Release Day Picks: July 26th 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 Spoon, Dickey Betts, SPAGA and Rayland Baxter. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Spoon – Everything Hits At Once: The Best of Spoon

The Scoop: Austin-based Spoon made their debut with the 1994 release of their EP Nefarious. The band fronted by Britt Daniel has gone on to release nine studio albums, the most recent being 2017’s Hot Thoughts. Culled from those nine LPs, and featuring a new single “No Bullets Spent,” Spoon’s first greatest hits compilation, Everything Hits At Once: The Best Of Spoon is out today via Matador Records. The new track was recorded at percussionist and co-founding member Jim Eno’s Public Hi Fi studio in Austin. “The idea of doing a best-of came to us a couple times,” Daniel stated. “First I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but at some point I remembered that when I got my first Cure record it was Standing on a Beach. When I got my first New Order record, it was Substance. That was how I met those bands, and I moved backwards from there but I still listen to those comps. I love a greatest hits LP when it’s done well. It can be a thing unto itself.”

Dickey Betts – Ramblin’ Man Live At The St. George Theatre

The Scoop: The Allman Brothers Band co-founding guitarist Dickey Betts retired following a 2014 performance in his hometown of Sarasota. After a 2017 interview with Betts generated lots of interest, Dickey returned to the road last year. He played a handful of concerts in 2018 before health issues led him back into retirement. A concert film and live album featuring The Dickey Betts Band’s July 21, 2018 show documents what may be one of the guitarist’s last performances. Ramblin’ Man Live At The St. George Theatre was recorded live at the St. George Theatre in New York City. Dickey’s band included his son Duane Betts on lead guitar, drummer Frankie Lombardi, keyboardist Mike Kach, bassist Pedro Arevalo, slide guitarist Damon Fowler and drummer Steve Camilleri. The 10-song set goes heavy on Dickey-penned ABB classics such as “Blue Sky,” “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed,” “Ramblin’ Man” and “Melissa.” Additionally, the group was joined by Devon Allman for “Midnight Rider.”

SPAGA – SPAGA

The Scoop: The Disco Biscuits keyboardist Aron Magner went back to his roots in forming the acoustic jazz trio SPAGA. Magner along with Jason Fraticelli on bass and Matt Scarano on drums put out their self-titled debut studio album on Aron’s AM Records imprint. The six-track LP contains five songs the pianist wrote for the project along with a reworked version of “Resurrection,” a tune the Disco Biscuits debuted in 2003 and have played as recently as New Year’s Eve. “When we first began recording, I was having fun exploring songs with no preconceptions of what the music actually was yet or, for that matter, who we were as a trio, and that provided for unexpected and welcoming results,” Magner said of the band and album.

Rayland Baxter – good mmornin

The Scoop: Nashville singer-songwriter Rayland Baxter is perhaps an unlikely source for an album of Mac Miller covers. But that’s exacty what good mmornin is: Baxter’s interpreations of seven of Miller’s originals. The collection of covers features Baxter’s father, famed pedal steel guitarist Bucky Baxter, as well keyboardist/guitarist Aaron Embry and drummer Eric Slick. Baxter first encountered Miller, who died last year at the age of 26, during Miller’s set at the 2016 Okeechobee Music Festival. Baxter was inspired by the performance and cited Miller as a significant inspiration for Baxter’s 2018 album, Wide Awake. Proceeds from the sales of good mmornin will be donated to the MusiCares Mac Miller Legacy Fund.

Compiled by Scott Bernstein and Andy Kahn.