

Artist: Malawi Mouse Boys
Title: Forever is 4 You (Omnivore Recordings)
You might like if you enjoy: Vusi Mahlasela's "Say Africa"
Tell me more: As infectious as it is exotic, Malawi-based group Malawi Mouse Boys' album Forever Is 4 You (set for release on April 8, 2016) has such a beautiful spirit it won't matter whether or not you understand the intoxicating Chichewa language used by the singers. Produced by Grammy winner Ian Brennan, Forever Is 4 You is the gospel group's third album release but marks the first time one of their discs has been released in the U.S. There is truly songs that are joyful ("Ndiyenda Nkuunika" which translates into "I Walk in the Light" and "Zikutamanda" meaning "It Is"). There are times when the material turns more melancholy (such as with the sparse "Ndatopa Nawe" meaning "I'm Tired of You"), but even there the spirit of the Malawi Mouse Boys shines through with pure elation. Information: omnivorerecordings.com.

Purchase 'Forever Is 4 You' via Amazon


Robert Kinsler

Inbox Update: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® will release Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition on Jan. 27, 2014

Americana and country music fans will want to get their copy of this release later this month!

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® Will Release Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition, an Exclusive and Expanded Version of the Critically-Acclaimed Vince Gill and Paul Franklin Album, on January 27

Beginning Today, the 14-Song CD will be Available for Pre-Order at CrackerBarrel.com

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® will release Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition, an exclusive and expanded edition of the critically-acclaimed album from 20x GRAMMY Award-winning artist Vince Gill and famed steel guitarist, Paul Franklin, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2014. The album pays tribute to the “Bakersfield” sound by performing songs from two of Bakersfield’s favorite musical sons, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition will contain four additional songs (for a total of 14) and will retail for $11.99 at all Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® locations and online at crackerbarrel.com. One day later, the digital version of Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition will be available for purchase via iTunes and Amazon.com on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

Beginning today, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® will offer Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition CDs for pre-order exclusively at crackerbarrel.com. All CDs sold during the pre-order period will be shipped to purchasers on Jan. 27, the official day of release.

Gill and Franklin shared producing duties on the album and were backed by a stellar band made up of John Hobbs on piano; Greg Morrow on drums; Willie Weeks and Brad Albin on bass; J. T. Corenflos on electric rhythm guitar; and Time Jumpers Kenny Sears, Larry Franklin, and Joe Spivey on fiddles and Dawn Sears on harmony vocals. Gill played all the acoustic and electric guitar fills and solos.

“This project has been a labor of love for me and Paul,” said Gill, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. “Paul and I both love the ‘Bakersfield’ sound that Buck and Merle represent. We are excited that Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® approached us to create this special Deluxe Edition of Bakersfield because it allowed us to go back and record some additional songs we think everyone will enjoy.”

“I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: this may be Vince’s greatest project,” Franklin declares. “What a showcase! I’ve heard him sing for 30 years, but he sings licks on this record I never heard before.”

“We are proud to offer the exclusive Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition album from Vince and Paul to our guests,” said Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Marketing Manager Julie Craig. “We hope our guests, as well as music lovers everywhere, will be excited that Vince and Paul could dip back into that well and add four additional songs to what is already a classic album.”

Full track listing for Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition:

Title					Made Famous By
1. “Foolin’ Around”					Buck Owens (Written by Harlan Howard and Buck Owens)
2. “Branded Man”					Merle Haggard (Written by Merle Haggard)
3. “Together Again”					Buck Owens (Written by Buck Owens)
4. “The Bottle Let Me Down”					Merle Haggard (Written by Merle Haggard)
5. “He Don’t Deserve You Anymore”					Buck Owens (Written by Arty Lange and Buck Owens)
6. “I Can’t Be Myself”					Merle Haggard (Written by Merle Haggard)
7. “Nobody’s Fool But Yours”					Buck Owens (Written by Buck Owens)
8. “Holding Things Together”					Merle Haggard (Written by Bob Trotten and Merle Haggard)
9. “But I Do”					Buck Owens (Written by Tommy Collins)
10. “The Fightin’ Side of Me”					Merle Haggard (Written by Merle Haggard)
11. “Your Tender Loving Care”*					Buck Owens (Written by Buck Owens)
12. “Buckin’ Merle”*					Instrumental (Written by Vince Gill)
13. “I Threw Away the Rose”*					Merle Haggard (Written by Merle Haggard)
14. “High on a Hilltop”*					Merle Haggard (written by Tommy Collins)

(*) Denotes exclusive tracks for the expanded album available through Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®.

