M U S I C F E AT U R E B y C h r i s S h a w
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ENTERTAINMENT
November 12-18, 2015
IN TUNICA
22
New music from Elvis, Amy Starks, more.
FRANK SINATRA JR.
WILLIE NELSON
November 20
November 21
THE TEMPTATIONS
GREGG ALLMAN
December 21
January 3
Love — Reel to Real (High Moon Records) Arthur Lee was born in Memphis, so we’re going to go ahead and claim him, even if he did most of his prolific songwriting with Love in Los Angeles. If you’re unfamiliar, Love was one of the best American rock bands of the 1960s, known for their psychedelic rock and politically charged, socially conscious lyrics. Reel to Real was the seventh studio album by Love and features Lee playing with some of the same musicians on the unreleased album Black Beauty. While it is the last studio album by Love, Reel to Real has never been released on CD until now, or at least until November 27th when the CD version is available for purchase. The songs on Reel to Real feature equal parts psych-rock and Stax-oriented soul, and the CD reissue comes with a 32-page booklet that includes an essay by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. Reel to Real isn’t exactly classic Love, but it is an interesting part of Lee’s discography and perhaps gives the listener a hint as to what the reimagined Love would have sounded like (the one that featured Memphis musicians Jack Oblivian and Alicja Trout) had the band ever recorded. Reel to Real is pretty much a must-have for any fan of Lee and features 13 bonus tracks of alternate mixes and studio rehearsals. Favorite Song: “Which Witch Is Which”
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Record Round
Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — If I Can Dream (Legacy Recordings) Released late last month on Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings, If I Can Dream is the orchestral Elvis album you’ve been waiting for. The album features classic Elvis vocal performances with brand new orchestral accompaniment, along with appearances by Michael Bublé, Il Volo, and Duane Eddy. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios by producers Don Reedman and Nick Patrick, If I Can Dream features 14 classic Elvis songs like “Love Me Tender,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and “In the Ghetto.” If I Can Dream is part of the ongoing Elvis 80th birthday celebration of 2015, along with other Elvis projects, including the launch of the largest Elvis retrospective ever mounted in Europe: “Direct From Graceland: Elvis at the
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02.” If I Can Dream is the perfect album for the holidays, with the vinyl version coming as a double LP. Favorite song: “And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind” Hierophants — Parallax Error (Goner Records) Last year, Goner Records introduced America to Ausmuteants, an Australian synth-punk band that had been gaining steady momentum in Australia and Europe. After releasing two albums for Ausmuteants, Goner seemingly discovered Hierophants, another synth band featuring Ausmuteants’ de facto leader Jake Robertson. Hierophants claim that their music is the aural equivalent of throwing your calculator into the ocean, but that really doesn’t make any sense, so let’s dissect a little bit further. After digesting Parallax Error, I found that I liked the collection of cleverly written synth-pop songs. Unlike the Ausmuteants tracks that sometimes sound like they are going to fall apart at any moment, everything on Parallax Error is calculated, with no room for leftover noise. Mostly Hierophants remind me of a repackaged, Australian version of hardcore-era Devo, with short, twominute songs for the easily distracted modern mind. Favorite Song: “Nothing Neu” Amy G. Starks — Nightime (Socialscenerecords) Recorded all over Memphis at studios of old like BR Toad (best name ever?) and Easley-McCain Recording, Nightime is a collection of old and new Amy G. Starks songs, the singer most known as an integral part of the first Memphis punk band, the Klitz. The title track is a Big Star cover, and Nightime also features Starks covering “Brown Sugar” (Rolling Stones), “Call Me” (Tony Hatch), and “Let’s Make Love” (Aaron Hall), with most of the songs coming from a recording session at Easley-McCain that took place in 1982 and 1983. The Klitz’s mighty cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” is thrown in for good measure. “Nowhere Near,” the only new song on the album, comes in the form of a collaboration with Kip Uhlhorn of Cloudland Canyon. Ross Johnson, Jim Dickinson, Doug Easley, and Jim Spake are also all over this album, making it a pretty interesting release from a group of musicians and producers who have