Kritzerland is proud to present a world premiere CD release: "ODE TO BILLY JOE" Composed and Conducted by Michel Legrand. “Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”. In 1967, Billie Joe jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge was one of the hottest topics of that summer, all over the world. The fact that it all had to do with a surprise number one hit song shows the power of great storytelling. Everyone was conjecturing what it was that was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge and why Billie Joe had killed himself. It became part of popular culture almost instantly. The song garnered eight Grammy nominations, winning three for Gentry and one for arranger Jimmie Haskell. Nine years later, Warner Bros. decided to turn the song into a feature film and hired author Herman Raucher (Summer of ’42) to do so. Max Baer, Jr. directed and produced the film – he was, at the time, best known for playing Jethro Bodine on the hit TV series The Beverly Hillbillies. Young actors Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor were cast in the leads, along with Joan Hotchkiss, James Best (giving a sensitive and wonderful performance), and others. Raucher changed the spelling of Billie to Billy and his screenplay fleshed out the events of the song, and gave the audience the reason for Billy Joe’s jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Transforming pain and injustice into love and compassion is a rendering that has been universal to poets and prophets for centuries. In present times, choosing to amplify community and positivity through art can seem like a radical act. With the arrival of People Are My Drug, Phil Cook is taking the spark from the lights left on by musical heroes and offering a torch for listeners as they navigate their own dark corners. Where 2015's Southland Mission illuminated for listeners what Phil Cook hears in his head, this latest record lays bare the way that music makes him feel. Side A alone, culminating with the shiver-inducing ''Another Mother's Son,'' has the capacity to light a fire in even the coldest of hearts. Having only recently stepped into the center of the stage as a solo artist, Cook now takes a moment, citing the power of community as his thesis statement. Each track asserts that he alone is no greater than the sum of the people who have brought him to this moment. Instead of standing on the shoulders of his heroes, Cook is humbly kneeling at their feet.

The Mulligan Brothers are releasing their third studio album, Songs for the Living and Otherwise this summer. The album brings joy and pleasure from dark songs about life, loneliness, death and spirituality. Lead singer/songwriter Ross Newell’s warm, sincere voice brings out every emotion between pleasure and pain and makes you want to feel them over and over again.

This is an album that asks a big question. That question is, how does a band from Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, UK manage to get such an authentic Americana sound?! Listening to this album you would swear this band had southern States dirt under their fingernails – it’s dark, broody and moody in all the best possible ways and it has American gothic influences running all the way through it!

On his third outing, guitarist and producer Gurf Morlix shifts gears with a cranking clatter. While his previous recordings were saturated with loud and greasy guitars and killer bluesy riffs that provided enough good vibes to start-or end a party, this set is markedly different; it's a solid country record, stripped to the rag and bone shop of the heart, and full of broken love songs. And though the subject matter is on the low-down side of lonesome, the musical groove is prescribed as pure honky tonk pain management.

Classic is a soft rock song by British singer-songwriter Adrian Gurvitz from his solo album, Classic. Warner Bros. Music decided to form a special label, Pacific Records, for their composers who also performed. O Day was the first artist signed, and his first release was Undercover Angel. The original vinyl pressing was released with the B-side Just You. Lonely Boy is an international hit song, written and recorded by Andrew Gold for his album Whats Wrong with This Picture? It spent five months on the American charts, peaking at number seven in both Canada and the United States. Shes Gone is a song written and originally performed by pop music duo Daryl Hall and John Oates. It was included on their album, Abandoned Luncheonette.

Chip Taylor will probably always be known as the songwriter who wrote "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning." Born John Wesley Voight (actor Jon Voight is his older brother), Taylor began playing country music while still in high school in Yonkers, New York. After finishing high school, he briefly took up his father's occupation, becoming a professional golfer.

After hearing the recent tribute compilation Total Lee! which is quite mesmerizing, I decided to pick up this CD to see what Hazlewood is doing today. For Every Solution is a little more country than I expected, but after a couple of listens, I started to enjoy it for what it is. I won't natter on about Lee's past accomplishments, they are well known. I will say that after more than 40 years in the business that he sounds great and that this CD stands tall among his best. (Kurt Harding)

What do you get when you pair Stewart Halcomb and Holly Helms together? Along with tight harmonies, sure-footed songwriting direction, high energy shows, authenticity, and undeniable chemistry, you ultimately get - The Springs. At just 22 and 24, the driven pair is carving out a place of longevity in Music City. Featuring both male and female vocals, The Springs come packed with an always growing fan base. The versatile multi-award winning duo delivers Country, Southern Rock, and traditional favorites, offering something for the whole family.

Tyga has spent the past few months rolling out new videos in support of his latest Kyoto album a few, but today hes back with some all new original music for us. Weezer fulfilled a year-long, fan-led campaign last month when they covered the Toto classic Africa. Generous gesture for fans has actually turned into the one of the bands biggest hits. Done for Me is a song by American singer Charlie Puth, featuring guest vocals from American singer Kehlani. Written by Kehlani, Jacob Kasher, John Ryan and its producer Puth, it was released by Atlantic Records. You Make It Easy is a song written by Florida Georgia Line members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley with Morgan Wallen and Jordan Schmidt and recorded by American country music singer Jason Aldean.

In the fall of 1978, John Prine returned home to Chicago for a concert performance at the city's famed, Park West. This show, captured on the originally limited edition album September '78, features another side of John Prine - backed by an electric band.

Sherman Holmes’ solo debut The Richmond Sessions can’t help being a milestone: it’s the esteemed singer and bassist’s first recording since the passing of his brother and musical partners in the Holmes Brothers, Wendell Holmes and Popsy Dixon, both in 2015. But his solo debut, dedicated to the memories of Wendell and Popsy, is no somber affair. The blend of bluegrass, gritty rock ‘n’ roll, and joyful gospel will be familiar to Holmes Brothers fans. And with some of his strongest vocals to date, the album demonstrates that Sherman is still an artist in his prime.

2018 release from the country music star. The album, her fourth, was recorded with producer Dave Cobbin Nashville's legendary RCA Studio A. Working with some of her closest collaborators, including Brendan Benson and Waylon Payne, and longtime friends Anderson East and Angaleena Presley, Monroe wrote all of the songs on Sparrow. She recorded the album while she was pregnant with her first child. "I felt powerful," she says. "I wasn't puffing, I wasn't drinking wine, I was just singing."

The Outsider was recorded in Atlanta, Denver, Nashville and Austin during a non-stop touring cycle and mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer/producer Vance Powell (who has worked with the likes of Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell and Jack White). About The Outsider Dayton says, "It's a lot like my previous album The Revealer, but even more stripped down with some sweet acoustic guitar songs and some raw electric guitar work." All the influences are there; the George Jones-inspired singing on "Changin' My Ways," the Outlaw country twang of Waylon and Jerry Reed on "Belly of the Beast," the angst and energy of The Clash and X on the hillbilly protest song "Charlottesville," and the deep east Texas blues and Cajun rockabilly of "May Have To Do It (But I Don't Have to Like It)" and "Hurtin' Behind The Pine Curtain." While there are many different sides to him musically, this all rolls into one big hybrid that Jesse Dayton has been honing for over 20 years.

The Versatile Flatt & Scruggs: Pickin', Strummin' And Singin' is a 1965 album by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. A proper compact disc for this album has never been released so this is sourced from the 24-bit/96kHz hi-res disc, reissued by Columbia Records.