One of the four additional tracks on Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition is the instrumental “Buckin’ Merle,” which Gill wrote as a tribute to Haggard and Owens and the “Bakersfield” sound.

The original version of Bakersfield was released by MCA Nashville on July 13, 2013 and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart. National Public Radio (NPR) recently named it one of their Top Ten Albums of 2013.

About the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® Exclusive Music Program

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin’s Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition is the latest CD release in the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® exclusive music program. Since 2005, Cracker Barrel has released CDs with a wide variety of artists, some of which have debuted in the top three spots on a range of Billboard’s charts including Top DVD Music Videos, Top Country Albums, Top Contemporary Christian Albums and Top Bluegrass Albums. The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® exclusive music program includes CDs with Alabama, Rodney Atkins, Mandy Barnett, Clint Black, Jason Michael Carroll, Steven Curtis Chapman, Dailey & Vincent, The Charlie Daniels Band, Ronnie Dunn, Edens Edge, Sara Evans, Bill Gaither, Montgomery Gentry, Amy Grant, The Grascals, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson, George Jones, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out , Craig Morgan, The Oak Ridge Boys, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs, Aaron Tippin, Randy Travis, Josh Turner, Wynonna and the Zac Brown Band. For details, visit crackerbarrel.com.

About Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. provides a friendly home-away-from-home in its old country stores and restaurants. Guests are cared for like family while relaxing and enjoying real home-style food and shopping that’s surprisingly unique, genuinely fun and reminiscent of America’s country heritage…all at a fair price. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (CBRL) was established in 1969 in Lebanon, Tenn. and operates 625 company-owned locations in 42 states. For more information, visit crackerbarrel.com.

Mandy Barnett pays tribute to Don Gibson on new 'I Can't Stop Loving You' collection

Happy Monday and my best to all those who served on this Veterans Day. Fans of both the late Don Gibson and contemporary country singer Mandy Barnett will want to read today's featured post...

CRACKER BARREL OLD COUNTRY STORE® AND SINGER MANDY BARNETT FULFILL PROMISE TO LEGENDARY DON GIBSON - CD IN STORES NOW!

 

 

Photo credit: Mary Jean Morris

Lebanon, Tenn. – (Nov. 11, 2013) ––Acclaimed vocalist Mandy Barnett’s  CD, I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson, is now available exclusively at all Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® locations, digitally on crackerbarrel.com and with select online retailers.

 

The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® exclusive album release, featuring 12 classic songs, fulfills a promise Barnett made to her friend, Don Gibson (the two are shown together in the photo on the right) that she would one day record an album of his music. It celebrates the Country Music Hall of Fame member’s legacy and coincides with the 10th anniversary of Gibson’s death on Nov. 17, 2003. I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson sells for $11.99.

 

“I am excited the album is out so fans can hear it!” said Barnett. “This project was a labor of love. I became good friends with Don and his wife, Bobbi, a few years before he passed away.  I was so honored that Don asked me to record an album of his songs, and I wanted to create something he would be proud to have his name on. 

“I’m thrilled to release this album with Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®. They were wonderful to work with when I released Winter Wonderland a few years ago, and I’m happy to be back with them again on this project,” Barnett said.

 

“Mandy Barnett is great! She has done a beautiful job with all of Don’s songs,” said his widow, Bobbi Gibson. “Mandy is such a fan of Don’s songwriting and she’s captured the essence of his songs perfectly. I know Don would love this album!”

 

I Can't Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson was produced by Barnett and recorded in Nashville. It features legendary musicians and Country Music Hall of Fame members Harold Bradley, Hargus "Pig" Robbins, and Charlie McCoy, all of whom played on several of Gibson’s original recordings of these songs.

