Hi-Rez Round-Up: Audio Fidelity Plans Clapton, Butterfield Reissues; Mobile Fidelity Does Sinatra, Chicago, Hall and Oates

All that glitters is not (necessarily) gold.  Two of the U.S.’ preeminent audiophile labels, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and Audio Fidelity – the latter a successor to DCC Compact Classics – made their name on Gold CDs, and have in recent years made the gradual change to hybrid stereo SACDs.  These discs, playable on all CD players in standard CD quality, are remastered to the same high standard as the gold releases but also give consumers with SACD playback capabilities the opportunity to listen in high-resolution, superior-to-CD sound.   Both Mobile Fidelity and Audio Fidelity have been busy in 2014.  The former label has released, or will release, hybrid SACDs from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Chicago, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Los Lobos and Daryl Hall and John Oates; the latter label has just offered titles from Heart, Jon Anderson, Alice Cooper and Peter, Paul and Mary, and has announced forthcoming releases from The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Eric Clapton.

Though Mobile Fidelity has made the gradual switch to the SACD format, Audio Fidelity has recently issued a statement confirming that the label will no longer manufacture 24K Gold CDs.  Label founder Marshall Blonstein has written in an email to subscribers of AF’s limited edition series that “as many of you know, over the past months we have had many delays with our 24K release schedule. Primarily it’s been due to the inability of our manufacturer to secure the gold target necessary to make 24K discs.  Since 2013, we’ve responded to the encouragement of many of our fans and friends by converting to the Hybrid SACD format.”

Blonstein continues, “Though it’s possible in the future we could release 24K titles, it’s not likely.  We’ve made this decision after a lot of thought and realistic evaluation of market conditions – our 24K manufacturer is unable to assure us that in the future they would be able to deliver the product you expect and we demand.  Meanwhile, we’re having a great run with our Hybrid SACD titles, our brand remains intact and our unique and appealing slipcase packaging remains consistent with our tradition.

So, it is with great sadness we are informing you that we will leave an old friend, our 24K Gold disc behind, but with also with great joy, knowing that we are moving forward with a much more consistent and broadly appealing format.”

After the jump, we’ll take a look at the recent release slate from both Audio Fidelity and Mobile Fidelity!

Short Takes: Digital Updates on Billy Joel, Black Sabbath and More

When not releasing intriguing physical products, sometimes labels like to do neat things to spice up their digital offerings, making complete discographies available or taking advantage of Apple’s “Mastered for iTunes” initiative. Here’s a few notable digital-oriented stories we’ve caught wind of in recent days!

• He’s a living legend, a multiplatinum bestseller, a Kennedy Center honoree and – in 2014 – the first musical franchise at New York’s Madison Square Garden. This week, Legacy Recordings calibrated Billy Joel’s resurgence into a newly-streamlined offering on iTunes. All of the Piano Man’s studio and live albums have been Mastered for iTunes, and the 2011 Complete Albums Collection is available for digital purchase as well. (This box does, of course, not entirely live up to its title: several live albums, including KOHUEPT (1987) and 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert (2000), are omitted in favor of a bonus disc collecting tracks from compilations and other rarities, many found on the My Lives box set of 2005.)

  But it’s not only about digital treats for Joel: next week, Showtime will premiere a new documentary about Joel’s sojourn to the Soviet Union to perform live in 1987 – one of a few Western acts to penetrate the Iron Curtain. A Matter of Trust: The Bridge to Russia combines new interviews with rare and unreleased concert and behind-the-scenes footage of Joel, his band and his family in what was a very strange land to an American in the late ’80s. (I’d be surprised if we didn’t see a release of this film, perhaps paired with the original KOHUEPT concert film released on videotape back in the day.)

