"Change Begins Within" Concert DVD, Ringo Starr, Sir Paul McCartney, others announced!

On September 1, 2017, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release the Change Begins Within Concert on DVD [MSRP $15.98]. Featuring sets from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with each performing some of their best-known classics from The Beatles to Wings and beyond, and reuniting onstage for the finale, this incredible charity show also featured many other world-famous musicians. Sheryl Crow, Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Moby, Ben Harper, Paul Horn, Angelo Badalamenti, Betty LaVette, and Jim James joined the two Beatles to thrill the capacity crowd, as did Jerry Seinfeld in a brilliant guest performance.

This exhilarating, star-studded benefit concert was recorded on April 4, 2009 in New York City. It was this show, dubbed “Change Begins Within”, that launched the David Lynch Foundation into an entirely new level of public awareness. As these globally renowned artists took to the stage at a sold-out Radio City Music Hall, they helped raise funds for the Foundation’s international initiative to teach one million at-risk children to meditate - and to begin to change their world from within.

All those present at this remarkable concert were committed to helping the charity in its aim of bringing meditation to students everywhere and helping disadvantaged youth reach their full potential. In addition to superb individual performances, the musicians at this celebratory concert joined forces on many songs and the whole Change Begins Within show is characterized by a powerful, joyful onstage camaraderie and unity.

NEA Honors the First Lady of Children's Music Ella Jenkins with National Heritage Fellowship

The National Endowment for Arts (NEA) has presented National Heritage Fellowships to celebrate and honor master artists working in the folk and traditional arts.  The NEA recently announced this year's recipients, including Ella Jenkins.

Jenkins, The First Lady of Children's Music, celebrates 60 years as a Smithsonian Folkways artist. She has wanted to record camp songs for more than 15 years and assembled a group of children, parents, and teachers from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, along with Tony and Kate Seeger from Camp Killooleet, to sing these rounds, nonsense songs and campfire sing-alongs. The 25-track collection includes familiar camp songs "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," "Kumbaya" and "This Land Is Your Land."

Many of the tunes on Camp Songs with Ella Jenkins and Friends have been sung by generations of campers, including many of the 14 million children and adults who attend camp every year in the United States. The album has its roots in the songs Jenkins' brother brought home with him from Boy Scout camp when she was a child, and begins with a chorus of children singing the familiar round "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." But these selections come from a variety of traditions, among them African-American spirituals, European folk songs, and Jewish summer camps where Jenkins has performed. "Everybody Loves Saturday Night" has lines in a dozen languages, including Mandarin, Hindi, Serbian and Nigerian. The album's final five numbers, which include "Sloop John B." and "Goodnight Irene," are sequenced to resemble a campfire sing-along.

GRAMMY-Nominated Musician & Researcher Stephen Wade to Release 'Across the Amerikee'

Stephen Wade has spent nearly his entire life playing and studying American folk music, a rich history he mines on 'Across the Amerikee: Showpieces from Coal Camp to Cattle Trail,' out June 30 on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Wade's first entirely solo endeavor, 'Across the Amerikee' presents "solo and display music"--performances that are created for listening rather than to accompany working or dancing, and that are often designed to display instrumental prowess or imitate life sounds such as fox chases and steam locomotives. Pre-order the album thru B&T, today

Listen to selections from 'Across the Amerikee' via bit.ly/2rp4pSH

Grassroots singers and players throughout the United States have long cultivated their own varieties of recital music. A simple dance tune transforms into a concert masterpiece; a personal plaint becomes emblematic of an era. With the banjo and guitar, Wade deftly explores this music made for music's sake. His selections draw from Southern sources as well as Northern interpreters, centering on lyric folksongs and old-time instrumentals transmitted (as one of its older players memorably said) across the Amerikee.

George Thorogood Returns, with a Solo Release Album

Rounder Records has announced the first-ever solo album release from legendary guitarist/vocalist George Thorogood, entitled PARTY OF ONE, which will be out on August 4. The album will feature 14 cuts of traditional blues, classics, and modern blues songs, from John Lee Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” to Hank Williams’ “Pictures From Life’s Other Side,” and The Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations.” The CD version of the album will also include a Robert Johnson bonus track, “Dynaflow Blues.”  Check out album preview below and order via Title Source 360.

PARTY OF ONE was produced by Grammy-winner Jim Gaines (John Lee Hooker, Luther Allison, and Stevie Ray Vaughan), who reunites with Thorogood on the debut solo project, having produced several of Thorogood’s biggest albums to date (RIDE ‘TIL I DIE, THE HARD STUFF, THE DIRTY DOZEN). The album’s primarily acoustic instrumentation – including slide, Dobro, and harmonica – is performed entirely by Thorogood, raw and stripped down, with an intimate one-on-one feel.

