To celebrate 50 years of Thin Lizzy Universal Music are proud to announce the first instalment of an archive release programme that will cover the career of one of the most iconic and respected bands of the 1970s.
“Rock Legends” is a six CD one DVD Super Deluxe Edition that features 99 Tracks in total, 74 of which are unreleased and 83 of which have never been released on CD or streaming. It is simply the ultimate Thin Lizzy boxset. Rock Legends’ covers the bands whole career over 6 discs newly mastered by Andy Pearce encompassing a raft of unreleased material including demos, radio sessions, live recordings and rare single edits. The track listing has been compiled by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham and Lizzy expert Nick Sharp from a collection of newly discovered tapes most of which have never been heard before.
‘Running Back (Demo)’ is a previously unreleased track taken from Thin Lizzy‘ forthcoming “Rock Legends” box set.
The song is from the band’s breakthrough Jailbreak album from 1976 and was for a time being considered as the first single before Thin Lizzy opted for ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ (good choice!). This unheard demo features saxophone which was not used on the released version, as well as some alternate vocals, guitar takes and keyboard parts.
The box is housed in a 10” x 6” slipcase and in addition to the six CDs contains a DVD with the hour long ‘Bad Reputation’ BBC documentary and the band’s legendary performance on the Rod Stewart ‘A Night on the Town’ TV Special from 1976. This DVD looks good too. As well as the Bad Reputation documentary which went out on BBC Four a few years back, we get four songs – ‘Jailbreak’, ‘Emerald’, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, and ‘Rosalie/Cowgirl Song’ – that were recorded for Rod Stewart’s A Night On The Town TV special in 1976. Just think about that for a minute, Rod and Philo and a night on the town. I’d say there wasn’t a bottle of plonk to be had for a square mile.
The set also contains replicas of the bands tour programmes bound into a hard-backed book, the very sought-after Phil Lynott Poetry books, 4 prints by legendary Lizzy cover artist Jim Fitzpatrick and a book containing quotes by all the members of the band about their experiences playing with Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy. It also has a selection of famous fans such as Slash, Lemmy, Joe Elliot, Geddy Lee, James Hetfield, Ian Gillan, Henry Rollins, Billy Corgan, Bobby Gillespie, Craig Finn, John McEnroe and Pat Cash talking about the band.
On top of all of this, the full trailer for the life of the band frontman has been released on what would have been his 71st birthday. The synopsis reads: “Phil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away is a feature documentary on the life and music of Phil Lynott, telling the story of how a young black boy from working class 1950’s Dublin, became Ireland’s greatest rock star.”
The new Tom Petty box set after a long time waiting is finally getting a release, Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell tells usthat the group hopes to release a live set commemorating their 1997 residency at the Fillmore in San Francisco. They played 20 sold-out shows at the historic theatre in January and February of that year, radically changing the setlist each night. In 2009, seven songs from the Fillmore run were released on the Live Anthology compilation, but that was just a tiny sampling of their total collection.
“For me, that was almost the pinnacle of the band just being totally spontaneous night to night to night,” says Campbell. “We might throw in a Grateful Dead song that we just learned that afternoon. We recorded every show and we had guest artists from Bo Diddley to Roger McGuinn to John Lee Hooker. And I know, in my memory of those 20 nights, there’s an amazing album in there.”
Tom Petty estate finally release an expanded edition of his 1995 LP solo “Wildflowers”. Petty had said that he wanted to take the Heartbreakers and whoever else to reproduce every sound in a big way,” of that album. That album was really about sound in a big way. The plan was to go out there and perform the entire album as it was originally conceived with all of the songs.”
“Wildflowers” was initially envisioned as a double album, but was ultimately pared down to 15 songs on a single CD release. It became one of the most successful records of his career, with singles “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck Me” and “It’s Good To Be King” all getting extensive radio play. For years, Petty has been contemplating assembling the unreleased material into a deluxe package. The Super Deluxe Edition of the set features 70 tracks, spread out over five CDs, with nine songs that have never been released plus 34 alternate versions.
Curated by Tom’s daughters, Adria and Annakim Petty and his wife Dana Petty. A 2-CD set includes 25 songs, with ten previously unreleased cuts. A top of the line Super Deluxe Edition is a sprawling package available in a 5-CD or 9-LP 180g vinyl.
