Lots of Georgia Acts Included in This Year’s Record Store Day Offerings
Record Store Day (RSD) has long been a feast for music fans and vinyl collectors, and this year’s event is certainly no exception. Held at independent record stores around the globe, the April 13, 2019, all-day sale will offer hundreds of limited-edition music releases (almost all of them on vinyl), with many participating stores including live bands and other treats into the mix.
Here are a few of the Georgia-related releases that are included in this year’s batch of items.
Never heard of Bingo Hand Job? Well, it’s actually R.E.M. joined by Peter Holsapple, Robyn Hitchcock and Billy Bragg. The lineup played two nights at the Borderline in London in March 1991 as a warm-up to R.E.M.’s "MTV Unplugged" taping that would happen a week later in Italy. Heavily bootlegged, the best of the one-off gigs is being released for RSD in a two-LP set.
Also of note: R.E.M.’s Peter Buck is among the musicians on "Stroke Manor" by The Minus 5 – R.E.M. cohort Scott McCaughey’s first recordings since his devastating 2017 stroke, written and recorded while recovering in the hospital and at his Portland home. It’s getting its first release on LP and CD on Record Store Day. And R.E.M.’s Athens compatriots, The B-52’s are having their 1982 David Byrne-produced EP "Mesopotamia" reissued on RSD on blue colored vinyl.
Released last year on CD, The Allman Brothers Band’s live document "Bear’s Sonic Journals: Fillmore East, February 1970" will be getting a vinyl release on Record Store Day. Also of note, Blind Willie McTell’s original 1928 recording of ABB staple “Statesboro Blues,” along with his “Three Woman Blues,” will be issued on a 78 RPM 10” record on RSD.
James Brown’s 1971 instrumental album "Sho Is Funky Down Here" is getting an RSD reissue, along with the psych-funk obscurity "The Grodeck Whipperjenny" from the same period, spearheaded by Brown’s bandleader at the time, David Matthews.
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood is releasing a 10” with two new songs, “Dice Game” and “Let It Fall.” Meanwhile, his brother Rich’s current group The Magpie Salute is releasing its own 10” picture disc of their version of Echo & the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon.”
Other Georgia RSD releases for this year: a 21st anniversary double-LP picture disc of Goodie Mob’s album "Still Standing;" Otis Redding with Booker T & the MG’s and The Mar-Kays’ "Captured Live at Monterey International Pop Festival;" and Mastodon’s "Stairway to Nick John" 10” vinyl – studio and live covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” dedicated to Mastodon’s late manager Nick John, who passed away last year.
