Lost 1977 album by NC legend Sam Moss due in January

While sorting through old tapes, Chris Stamey discovered an album that guitarist Sam Moss cut with Mitch Easter in 1977. 

Here's the scoop...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — In Winston-Salem, N.C., guitarist Sam Moss is a legend. A superior, highly versatile musician whose advocacy for the blues and mastery of the nuances of electric blues-based soloing somewhat paralleled Mike Bloomfield’s in Chicago, Moss was an inspiring, charismatic mentor to generations of North Carolina rockers, including Let’s Active and The dB’s. He was a larger-than-life character whose club appearances astounded local audiences, yet he never released a record in his lifetime. So, producer Chris Stamey was thrilled to discover, in 2020, on the end of an old tape, forgotten masters of Blues Approved, a spectacular Stax- and Muscle Shoals-influenced solo record, made with Mitch Easter in 1977. 

This “great lost” record reveals that Moss was also a soulful songwriter and singer. It has now been carefully remixed and produced for release, with a deluxe booklet featuring detailed liner notes and bio, session notes by Easter, and lots of vivid colour photos. Peter Holsapple (The dB’s) says, “Sam Moss was an inspiration to so many of us; with the release of Blues Approved, people everywhere will understand why.”

Blues Approved will be released on CD and digitally by Schoolkids Records on January 28, 2022, with a vinyl edition to follow in the summer. Pre-order a copy right here. 

Moss had made the first of several trips to nearby Chapel Hill to record his own original compositions in early 1977, with old friend Easter on drums (and recording). Mitch recalls: “In my house I had a ‘studio,’ meaning a Teac 2340 four-track recorder, three or four humble microphones, and for monitoring, the home stereo system. For extra-fancy sessions, I’d rent a Tapco six-channel mixer… Sam came down with two or three guitars, his Fender Twin. I played drums and Sam played  everything else. And it was a really good session! Sam wrote interesting songs that almost always had a blues angle, but he brought in a lot of elements from elsewhere. He was pleased with the results, so we met a couple more times that year and recorded an LP’s worth of songs.”

But the material then sat on the shelf, unreleased, as Moss opened a vintage guitar store, selling internationally to rock stars and other celebrities for several decades. Stamey felt that most of the material seemed fully formed on its own, despite the limited recording options then available, but for a few tracks — the openers “Rooster Blood” and “King of My Hill,” and the Stonesy “Vida Blanche” — he enlisted the help of the Uptown Horns’ leader Crispin Cioe, a veteran of Rolling Stones tours whose Southern-fried additions on sax fit the material like a glove. And once a few later covers were added to the picture, including the captivating, bluesy spin taken with “Ain’t That Peculiar” featuring “Weso” Wesolowski on harp, the record was complete. 

Contemporary technology was used to reassemble the various generations of four-track tapes into first-generation sources, peeling back the layers to put the listener back in the room where it happened. The mono closing track, featuring a teenage Moss in his first band singing the Buck Owens classic “Act Naturally” in rehearsal, was too cool not to include. The CD has three additional surprises from early-’90s sessions at Turtle Tapes in Winston-Salem: the Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” an instrumental of Pomus and Shuman’s “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” and the Stones’ “Who’s Driving Your Plane?”

Says Easter, “I had a pretty good memory of this material, but when I actually heard it again, I was delighted that it really is great. Sam was always strangely unconcerned about stardom, but he was a star anyway. When you play the record, you'll see what I mean.” On July 30, 2021, the City of Winston-Salem honored Moss with a sidewalk star in the city’s Walk of Fame downtown.

Original sessions produced by Sam Moss; produced and mixed for Release by Chris Stamey (with input from Gene Holder and Mitch Easter) at Modern Recording (Chapel Hill, N.C.). 

Check out the track "Rooster Blood" following the album release trailer below. 

Verlaines live at Windsor Castle, 1986 due from Schoolkids Records

The 17-track double live album captures Graeme Downes and crew performing at their peak in Auckland. 