In addition to the original LP, the box contains a disc titled All the Rest that includes 10 outtakes from the sessions, five of which have never been heard. The third disc is comprised of 15 Petty home demos, with three of its 15 songs unreleased. The fourth CD consists of live versions of 14 songs recorded between 1995 and 2017, 12 available for the first time. The fifth disc, Finding Wallflowers, consists of 16 alternate studio versions.
“I think I put four of the [Wildflowers outtakes] on the She’s The One soundtrack just to fill out the album,” says Tom Petty. “But they were very hastily mixed. Take ‘Climb That Hill.’ There’s a version of that on She’s The One, but the Wildflowers one I think is extremely better. ‘Hung Up And Overdue’ is another one remixed and it turned into an epic. Carl Wilson [of the Beach Boys] and [Heartbreakers bassist] Howie Epstein singing quite a bit of harmony that didn’t come through on the original. Then again, there’s probably six songs that nobody has heard. There’s 11 or 12 [new] songs on the album. I think people are going to like it a lot. I like it a lot.”
The new version of Wildflowers will be released. “At one point the label really just wanted to put it out as a standalone album, And then there’s the point of view where they want to put both records together. There’s also the point of view that wants the box set with all the demos and all that.
The Wildflowers box set has been in the works for quite a long time, something that Petty frequently spoke of in his final years. The 1994 album was originally envisioned as a two-disc set, meaning many songs got cut for space when it was truncated. A sweet, tender melodic ballad opens Tom Petty’s acclaimed 1994 album Wildflowers. The title track’s initial chorus reveals a simple desire: freedom.
“You belong among the wildflowers / You belong in a boat out at sea / Sail away, kill off the hours / You belong somewhere you feel free.”
“I swear to god it’s all ad-lib from the word ‘go,’’ Petty told Paul Zollo in his 2005 book, Conversations with Tom Petty. “I turned on my tape deck, picked up my acoustic guitar, took a breath and played that from start to finish. And then sat back and went ‘Wow, what did I just do?’ And I listened to it. I didn’t change a word. Everything was just right there, off the top of my head. It’s a very sweet song. It’s got really good intentions.” Sonically, “Wildflowers” came from a different world than much of Petty’s work from the ’80s. There are no drums on the track at all, and the song features little more than a jangly acoustic guitar, piano, a spot or two of harmony and Petty’s pure vocals. Turning instead to a more stripped-down, raw and natural approach, he entered the studio with his bandmates from the Heartbreakers, unsure exactly of what the result would be. “Wildflowers” arrived like a breath of fresh air, or as Petty put it, a “stream of consciousness.”
“I actually only spent three and a half minutes on that whole song,” the rocker confessed to Zollo. “So I’d come back for days playing that tape, thinking there must be something wrong here because this just came too easy. And then I realized that there’s probably nothing wrong at all.”
Producer Rick Rubin was also taken aback by the flow of material pouring out of Petty.
“One day, between cassette recordings of songs he was working on, he began strumming the guitar,” said Rubin . “After a couple of minutes of strumming chords, he played me an intricate new song complete with lyrics and story. I asked him what it was about. He said he didn’t know, it just came out. He had written it, or more like channelled it, in that very moment. He didn’t know what it was about or what the inspiration was. It arrived fully formed. It was breath-taking.”
Though Rubin couldn’t remember the exact song Petty played — it could very well have been “Wildflowers” — the producer was amazed by the the ease with which Petty put tunes together. Rubin, also enamoured with the songwriting from Full Moon Fever (1989), would go on to produce the entire Wildflowers record.
“When we first met, I was impressed with his dedication to writing,” the producer recalled. “He wrote constantly and called me to come and hear new songs often. There is a poetry about them that spoke to me.” But that poetry wasn’t immediately clear to Petty when he wrote “Wildflowers,” and the direction the song was taking him was unclear, though he knew his crumbling marriage was likely playing a part.
“I’ve read that Echo is my ‘divorce album’, but Wildflowers is the divorce album,” Petty told biographer Warren Zanes in the 2015 book, Petty: The Biography. “That’s me getting ready to leave. I don’t even know how conscious I was of it when I was writing it. I don’t go into this stuff with elaborate plans. But I’m positive that’s what Wildflowers is. It just took me getting up the guts to leave this huge empire that we had built, to walk out.” When the title track came tumbling out of his head, Petty didn’t recognize his subject straight away. His therapist asked him who the song was about.