• Hot off the success of their latest album, last year’s 13 (which reunited most of the band’s classic lineup), metal gods Black Sabbath have also been treated to a fancy new iTunes store. The Mastered for iTunes treatment is only bestowed on the albums with the original lineup of vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – that’d be 1970’s self-titled debut to 1978’s Never Say Die, plus the compilations We Sold Our Soul for Rock ‘N’ Roll (1976) and Greatest Hits 1970-1978 (2006) – but it looks like the original albums are all there. (A digital box set collecting those MFiT titles is also available.)

• They’re best known for a pair of New Wave/MTV-friendly singles – 1979’s “What I Like About You” and 1983’s Top 5 hit “Talking in Your Sleep.” But Legacy Recordings has made all five of The Romantics’ albums for Nemperor Records (now part of the Epic Records family) available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. Digital newcomers National Breakout (1980), Strictly Personal (1981) and In Heat (1983) – which spun off “Talking in Your Sleep” – join 1980’s self-titled debut and their Nemperor swan song Rhythm Romance (1985) on all digital providers.

• On March 11, in honor of legendary activist Cesar Chavez’s birthday at the end of the month (and a forthcoming biopic starring Michael Peña as the labor leader), Fantasy Records will digitally release a Chavez tribute album, Sí Se Puede!, for the first time. This 1976 LP, which donated money to Chavez’s United Farm Workers, marked the recording debut of East L.A. band Los Lobos, two years before their proper debut LP and a decade before attaining international acclaim on the soundtrack to La Bamba.

Eric Clapton Goes to the “Crossroads” and Brings Friends On New CD, DVD, BD

Eric Clapton is big on giving back.  The guitar god founded Antigua’s Crossroads Centre for the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction in 1998, and in 2004, spearheaded the creation of the Crossroads Eric Clapton Guitar Festival to benefit the facility of the same name.  Since that first ’04 fest, Crossroads Festivals have taken place every three years, in 2007, 2010 and 2013.  Highlights from the 2013 shows, which took place on April 12 and 13 at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, are now available on CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc from Rhino.

Headlined of course by Clapton, the first Crossroads Festival was held in Dallas, Texas and endeavored to represent instrumentalists from the blues, rock, country and even jazz realms.  The festival featured such diverse guitar greats as Jeff Beck, J.J. Cale, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana as well as singer-songwriters like Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor and the up-and-coming John Mayer, as well as bands like Booker T and the MG’s, Styx and ZZ Top.  The 2013 line-up welcomed back many artists who had played at that very first event (and subsequent ones) such as B.B. King, Booker T. Jones, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, Robert Randolph, Robert Cray, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, Doyle Bramhall II, Jimmie Vaughan and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos.  Other performers included Keith Richards, Earl Klugh, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban, Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal.

The DVD and BD releases present 45 songs from both evenings of Crossroads 2013 in director Martyn Atkins’ concert film, playable in either stereo or 5.1 surround.  The CD edition boasts 29 tracks on two discs.  In all formats you’ll get Clapton’s performances of signature songs “Tears in Heaven,” “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Got to Get Better in a Little While” and some collaborations: “Lay Down Sally” with Gill, “Key to the Highway” with moonlighting Glimmer Twin Richards, “Why Does Love Got to Be So Bad” with the Allman Brothers Band, and “Gin House Blues” on which he accompanies Andy Fairweather-Low.  The DVD/BD releases add Clapton’s “Crossroads,” “Spider Jiving” with Fairweather-Low, “Big Road Blues” with Kurt Rosenwinkel, “Everyday I Have the Blues” with B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan and The Robert Cray Band, and Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” with The Band’s Robbie Robertson.

All-star duets are often among the most tantalizing aspects of benefit concert performances, and Crossroads 2013 is no exception.  In addition to the previously mentioned Clapton duets, the Crossroads CD includes such collaborations as John Mayer and Keith Urban on The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” Mayer and Doyle Bramhall II on “Change It,” Vince Gill with Albert Lee on “I Ain’t Living Long Like This,” Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ on “Diving Duck Blues,” and a jam on the stone-cold Stax classic “Green Onions” with Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper joined by Keb’ Mo’, Blake Mills, Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Albert Lee.  Of course, there’s more on the DVD/BD such as the same group doing Jones’ “Born Under a Bad Sign,” Booker T and Cropper’s “Green Onions,” and Gill, Urban and Lee doing The Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice.”