DISNEY•PIXAR'S "CARS 3" FUELS TWO SOUNDTRACKS

As Lightning McQueen heads to the big screen alongside his new tech-savvy trainer Cruz Ramirez, Disney•Pixar's " Cars 3" fuels two soundtrack releases, both available from Walt Disney Records on June 16 via Baker & Taylor as the film opens in theaters nationwide. The Cars 3 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, features eight tracks, including original songs by Dan Auerbach and ZZ Ward, four covers by various artists, and two instrumental tracks from Brad Paisley. The Cars 3 Original Score Composed and Conducted by Randy Newman reunites the "Cars" franchise with the Oscar-winning composer.

Both soundtracks are available for pre-order now.

"Lightning McQueen is on the journey of a lifetime—traveling cross-country, revisiting the past and looking into his own heart and soul to answer some big questions," said "Cars 3" director Brian Fee. "Just like the music in the first two 'Cars' movies, the songs and score in this film really help support the story we are telling."

     

CARS 3 ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK
The Cars 3 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features "Run That Race," an original song written and performed by nine-time Grammy® winner Dan Auerbach that can be heard as the movie opens. "The song is about never giving up and always trying your best," said Auerbach, who met with filmmakers prior to penning the song. "They showed me the storyboards and ran through the plot. I was able to read some of the dialogue and from there I had enough to piece together a story in my mind for the song."

Auerbach, of the band The Black Keys,  will release Waiting on a Song, his second solo album, on June 2 via his new label, Easy Eye Sound.
 
The soundtrack also features "Ride," an original end-credit song performed by Hollywood Records artist ZZ Ward, featuring musician Gary Clark Jr. Written by Ward, Evan Bogart and Dave Bassett, the song was released by Walt Disney Records as a digital single on April 14. It was performed live by Ward April 17 on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Ward's sophomore album, The Storm, will be released June 30.

The soundtrack also features four cover songs, including two bonus tracks.*

• "Kings Highway," originally released in 1991 by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, makes a comeback courtesy of 23-year-old British singer-songwriter James Bay.
• Bruce Springsteen's 1984 hit "Glory Days" gets a modern-day makeover by Grammy-nominated performer Andra Day, who voices Sweet Tea in the film, a performer in the Cotter Pin with a hairstyle reminiscent of Day's signature look.  
• *The Beatles' classic 1965 song "Drive My Car" is back on the road, compliments of Hollywood Records artist Jorge Blanco.
• *"Freeway of Love," made famous in 1985 by Aretha Franklin, is performed for the soundtrack by actress Lea DeLaria, who also provides the voice of Miss Fritter, a school bus-turned-demolition-derby-queen in "Cars 3."

Three-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist and entertainer Brad Paisley, who has 24 No. 1 singles under his belt, was called on to create two instrumental tracks that are featured on the Cars 3 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. "Truckaroo" and "Thunder Hollow Breakdown" accompany the film's action-packed Crazy 8 demolition derby sequence that puts Lightning and Cruz in the midst of total chaos. "Brad Paisley was part of both 'Cars' and 'Cars 2,'" said Tom MacDougall, executive vice president of music at Disney. "We knew he could have some fun with a demolition derby, and he just killed it. His down-home country tracks really add to the scene's action and humor."

From Walt Disney Records, the Cars 3 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is available June 16 and can be pre-ordered via Baker & Taylor's Title Source 360 ordering platform.

CARS 3 ORIGINAL SCORE SOUNDTRACKNewman, who was behind the Oscar-winning music in Disney·Pixar's "Toy Story 3" and "Monsters, Inc.," composed the score for the first "Cars" movie and penned the Oscar-nominated song "Our Town." For "Cars 3," Newman created a score that reflects the heart and high-octane action of the film—21 tracks are included on the soundtrack. "Randy has a real connection to the 'Cars' world," says MacDougall. "His ability to capture the feeling of this film, its characters, locations and the Americana theme throughout is extraordinary—the music is so naturally fluid and inspired. It really feels like Randy is coming home with this score."

Newman used a 110-piece orchestra to record the score. The Cars 3 Original Score Composed and Conducted by Randy Newman is available June 16 from Walt Disney Records and can be pre-ordered now.

Ken Burns' The Vietnam War on DVD/BD in September

PBS Distribution announced today it is releasing the new documentary series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick THE VIETNAM WAR on DVD and Blu-ray September 19, 2017, coinciding with its PBS airing. In an immersive narrative, Burns and Novick tell the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. THE VIETNAM WAR features testimony from nearly 100 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides.

Ten years in the making, the series brings the war and the chaotic epoch it encompassed viscerally to life. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward, produced by Sarah Botstein, Novick and Burns, it includes rarely seen, digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and revelatory audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.

The run time of the program is approximately 1080 minutes on 10 discs. The SRP for the DVD is $99.99 and $129.99 for Blu-ray. There are over 100 minutes of extra bonus footage, including a 45-minute preview program, 2 pieces on contemporary lives of 2 of the participants, and bonus content. The program will also be available for digital download.