“I told him I wasn’t sure,” the musician recalled to Zanes. “And then he said ‘I know. The song is about you. That’s you singing to yourself what you needed to hear.’” It appeared the freedom the subject was seeking was Petty’s to find. Whatever had been bottled up inside had come out onto the page and had become an unforgettable three minute song about love and liberation. “It kind of knocked me back,” Petty admitted. “But I realized he was right. It was me singing to me.”
Petty had seen the Rolling Stones play Sticky Fingers at the Fonda Theatrer in Los Angeles and noticed they played it completely out of sequence. “Single album concerts often don’t scan right for a concert,” he said. “But with the amount of material I had for the Wildflowers double album, I think I’ve got enough tempos and types of songs that I could do a live show … And it’ll be fun for the audience since there’s a bunch of songs they’ll know.
The album, which features hits like You Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck Me” and “It’s Good To Be King,” has been due an extensive re-release.
Now that he’s gone, his former collaborators are determined to see the projection to fruition. “I see that in the cards,” says producer Ryan Ulyate. “It’s going to be fantastic.” There’s also talk of deluxe editions of key albums from Petty’s catalogue. “If there’s a market for something like that,” says Campbell, “we’ll do it.”
Wildflowers & All The Rest—Super Deluxe Edition: A 5-CD and 9-LP 180g Direct to Consumer, Limited Edition set that features 70 tracks, nine unreleased songs and 34 unreleased versions. Includes Rick Rubin introduction, David Fricke essay, track-by-track for all music and lyrics to all the songs on Wildflowers and All The Rest. This set also comes with a hardbound book, cloth patch of Wildflowers logo, sticker of Wildflowers logo, replica of “Dogs with Wings” tour program (the 1995 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers tour), hand-written 4-song lyric reprints in vellum envelope, a litho of new and exclusive art by Blaze Ben Brooks for the song “Only A Broken Heart,” and a (numbered) Certificate of Authenticity.
Maxwell Stern has been writing music and touring in various bands since the early 2000s. He has released a slew of LPs and 7″singles, and has played shows pretty much everywhere including an abandoned restaurant in Wyoming, a mall in China, several squats in Germany and a pretty nice bookstore in Australia. Lately he’s been working a lot. I am super excited to share that Maxwell Stern’s new song featuring Laura Stevenson is officially out! Earlier this week, “Left in the Living Room” along with a personal excerpt about the record by Max.
Max shared: “I had the idea to ask one of my favourite vocalists, Laura Stevenson, to sing with me on something. I’m not sure if she remembers it, but we’d actually made music together once before. It was the fall of 2005, I had just turned 16 and I was watching Jeff Rosenstock’s old band Bomb The Music Industry! — a band in which Laura played keys and sang—play on the floor of a sports bar in my hometown of Cleveland, OH…BTMI! had a “Bring Your Own Band” policy that stated that if you knew any of their material, you could play it with the band. So here I am, bleached-blonde mop and all, underage in a college bar, freaking out about getting to play with a group of musicians who were nearly a decade younger than I am right now who were making frantic, catchy, and often unintelligible ska-punk-hardcore songs about drinking beer in the shower and not shaving your beard before a job interview. I loved that band — I still do.”
“Anyway, sometime around that show, Laura started writing her own songs, and quickly evolved from ‘extremely talented person in the scene with me and my dumb friends’ to ‘real-life grown-up genius-level songwriter.’ Her involvement with this song, “Left In The Living Room” happened pretty quickly once I gathered up the courage to send her a text message and a demo, and having her voice on this record is a true honour.
Personnel: Maxwell Stern – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, Wurlitzer, Prophet Adam Edward Beck – drums on tracks 1-10, drum composition, auxiliary percussion, additional keyboards, electronics, and production Kyle Pulley – synth on track 1, additional electric guitar on track 6, bass on
track 8, drum programming on track 11 Jonathan Hernandez – electric guitar on tracks 3, 4, 8, vocals on tracks 3, 7, 8 Laura Stevenson – vocals on track 5 Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner – various lap steels on tracks 4, 5, 6, 7, 10
Irish rockers The Murder Capital have been building quite a bit of momentum overseas both back at home in Ireland and in the U.K. as well. They released their debut album “When I Have Fears” last year to mass critical acclaim (it was one of our best-albums-of-2019>favourites of the year and now it’s time for the band to have their moment here in the U.S., where they are about to embark on their first-ever North American tour. The Murder Capital released their debut album When I Have Fears on their own label Human Season Records to much critical claim in August of 2019.The band played a string of headlining shows around Europe and the UK and this 45rpm 12″ highlights the broody “Love, Love, Love” and “On Twisted Ground” from their show at The Dome, Tufnell Park in London from October 2019.