After the jump: more on Crossroads, including full track listings and order links for each format!

Release Round-Up: Week of August 21

KISS, Destroyer: Resurrected (Mercury/UMe)

The 1976 classic gets a new mix from original producer Bob Ezrin for its 35th anniversary. (It’s also available on vinyl, too!)

Taj Mahal, The Hidden Treasures of Taj Mahal (Columbia/Legacy)

Tomorrow may not be your day, but today certainly is if you’re a Taj Mahal fan: two discs of unreleased material – one of studio tracks, one from a 1970 show at the Royal Albert Hall.

Los Lobos, Kiko: 20th Anniversary Edition / Kiko Live (Shout! Factory)

Arguably the finest album from that band from east L.A., Kiko has been expanded with five unreleased bonus cuts and a separate CD/DVD or CD/Blu-Ray set featuring a 2006 performance of that record in its entirety.

Madness, Total Madness: All the Greatest Hits and More! (Salvo/Union Square)

A pretty simple, brand-new compilation with which you can acquaint yourself with one of everyone’s favorite U.K. ska bands.

Under the Lavender Moon: Los Lobos’ “Kiko” Gets Deluxe Reissue This Summer

Their first compilation may have humbly seen them described as “just another band from east L.A.,” but Los Lobos have remained one of the most richly diverse bands in a nearly 40-year lifespan. And this August, one of their most acclaimed LPs is getting expanded by Shout! Factory.

1992’s Kiko was released some years after the band burst onto the scene with How Will the Wolf Survive? (1984) and their breakthrough contributions to the soundtrack to La Bamba in 1987. But many critics and fans – not to mention the band themselves – look highly on their work on Kiko, arguably the ultimate synthesis of the band’s diverse influences, from blues to country to Tex-Mex. It was hailed as the year’s best album by The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, and the experimental video for “Kiko and The Lavender Moon” won an MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video.

Shout! Factory’s celebration of the album comes twofold: not only are they remastering and expanding the album with five unreleased bonus tracks, but they’re also releasing a live show from 2006, in which the band played the album in its entirety. That set, Kiko Live, will be released as a CD/DVD set or a CD/Blu-Ray package and will also feature bonus interviews about the making of the album.

All sets will be available on August 21. Preview the track lists after the jump!

Kiko: 20th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory, 2012)

1. Dream in Blue
2. Wake Up Dolores
3. Angels with Dirty Faces
4. That Train Don’t Stop Here
5. Kiko and the Lavender Moon
6. Saint Behind the Glass
7. Reva’s House
8. When the Circus Comes
9. Arizona Skies
10. Short Side of Nothing
11. Two Janes
12. Wicked Rain
13. Whiskey Trail
14. Just a Man
15. Peace
16. Rio de Tenampa
17. Whiskey Trail (Studio Demo)
18. Rio de Tenampa (Studio Demo)
19. Peace (Live @ Capitol Studios on NPR – 12/25/1992)
20. Arizona Skies/Borinquen Patria Mia (Live @ Capitol Studios on NPR – 12/25/1992)
21. Kiko and the Lavender Moon (Live @ Capitol Studios on NPR – 12/25/1992)

Kiko Live (Shout! Factory, 2012)

1. Dream in Blue
2. Wake Up Dolores
3. Angels with Dirty Faces
4. That Train Don’t Stop Here
5. Kiko and the Lavender Moon
6. Saint Behind the Glass
7. Reva’s House
8. When the Circus Comes
9. Arizona Skies
10. Short Side of Nothing
11. Two Janes
12. Wicked Rain
13. Whiskey Trail
14. Just a Man
15. Peace
16. Rio de Tenampa
17. Carabina 30-30
18. Volver Volver
19. La Bamba

All tracks recorded live at the House of Blues, San Diego – 2/24/2006