The 12 songs featured on I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson (all written by Gibson) are:

 

1)            “(Yes) I’m Hurting”

2)            “Too Soon To Know”

3)            “Look Who’s Blue”

4)            “Sweet Dreams”

5)            “Just One Time”

6)            “Blue Blue Day”*

7)            “Oh Lonesome Me”

8)            “Oh Such a Stranger”

9)            “Far Far Away”

10)          “I Can’t Stop Loving You”

11)          “Lonesome Number One”

12)          “Legend in My Time”

 

*Features harmony vocals by Alison Krauss

 

“Mandy Barnett has produced an outstanding album that features her amazing vocals and Don Gibson’s timeless songs,” said Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Marketing Manager Julie Craig. “We hope our guests will treasure this CD.”

 

During the week of the album release, Barnett will perform with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center for three nights on Nov. 14-16. For tickets and more information, visit www.nashvillesymphony.org.

 

Gibson, who was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, was a very popular and highly influential country music singer/songwriter in the 1950s and 1960s. As an artist, he charted more than 20 Top 10 hits and released nearly 40 albums between 1958 and 1978 and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry. As a songwriter, he wrote songs such as “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Oh Lonesome Me,” and “Sweet Dreams” (among others) that have become timeless classics and have been recorded by a multitude of artists in a variety of music genres, including Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, Neil Young and others. Gibson considered himself a songwriter who sang, rather than a singer who wrote songs.

 

Crossville, Tenn.-native Barnett has been singing since she was five years old. She possesses a full-bodied voice and vocal style reminiscent of the iconic classic country and pop singers. As a teenager, she starred as Patsy Cline in the stage show “Always….Patsy Cline” at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and has reprised the role several times at the Ryman.Barnett released her self-titled debut album on Asylum Records. Her second album was the Sire Records release I’ve Got a Right to Cry, produced by legendary Owen Bradley. She released a Christmas album in 2010, Winter Wonderland, with Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® and Rounder Records. Barnett’s rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”from that album was prominently featured in the 2012 USA Network television series “Political Animals. In 2011, Barnett released Sweet Dreams, a collection of songs made famous by Cline, on the Opry Music label.

 

Barnett's recordings have achieved much critical acclaim. Rolling Stone, Time, People, and Billboard magazines and The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times are among the many publications that have lauded Barnett's talents.

 

 Barnett tours regularly and is a frequent guest on the Grand Ole Opry. She has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” PBS’s “Sessions at West 54th,” and various other television broadcasts. To learn more, visit www.MandyBarnett.com, follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mandybarnettmusic and on Twitter @mandybarnett.com.

 

About the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® Exclusive Music Program

Mandy Barnett’s I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson is the latest CD release in the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® exclusive music program. Since 2005, Cracker Barrel has released CDs with a wide variety of artists, some of which have debuted in the top three spots on a range of Billboard’s charts including Top DVD Music Videos, Top Country Albums, Top Contemporary Christian Albums and Top Bluegrass Albums. The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® exclusive music program includes CDs with Alabama, Rodney Atkins, Clint Black, Jason Michael Carroll, Steven Curtis Chapman, Dailey & Vincent, The Charlie Daniels Band, Ronnie Dunn, Edens Edge, Sara Evans, Bill Gaither, Montgomery Gentry, Amy Grant, The Grascals, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson, George Jones, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out , Craig Morgan, The Oak Ridge Boys, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs, Aaron Tippin, Randy Travis, Josh Turner, Wynonna and the Zac Brown Band. For details, visitcrackerbarrel.com.

 

About Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. provides a friendly home-away-from-home in its old country stores and restaurants. Guests are cared for like family while relaxing and enjoying real home-style food and shopping that’s surprisingly unique, genuinely fun and reminiscent of America’s country heritage…all at a fair price.

 

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBRL) was established in 1969 in Lebanon, Tenn. and operates 625 company-owned locations in 42 states. For more information, visit crackerbarrel.com.