The band’s drummer Diarmuid Brennan told us one day before they played their biggest hometown show to date. We talked about the early days of the band, their process, how they bring it live every night, and how grief helped shaped their debut album. You guys are currently in Dublin preparing for your biggest headlining show to date. How are you feeling before the show?
Yeah that’s right. Good! Just landed back in Dublin, we flew over from the U.K. So we are just at Grogans now on South William Street, just meeting up with some mates. But yeah, just staying relaxing about it to be honest. It’s obviously a big one as it’s a Dublin show, Dublin shows are always big, they get us very excited. But yeah I’ll get excited maybe a couple of minutes before we go on.
Based out of the indie-pop heartland of Olympia, Washington, Joshua Hoey has been working on his, “lo-fi, small-scale cultural production”, under a variety of guises for the best part of two-decades. Joshua’s latest project is the, “open-source DIY rock band”, Special Moves, a sort of intriguing middle ground between a solo-project and a collective, where anyone is encouraged to turn up at any given moment and do their thing. After a string of cassingles released over the course of 2018 (which were subsequently compiled the following year on Jigsaw’s “Everything Is Free” cd), this is the proper debut full length from Special Moves, an Olympia-based project led by Josh Hoey with ample accompaniment from a large number of friends. Like the earlier stuff, these recordings are a bit rough around the edges, but both the sound quality and overall flow of this album is a marked improvement over the compilation, giving this a much more consistent feel. Musically, this is still perfectly in line with Tall Dwarfs and early Portastatic, but with a slightly mellower, poppier aesthetic. Heck, even his cover of the Boyracer classic “I’ve Got It + It’s Not Worth Having” is a friendlier, more melodic take on the original! And at under 20 minutes, this is a great album to quickly listen to when you’re getting ready to run out the door…
“If you want something done right, do it yourself” may not be an entirely accurate translation from the original French, but it’s proven to be a powerful strategy over the last forty years of American underground rock music. Special Moves is the latest name Olympia’s Joshua Hoey has applied to their lifelong project of lo-fi, small-scale cultural production. Josh has played fuzzy, energetic rock music in living rooms and basements – even the occasional rock club – for almost two decades. The rough outlines of their sound are SUPERCHUNK, ARCHERS OF LOAF, BUTTERGLORY, GUIDED BY VOICES, SUGAR, and early 90’s indie rock generally.
Somehow that has resulted in not just a thrillingly varied live show, but also an upcoming album, Little Help, released on Joshua’s own Reflective Tapes label, in collaboration with both Jigsaw Records and Solidarity Club.
The specific sparks that have fed the drive to write, record and travel were generated by random short-run seven-inches, cassingles, and one-off tracks on tape comps. Special Moves is an attempt to continue the proud legacy created by folks with talented friends and an uncontrollable urge to document the creativity and vibrancy that would otherwise fade from view. SpecialMoves is an open-source rock band. Lineups and instrumentation vary from gig to gig, one recording to the next. Collaborators are encouraged to bring their unique stylistic choices to bear.
As you’d expect for someone so rooted in the DIY-world, the Special Moves sound is something of an archive of the great and good of bands who never really made it.
Bananagun follow up the release of their wonderfully received debut album “The True Story of Bananagun” with a remix from Maston. The band gave Frank free reign to turn the track inside out, and boy did he deliver!
Maston’s mix of “Out of Reach” slows things down to an easy pace, enabling the original’s rich melodies to sit at the forefront, resulting in an endless earworm. Band leader Nick Van Bakel told us a bit more about why they decided to work with Frank Maston:
“We thought Frank would be good for the job because we liked his albums and you can tell from listening to them he knows his way around a mix, and also I like his style, seemed like a like-minded fellow. “We weren’t expecting it to sound so sexy, in a mellow Stax / Motown way I like it. We’ve heard that song so much now so it’s cool having this new sensual spin. “I’m sure we’ve never met but have mutual friends. I got in touch via email, it was all easy going. Frank’s real enthusiastic and into it, it’s always such a pleasure working with people like that!
