Release Day Picks: November 1st New Album Highlights

Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Bob Dylan, Michael Kiwanuka, Vetiver, Miranda Lambert, Jeff Lynne’s ELO and The Rolling Stones. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan (featuring Johnny Cash) – Travelin’ Thru, 1967 – 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15

The Scoop: In 1969, legendary artists Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash teamed up for a session in Nashville. Recordings from the session for the bulk of the 15th installment of Dylan’s Bootleg Series. Travelin’ Thru, 1967 – 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15 is a three-CD/LP set documenting Bob’s journey to Nashville between 1967 – 1969. The collection includes the collaborations with Cash, previously unreleased tracks from sessions that yielded John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait and tracks recorded in 1970 with iconic bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs for Earl Scruggs: His Family & Friends, a PBS special. Over 40 of the 50 tracks included on the Columbia/Legacy Recordings set are previously unreleased.

Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka

The Scoop: English singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka tapped Danger Mouse and Inflo to produce his 2016 album, Love & Hate. The working relationship was a success, leading Michael to bring the pair back to produce his new Polydor release, Kiwanuka. Sessions for the 13-track LP were held in London, New York City and Los Angeles. “This album, it’s kind of a defiant thing,” explained Kiwanuka. “I’m engaging with who I am and I’m not going to have an alter ego, or become Sasha Fierce or Ziggy Stardust, even through everyone’s telling me I need to be this, that or the other. I can just be Michael Kiwanuka.”

Vetiver – Up On High

The Scoop: Singer-songwriter Andy Cabic returns with the latest Vetiver album, Up On High, which comes four years since the release of 2015’s Complete Strangers. The 10-track new album out on Mama Bird Recording Co. once again finds Cabic working with engineer/co-producer Thom Monahan, who also appears on the record. Cabic composed the album on acoustic guitar and held initial tracking sessions with his band (the same musicians that contributed to Perfect Strangers) this spring at a friend’s home in the California desert. In the summer, Cabic and Monahan completed recording at the latter’s Los Angeles-based Golden Void studio, during which “other friends popped by to lend their talents.”

Miranda Lambert – Wildcard

The Scoop: “When people listen to this record, I want them to know that I see them and hear them,” Miranda Lambert stated. “I feel you, because I’m just a girl from East Texas, writing about all the things that go on in my world and in the worlds of people around me. I want people to get along, you know, just be who you are, own it and move on from the moments you couldn’t live in.” The country musician teamed with producer Jay Joyce for the first time on her seventh studio album, Wildcard, which is out today on Vanner Records/RCA Records Nashville. The 14-tracks on Wildcard, which follows 2016’s The Weight of These Wings, were co-written by Lambert. Among those earning songwriting credits on Wildcard is The Highwomen‘s Natalie Hemby, while fellow member of the supergroup Maren Morris appears on the track “Way Too Pretty for Prison.” ”

Jeff Lynne’s ELO – From Out Of Nowhere

The Scoop: Jeff Lynne is back with his first album in four years, Out Of Nowhere, and only his second in nearly two decades following the release of Alone In The Universe in 2015 — his first in 14 years. Out Of Nowhere finds Lynne still writing infectiously catchy tunes whether they be whimsical rockers or wistful ballads. Along with his songwriting prowess, Lynne’s musicianship is also on full display with the Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer playing nearly every instrument — drums, bass, keys, guitars and vibes — and also sings every note from lead to layered harmonies. Lynne did bring in his Electric Light Orchestra pal and keyboard wizard Richard Tandy to put down a piano solo on the rocking “One More Time.”

The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed (50th Anniversary Limited Deluxe Edition)

The Scoop: The Rolling Stones released their era-defining album Let It Bleed in late 1969. To celebrate the record, The Stones have issued Let It Bleed (50th Anniversary Limited Deluxe Edition). The box set features the original album remastered — by renowned, Grammy-winning engineer Bob Ludwig — in both stereo and mono on a double LP vinyl and two super-hybrid audio CDs. Fans who were around in 1969 might remember the 7-inch single of “Honky Tonk Women” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which is also reproduced with the box set in a picture sleeve. Other features include lithographs, a poster and an 80-page hardcover book with never-before-seen photos by Stones tour photographer Ethan Russell as well as an essay by famed rock journalist David Fricke.

Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.