January 13, 2006 Major labels have put catalog mining into the hands of specialized divisions GRAMMY.com Nick Krewen If you’re a Ray Charles fan, Christmas has come early. To celebrate what would have been his 75th birthday, Rhino Entertainment recently issued a pair of Ray Charles albums — a posthumous duets project called Genius & Friends and the more elaborate Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959), an eight-disc set…
Nick Krewen GRAMMY.com Nov/Dec 2005 Legacy Recordings’ reputation for mining its vaults and producing superb compilations received another boost this past summer with the release of such acclaimed packages as Johnny Cash‘s 4-CD box set The Legend, Miles Davis‘ quintuple-disc The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions and Bob Dylan‘s Martin Scorsese-driven No Direction Home. One watershed anthology, however, got lost in the shuffle: the best of Shel Silverstein – his…
Nick Krewen GRAMMY.com On Halloween night in 1992, Toronto songwriter Blair Packham left a movie theater in Sarasota, Florida and noticed a small commotion in the shopping mall parking lot. “There was a concert going on and there were hay bales all over the place and a flatbed truck with a stage on it,” recalls Packham. “There were only about 20 people in the audience, and they weren’t in…
Internet Weaves Web Of Spontaneity Nick Krewen GRAMMY.com September 2005 When Nathan Meckel wants to write a song with his musical partner Pam Reswick, he no longer hops on a plane to Los Angeles and drives to her home studio, guitar in hand. Instead, Meckel walks down the stairs to his own Nashville studio, flicks on his computer and turns on the camera. Then he and Reswick create beautiful…
Nick Krewen GRAMMY.COM August 2005 Ate any good music lately? Starving for new challenges outside their proven abilities, recording artists are increasingly entering the kitchen to chase their next meal ticket: food and drink product lines. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner, notably established pop, country, rock and R&B stars are offering edible commodities geared to any taste. You can start the day off with some links of George…