“We hope you enjoy!” Watch the band-made accompanying video here:
The band will be coming over to the UK to play their first shows next May. Tickets are on sale now with more to be announced soon – full dates & info are available soon
The True Story of Bananagun is now available to buy
Metz shared the video for the second single off Atlas Vending, “Hail Taxi.” If Metz’s current mission is to mirror the inevitable struggles of adulthood, they’ve successfully managed to tap into the conflicted relationship between rebellion and revelry with the song’s tactics of offsetting their signature bombast with anthemic melodic resolutions. “‘Hail Taxi’ is about looking back. The lyrics deal with the idea of reconciling or coming to terms with who you were and who you’ve become,” shares frontman Alex Edkins. The stunning video, directed by A.F. Cortes, heightens these themes and expertly captures the same intensity as the alternately brutal verses and beguiling choruses of “Hail Taxi.” Of the video, Cortes says, “I wanted to tell a simple story that captures the song’s overarching theme. The idea of longing for the past creates many visual motifs and I wanted to create a piece that feels timeless and conveys a sense of isolation, highlighting that while we can hide our feelings, we can’t run from them.”
Check out the stunning video for “Blind Youth Industrial Park,” the latest track from Atlas Vending. The beautifully dystopian video depicts a woman dragging an injured companion on a stretcher through an alien landscape as the pair are tracked by a squad of armed soldiers, and provides sharp contrast to the song, which is an ode to the naivety of youth and the freedom of being unburdened by the world around you.
Shot in Queenstown, on the South Island of New Zealand, “Blind Youth Industrial Park” was directed by Dylan Pharazyn. Here’s Pharazyn on his inspiration for the video: “I started thinking of the feeling of war or samurai films, beautiful but dark and violent… but then I had this idea to work up a more unique world… I started to think of a more futuristic setting — more unusual and dream-like with the story set on a distant planet where there is future technology and some kind of alien magic… like a futuristic fable. I loved the idea of the hero Ayeth on this nomadic walk through an epic landscape… I loved the strength in her and the pairing of her with a wounded companion, something really human and vulnerable… I wanted that emotive warmth countering the cold military images.”
Atlas Vending, the band’s most dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career will be released on October 9th. Bolstered by the co-production of Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and the engineering and mixing skills of Seth Manchester (Daughters, Lingua Ignota, The Body) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Atlas Vending, the band’s fourth full-length album, sounds massive, articulate, and earnest.
Preorders of Atlas Vending are now available from Sub Pop Records.
“Hail Taxi” by METZ from their album Atlas Vending (Release Date: 10/09/2020)
“Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” according to Metz frontman and principal songwriter Alex Edkins. And there’s no doubt that the music composed by the Toronto trio is difficult to pin to a specific genre, constantly moving, growing and changing with each album.
“I think what I was trying to say is when you’ve been working with the same people for as long as we have and you’ve been doing music together, it’s easy to get stuck in conventions and ruts and not progress,” he reveals. “I think this record, more than any for us, is something that feels like a really nice progression into new territory. It’s still very much us. We didn’t intentionally set out to change who we are or what we sound like, but I think the production and the songwriting have taken it to a new spot that we’re really proud of.”
Despite being written and recorded prior to the global pandemic, Atlas Vending feels immediate in its response to 2020, clearly poised to attack its themes of social anxiety, isolation and paranoia caused by modern media head on. “Songs like Pulse, and songs like The Mirror, are just so connected to how I’m feeling right now,” Edkins admits, coyly. “It’s [COVID-19] truly shifting the meaning of a lot of the songs for me at least, and I don’t know how people will perceive it. But that’s kind of all you hope, that people take it in, they work it through their situation and maybe it will connect to where they’re at.”
One of Bert Jansch’s later recordings, ‘Crimson Moon’ is some of his finest work and sees the musician at the top of his game, with appearances from Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and many more. Earth Recordings revisits the album on its 20th Anniversary with its first standalone cut to vinyl.
Originally released in 2000, there is a brooding resonance in ‘Crimson Moon’ centred around his accomplished guitar style that brings his contemplative song writing to the fore. Traditional ballads have touches of jazz and blues adorned by contributions from guitarists Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and Johnny “Guitar” Hodge along with guest vocals from Bert’s wife Loren Auerbach(‘My Donald’).
The addition of electric guitar subtly compliments Bert’s percussive fingerpicking bringing new depth to his compositions.