Here's the scoop...

Schoolkids Records is releasing a double album from New Zealand's legendary Verlaines entitled Live at the Windsor Castle, Auckland May 1986 for the first time ever, exclusively for RSD Drops 2021 on June 12th.  

Packaged in a beautiful gatefold jacket, the artwork is a replication of the vintage gig poster. Sky Blue vinyl, complete with download code and liner notes from Graeme Downes: “ The Verlaines. at the time, were Graeme Downes, Jane Dodd and Robbie Yeats. We lived in Dunedin at the near-bottom of the South Island of New Zealand.  These gigs were recorded to try to capture a live version of Slow Sad Love Song for the upcoming Birddog album that we recorded later that year.” Limited to 1200 copies Worldwide.

Watch The Verlaines video for "Doomsday" from 1986 followed by the track listing and the actual 1986 tour poster which served as the model for the album sleeve design. 

 

The Verlaines – Live at the Windsor Castle, Auckland, May 1986

Makes No Difference / Just Mum / You Forget Love / Take Good Care Of It / Lying In State / Fuck It Alf / Only Dream Left / For The Love Of Ash Grey / Icarus Missed / Pyromaniac / Lover Armageddon / Slow Sad Love Song / It Was Raining / Doomsday / You Cheat Yourself / You Say You / The Ballad of Harry Noryb

Watch David Olney's video for "My Favorite Goodbye"

"My Favorite Goodbye" is off the late great David Olney's forthcoming album with Anana Kaye called Whispers and Sighs. 

Here's the scoop...

If the futile longing to reach back through memory and grasp what is in the past could be set to music, it would sound like Whispers and Sighs. Over the course of 13 tracks, David Olney and Anana Kaye manage to craft a journey that amounts to far more than just another Americana album. This is to be expected with Olney, an acclaimed songwriter responsible for more than 20 solo albums and songs covered by and/or co-written with the likes of Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, among many others. Further, just as Townes Van Zandt reportedly saw something special in him, Olney felt a similar admiration and kinship towards Kaye, a smoky-voiced Americana darling whose star is assuredly on the rise in Nashville, and her husband and musical partner Irakli Gabriel, both of whom are originally from the country of Georgia. 

On Whispers and Sighs, due out March 19 from Schoolkids Records, the pair create a unique, sonic landscape that blends the haunting sensuality of European music with the raw intimacy of Americana, weaving raucous, unapologetic rock anthems like “Lie to Me, Angel” and “Last Days of Rome” with sparse, introspective ballads such as “Tennessee Moon” and the record’s title track. All of the songs were written by the trio of Olney, Kaye, and Irakli. In addition, longtime Olney collaborator and hit songwriter John Hadley earns co-writing credits on a few.

 

All in all, Whispers and Sighs is an Americana record that explores what it means to be human. Over its course, Olney and Kaye take turns leading the listener through intimate self-portraits, myths, and tales of historical fiction, all in an effort to illustrate the various devices we use to cope with our own impermanence. Though the project deals heavily in weighty, existentialist themes, the prevailing message proves to be a celebration of human connection, friendship, and love. As Olney put it in 2019, “We have no idea where the songs come from, but they bring a peace of mind like an old photograph of home. Wherever that may be.”

 

While it’s hard to escape the seeming cosmic significance of the album as posthumous Olney release, at no point does this create the air of morbidity; rather, it lends the project a bittersweet ambiance. According to Anana and Irakli, mere moments after hitting save on the final mixes, the phone rang with news of David’s passing. This seems tragically fitting; for what is found on Whispers and Sighs is a collection of songs into which two artists and friends clearly poured the full extent of their souls. Within it is an undeniable reminder that David Olney’s extraordinary legacy can never fade, while Anana Kaye’s star grows deservedly brighter by the day. 

Pre-order Whispers and Sighs directly from Schoolkids Records right here. Watch the video for "My Favorite Goodbye" below.