Willie Nelson reveals "For the Good Times A Tribute to Ray Price" Album

 

Legacy Recordings, the catalog music division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release Willie Nelson's latest album, For The Good Times: A Tribute To Ray Price, on Friday, September 16.Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release Willie Nelson's latest album, For The Good Times: A Tribute To Ray Price, on Friday, September 16th.  On his new album, Willie has teamed up with a pair of longtime friends--producer Fred Foster and conductor/arranger Bergen White--who, like Nelson, are American country music veterans with deep connections to the legendary Ray Price. Foster and White worked together to complete Ray Price's final album, Beauty Is..., at Nashville's Ocean Way Studios, where Willie Nelson has returned to create the magic of For The Good Times: A Tribute To Ray Price.

For The Good Times: A Tribute To Ray Price celebrates the wide-reaching impact and influence of Ray Price on American pop and country music, from Price's hallmark lush orchestral arrangements (presaging "countrypolitan") to the patented "Ray Price Shuffle," the groundbreaking 4/4 walking bass line which transformed honky-tonk and country-western swing music in 1950s on hits like "Crazy Arms."

Providing musical backup for Willie on six of the album's tracks--"Invitation To The Blues," "Heartaches By The Numbers," "Crazy Arms," "City Lights," "I'll Be There" and "Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me"--Willie is joined by The Time Jumpers, the Grammy-nominated Western Swing dream team comprised of Vince Gill (electric and acoustic guitar, harmony vocals), Andy Reiss (electric guitar), Larry Franklin (fiddle), Joe Spivey (fiddle), Kenny Sears (fiddle), Brad Albin (bass), Billy Thomas (drums), Jeff Taylor (piano and accordion), Paul Franklin (pedal steel) and Willie's Family Band harmonica player Mickey Raphael.

Elvis Presley's "Way Down In The Jungle Room" Album Out in August

The most complete and comprehensive collection of Presley's final studio recordings ever assembled in one anthology, Way Down In The Jungle Room is an essential and welcome addition for every library. In the mid-1970s, Elvis, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, became another kind of pioneer as one of the world's first major recording artists to create fully-realized professional level records in the intimacy of his own home studio.

With original recordings executive-produced by Elvis Presley with producer Felton Jarvis (who'd helmed most of Elvis' records from 1966-1977), Way Down In The Jungle Room brings together, for the first time in one collection, master recordings and rare outtakes laid down during two mythic sessions (February 2-8, 1976 and October 28-30, 1976) in Graceland's den; known as the "Jungle Room"--which was converted into a professional caliber recording studio for the purpose of capturing these indelible performances. The outtakes have been newly mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, Tennessee.

For these sessions, Elvis was backed by many members of his longtime touring band including: James Burton (guitar), Ronnie Tutt (drums), David Briggs (keyboards), Glenn D. Hardin (keyboards), Jerry Scheff (bass), Norbert Putnam (bass) and J.D. Sumner & the Stamps (vocals).

In 1976, when the tracks for Way Down In The Jungle Room were cut, Elvis Presley had been an RCA Records recording artist for 20 years, inventing the sound and attitude that defined the very essence of rock 'n' roll. That same year, RCA released The Sun Sessions, the label's first official collection of the electrifying 1954-1955 Elvis recordings that launched his career while transforming the world.

Janis : Little Girl Blue OST to Get March CD Release

Columbia/Legacy Recordings is releasing Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture

Soundtrack), the official album companion to the highly acclaimed documentary written, directed and coproduced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Amy J. Berg ("Deliver Us From Evil," "West of Memphis"). Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is being released on CD beginning Friday, March 4

A remarkable career-spanning anthology, Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), brings together 17 essential Janis Joplin live and studio performances, including classic solo and Big Brother & the Holding Company tracks. The album debuts a previously unreleased version of "Piece of My Heart" (featured in the documentary and recorded live at the Generation Club in New York City in April 1968 during the Wake for Martin Luther King concert, this performance was included in the 1991 D.A. Pennebaker/Chris Hagedus short film, "Comin' Home," and has been never been available on a commercial audio release).

Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) includes an early recording of Janis Joplin singing Lead Belly's "Careless Love"; live performances with Big Brother & The Holding Company (from San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom, the Monterey Pop Festival, the Generation Club in New York City and Detroit's mythic Grande Ballroom); the Kozmic Blues Band (Frankfurt, West Germany, April 12, 1969); Janis live at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (August 17, 1969) and the legendary Festival Express Tour (July 4, 1970). Rounding out Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) are definitive studio performances from the classic four original albums--Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cheap Thrills, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! and Pearl--recorded during Joplin's lifetime. All of the recordings on the Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) can be heard in the film.

"Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin" Out February 26

Legacy Recordings is proud to announce the forthcoming release of Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin on Friday, February 26, 2016. Willie Nelson's new album of pop standards, penned Willie Nelson was honored in November 2015 with a two-day celebration in Washington, DC, culminating in a star-studded tribute concert (scheduled for broadcast on PBS on January 15, 2016).

by America's legendary songwriting duo George and Ira Gershwin, follows the selection of Willie as the 2015 recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The first country artist ever to receive the distinguished Gershwin Prize,

President Jimmy Carter, who was unable to attend the concert, wrote in a letter read by host Don Johnson to the crowd that Nelson's music has "enriched the lives of people far and wide for decades" and that the songwriter is truly worthy of this "prestigious and well-deserved award."

"To get a Gershwin award for anything is great but to get one for songwriting is especially great because Ira and George Gershwin were just fantastic writers. They wrote some of the greatest songs ever," said Willie Nelson in response to receiving the Gershwin Prize. "The Gershwin songs have been here for many many years. When I was just a small guy, I remember hearing all these great Gershwin songs and they'll be around forever because great music like that just does not go away."

Willie Nelson's distinctive down home delivery and heartfelt vocal stylings mesh perfectly with the exquisite construction, unforgettable melodies and sublime romance of the Gershwin brothers' songs especially selected for Summertime.

100+ Song "Frank Sinatra:A Voice on the Air" Releasing in November

In a matter befitting the 100^th birthday of an American icon, Sony Music's Legacy Recordings announces the November 20th, 2015 release of Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air (1935-1955), a historic 100+ track, 4-CD deluxe box set culled from an invaluable collection of rare radio broadcasts and rehearsals – immaculately restored from the original recording masters for unprecedented high-fidelity sound.

Luxuriously packaged with a 60-page book, Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air (1935-1955) is an essential addition to Sinatra's voluminous discography, offering a unique glimpse into the formative period of America's first teen idol: Frank Sinatra, the man who became known the world over as "The Voice." Included in the book are an introductory essay by renowned singer, pianist and archivist Michael Feinstein; a personal remembrance by Frank's eldest daughter Nancy Sinatra and detailed essay by foremost Sinatra historian, author and box set producer Charles L. Granata. The package was designed by noted Art Director Maria Marulanda, who created the landmark 2007 Columbia/Legacy box set Frank Sinatra: A Voice in Time.

In assembling this groundbreaking box set marking the first official release anthologizing Frank Sinatra's seminal radio performances, the producers have mined treasures from their own extensive Sinatra broadcast transcription collections and the world's most prestigious archives and sound recording repositories including The Library of Congress, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, the Paley Center for Media, the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative archive and The University of Colorado's Glenn Miller Archive. Included are dozens of rare photographs and recording artifacts that help to illustrate the scope of Sinatra's incredible radio career.

"Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City" CD Arrives June 16

Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, featuring a previously unreleased version of Bob Dylan's "If Not For You" and 35 other essential tracks, will be releasing Tuesday, June 16.

The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum exhibition, "Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City Presented by Citi," opened March 27, 2015 and will run through December 31, 2016. The museum will celebrate the album's launch later this summer with a concert to be held on 5th Avenue between Demonbreun Street and Korean Veterans Boulevard on July 7, 2015 at 6 pm. The line-up for the concert will be announced soon.

"Bob Dylan surprised many when he came to Nashville and began working with the city's unmatched session musicians the Nashville Cats," said Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum historian Michael Gray. "Around this same time, Johnny Cash was recruiting folk and rock musicians—including Dylan—to appear on his groundbreaking network television show. This album and Spotify playlist, with commentary from Nashville Cat Charlie Daniels, explore this magical time in 'a new Music City.'"

Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City explores the relationship between pop, rock, folk and country music through a variety of essential recordings that define an American era and sensibility that continue to shape and influence contemporary culture across the world.

Sound Of Music-50th Anniversary Music CD and Blu-Ray Announced

THE SOUND OF MUSIC – 50^th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, a multi-format soundtrack release celebrating Rodgers & Hammerstein's 5-time Academy Award-winning movie musical in a newly re-mastered and expanded version, will be available every­where on March 10, 2015 through Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment and via Baker & Taylor.

As part of an extensive half-century celebration, THE SOUND OF MUSIC – 50^th ANNIVERSARY EDITION will feature previously unreleased orchestral cues from the Academy Award-winning score, and all vocal performances on one CD for the first time.  Led by Julie Andrews, whose work in the film earned her a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination, the soundtrack rings out with heart­warming, iconic standards.  From the title composition, "The Sound of Music," to "Sixteen Going on Seven­teen," "Do-Re-Mi," "Edelweiss," "So Long, Farewell," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," and of course, "My Favorite Things," The Sound Of Music is a treasure for all time.

In addition to the previously unreleased material, the new soundtrack will also include new introductory notes from Julie Andrews and Theodore S. Chapin, president and executive director of Rodgers & Hammerstein; and in-depth liner notes written by Laurence Malson, author of The Sound Of Music Companion.  The CD package will also include rare photographs and illustrations from the film.