Title track ‘Crimson Moon’ is a take on traditional song ‘Omie Wise’ and was written about his wife Loren, ‘Caledonia’ conjures pastoral images of Scotland alongside covers of The Incredible String Band’s ‘October Song’, Guy Mitchell’s ‘Singing The Blues’ and Owen Hand’s ‘My Donald’. Otherworldly tale ‘Neptune’s Daughter’ sees a mermaid-like creature recount the death of her relatives from a poison in the sea. Passionate about nature, the song carries an underlying ecological message.
Released in his 60s, ‘Crimson Moon’ proves Bert Jansch to still be an innovator and a unique talent.
Cardiff five-piece Rosehip Teahouse (Faye, Tony, Will, Josh and Teddy), will capture your heart and set it free. The band’s music emanates and fluctuates, between feelings of sadness and happiness, with a hint of sparkle thrown in. The bands single ‘Same Sky’ is a track that sits quietly between the coexisting realms of happy and sad, with gorgeous, heart breaking vocal harmonies, swirling, twinkly guitars, while been driven by a head- bobbing bass line. Leading you though a journey of intricacy, complexity, and all with beautifully subtle tones. All neatly woven together, to build a tender, tear jerking atmosphere. Arriving via Sad Club Records, the latest single from Rosehip Teahouse is one hell of a charmer. Lilting melodies and glittering bells give ‘Thought Number 3’ an almost transcendental melancholia, as singer Faye Rogers vocals echo atop the band’s crystal horizons.
Of the track, Rogers says: “I wrote this song a couple of years back now. I was really struggling with my mental health, and this song was my expression of feeling as if my problems were stopping me from being able to live my life in the way I wanted to.
“The version of this song on the EP is the one I recorded the day I finished writing the song in 2017, miserable in my room at my parents’ house using a cheap microphone and garage-band on an old macbook that I was putting off returning to my ex. It feels like a long time ago now, but every time I hear it, it feels like 3am in that room that was too warm again.”. Faye from Cardiff-based group Rosehip Teahouse talks about their upcoming EP and what inspires their wonderfully ethereal indie-pop.
Chillin in the Void by Rosehip Teahouse The new Rosehip Teahouse single is out on 31st August ahead of the EPs September release via Sad Club Records.
Bruce Hornsby has released his latest studio album, “Non-Secure Connection”, out today via Zappo Production/Thirty Tigers. The 10-track album from the acclaimed pianist and singer acts as Hornsby’s second full-length studio effort in as many years following 2019’s Absolute Zero.
“Non-Secure Connection” features guest appearances from artists including James Mercer (The Shins), Justin Vernon and Wayne Pooley (Bon Iver), Jamila Woods, Vernon Reid, and even a posthumous cameo from the late Leon Russell on the song “Anything Can Happen“, which was shared earlier this week.
Bruce Hornsby shared the new song which will appear on the veteran musician and songwriter’s forthcoming studio album, Non-Secure Connection, due out this Friday (August 14th). Entitled, “Anything Can Happen”, the optimistic, sitar-filled song is that of a duet with the late Leon Russell, who died in November 2016.
“Anything Can Happen” follows “My Resolve” and “Bright Star Cast” as the third single from the forthcoming studio album. Amazingly, Russell recorded his vocal contributions for the song almost 30 years ago, with Hornsby finally getting around to completing the recording featuring his old friend.
As Hornsby explains,
I was able to get Leon Russell a record deal with Virgin in 1990, and we made a record called ‘Anything Can Happen.’ I always felt that the title song wasn’t produced as well as it could have been (I’ll take the blame), and always wanted to re-cut it. Leon asked me to ‘write me a Barry White track,’ which is how the song started. His vocal from the original demo ghosts mine for a lot of the song, and then he emerges at the end to join me in harmony. My time with Leon was extremely memorable and deserves its own article; too much amazing and funny, classic stuff.
Other previously-released singles included on Non-Secure Connection include “Bright Star Cast” and “My Resolve”.
“The new album’s chromaticism and dissonance quotient is exactly twice as high (three songs featuring that language compared to one and a half on the last record),” Hornsby mentioned with Non-Secure Connection‘s announcement back in June. “I feel like my music has never been a part of any trend that defined any era of music during my 34 years of doing this. I may be wrong, but that’s how it feels to me.”
Hornsby recently shared a trio of 2019 performances for fans to download or stream for free as the live events industry remains on indefinite hiatus. Hornsby has since been forced to postpone the final remaining dates of his 2020 spring tour.
