Release – Dickey Betts, The Blasters and Flamin’ Groovies will get special Record Store Day Black Friday releases. This year, Black Friday, one of the favorite shopping days for music lovers, is Nov. 29.
The Blasters release an expanded double-LP live set, Dickey Betts and Great Southern fans will find a triple-LP live set, and a previously unreleased 1980 concert from San Francisco garage rockers, the Flamin’ Groovies will drop on the record-shopping holiday. Liberation Hall delivers the Record Store Day Black Friday special issues.
Dickey Betts and Great Southern’s Southern Jam: New York 1978 is the product of Betts putting together Great Southern almost immediately after the Allman Brothers Band broke up for the first time in 1976. His new group recorded and released a self-titled debut album by October 1977.
Great Southern mirrored the ABB lineup, with Betts flanked by another co-lead guitarist, Dan Toler, and backed by two drummers, bass, and keyboards. From the start, however, the band also included a bit more of the country-tinged honky tonk sound that Betts had unveiled on his solo debut, the gorgeous western swing influenced Highway Call. You’ll hear all of that on Southern Jam.
Great Southern’s lineup had changed a bit by the time they released their second album, Atlanta’s Burning Down, in March 1978, now featuring young bassist David “Rook” Goldflies, keyboardist Michael Workman and Toler’s brother Frankie on drums, along with Donnie Sharbono. This is the band, augmented by singer Mimi Hart, which played the Calderone Concert Hall in Hempstead, New York on August 11, 1978, a 108-minute show that was simulcast on New York’s WLIR-FM and is now appearing on vinyl for the first time as Southern Jam: New York 1978. And what a show it was – a high energy, tight, focused band led by Betts, who was displaying peak creative powers as a singer and, especially, as a guitarist.
Southern Jam: New York 1978 will be available as a triple-LP set, with one disc pressed on opaque red vinyl, another on white, and the third on blue. New liner notes have been contributed by Allman Brothers historian Alan Paul. The LP will be released by RockBeat Records, a subsidiary of Liberation Hall, and the label from which the CD and download of this show are already available. More information here.
The Blasters Over There: Live at the Venue, London – The Complete Concert stands as the definitive document of the Blasters’ debut performance as a UK concert headliner on May 21, 1982.
Drawing its title from a flag-waving George M. Cohan song celebrating American doughboys in England, the original Over There was first issued in October 1982 as a 6-song Slash-Warner Bros. EP. It comprised the Dave Alvin original “I Don’t Want To” and covers of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “High School Confidential,” Edwin Bruce’s “Rock Boppin’ Baby,” Little Richard’s “Keep A Knockin’,” Roy Orbison’s “Go, Go, Go,” and Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson’s “Roll ‘Em Pete.” The contemporaneous cassette version of the set included an additional track, a rendition of Frankie Lee Sims’ “What Will Lucy Do?”
When the Blasters’ complete Slash-Warner recordings were compiled on the two-CD set Testament in 2002, three more numbers from the Venue in London — versions of the Rockin’ R’s’ “Crazy Baby,” Slim Harpo’s “Got Love If You Want It,” and Blasters sax man Lee Allen’s 1958 instrumental “Walkin’ with Mr. Lee” — made their debut.
Over There is now available for the first time at its full length, adding 13 unreleased tracks to join the previously available ten. The band’s lineup comprises Phil Alvin (vocals, guitar), Dave Alvin (lead guitar), John Bazz (bass), Bill Bateman (drums), Gene Taylor (piano), Steve Berlin (baritone saxophone) and Lee Allen (tenor saxophone).
The original recordings were produced by the Blasters with associate producer Art Fein, and engineered by Pat Burnette. This expanded edition reissue is produced by the Blasters with Chris Morris and Antone DeSantis. Morris also contributes a new essay, which complements the original sleeve notes by Slash Magazine editor Claude Bessy.
All configurations of Over There: Live at the Venue, London – The Complete Concert will feature the full 23-song show. CD and digital are released December 6; pre-order at Bandcamp. Digital single “Marie Marie” is available now. Pre-order here
Flamin’ Groovies’ Let It Rock: Live from the San Francisco Civic Center 1980 is a gem from one of the original California garage rock bands.
In existence since 1965, the Flamin’ Groovies are considered a San Francisco Rock ‘N’ Roll institution, having released dozens of studio and live albums while touring both at home and abroad.
The band’s sole constant over the years has been guitarist, co-songwriter, and illustrator Cyril Jordan. The lineup of the Groovies featured on these live tracks is Jordan, vocalist-guitarist Chris Wilson, vocalist-guitarist Mike Wilhelm, bassist George Alexander, and drummer David Wright.
These recordings coincided with the end of the Groovies’ recording contract with Sire Records, a period which saw the band record and release “Shake Some Action,” their best-known song (included on this set) which has been covered by a cavalcade of subsequent rockers. Let It Rock features the Groovies’ interpretations of classic tracks by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Byrds, Them, and others. All tracks were recorded, mixed and produced by Terry Hammer.
Let It Rock will be available on “orange crush” colored vinyl and will feature all 11 songs (alongside an introduction by Dirk Dirksen, the famous compère at local venue The Mabuhay Gardens) recorded at the San Francisco Civic Center on October 26, 1980.
The vinyl, CD and digital configurations will additionally feature three bonus live cuts recorded at the Old Waldorf on October 24, 1980. These shows have never been available in any form. Longtime Bay Area music journalist Michael Snyder provides new liner notes. CD and digital are released December 6; pre-order at Bandcamp. Digital single “A Hard Day’s Night” is available now. Pre-order here
Listen to Flamin’ Groovies here:
