Release Day Picks: September 6th 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 The Highwomen, Iggy Pop, Tinariwen, The Wood Brothers, Miles Davis and The Allman Brothers Band. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

The Highwomen – The Highwomen

The Scoop: Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby are The Highwomen. Word of the supergroup first surfaced when Shires “jumped the gun” back in January. A couple of months later, the group taking its name from The Highwaymen supergroup comprised of outlaw country legends Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson was confirmed. Producer Dave Cobb helmed recording sessions at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A with contributions coming from Sheryl Crow on background vocals and bass, vocalist Yola, Cobb on acoustic and electric guitars, guitarist (and Shires’ husband) Jason Isbell, Carlile’s band mates bassist Phil Hanseroth, guitarist Tim Hanseroth and drummer Chris Powell, as well as former Gregg Allman Band keyboardist (who has collaborated with Shires) Peter Levin. Carlile, Hemby, Morris, Shires, Isbell and the Hanseroths earned songwriting credits, as did Ray LaMontagne, Miranda Lambert, Lori McKenna, Rodney Clawson and others. “Anyone can be a Highwoman,” Carlile stated. “It’s about banding together, abandoning as much ego as humanly possible, holding one another up and amplifying other women every chance we get. Shoulder to shoulder. One push, one love.”

Iggy Pop – Free

The Scoop: While Iggy Pop claimed that his Grammy-nominated 2016 album Post Pop Depression would be his last, the Godfather of Punk apparently had more to say. Iggy has now followed up with a new record called Free out on Loma Vista. “This album just kind of happened to me, and I let it happen,” Pop said in a statement. Helping along that happening was producer and jazz trumpeter Leron Thomas as well as Noveller, the project of Brooklyn-based guitarist Sarah Lipstate. Always the innovator, Pop offers up a different sonic beast on Free.

Tinariwen – Amadjar

The Scoop: Tinariwen followed their October 2018 performance at the Taragalte Festival in the Moroccan Sahara by traveling through southern Morocco, Western Sahara and along the Atlantic coast en route to Nouakchott, Mauritania. Rehearsals were held each night after the group of Tuareg musicians set up camp. Another two weeks were spent in a camp in the desert near Nouakchott. While there, further sessions took place with guest Mauritanian vocalist Noura Mint Seymali and her husband, guitarist Jeiche Ould Chigaly, that were recorded by a French production team in a “large tent in a few live takes, without headphones or effects.” A number of Western musicians were then tapped to add to the recordings, with Micah Nelson providing additional mandolin and charango, Warren Ellis of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds adding violin and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))), Cass McCombs and Rodolphe Burger supplying guitar parts across the album’s 13 tracks.

The Wood Brothers – Live At The Fillmore

The Scoop: Earlier this year, on March 8 and 9, The Wood Brothers played a two-night stand at the famed Fillmore in San Francisco. Highlights from the run have been released via Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers as Live At The Fillmore. Guitarist/vocalist Oliver Wood, bassist Chris Wood and multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix treated fans to material from throughout their career as well as a few choice covers. “That room just feels like a classic from the moment you arrive,” Oliver Wood said of performing at the Fillmore. “All of our heroes have performed there at one time or another, and it’s really special to be able to walk in their footsteps. It inspires us every we time we get on that stage.” The LP features a total of 14 tracks

Miles Davis – Rubberband

The Scoop: Cool continues with the release of the lost Miles Davis album Rubberband. Davis began recording the album in October of 1985 with producers Randy Hall and Zane Giles. The record was set to be the legendary jazz man’s debut on Warner Bros. after he parted ways with longtime record company Columbia. But the album was shelved in favor of Davis’ 1986 release, Tutu. Recently, Hall and Giles dusted off the project with the help of Davis’ nephew and original drummer Vince Wilburn, Jr. who also took on producing duties. Rubberband features guest vocals from singers Ledisi and Lalah Hathaway on the tracks “Rubberband Of Life” and “So Emotional,” respectively.

The Allman Brothers Band – Fillmore West ’71

The Scoop: Just a few months before The Allman Brothers Band played a historic run at Fillmore East in New York City that would be documented on the iconic live album At Fillmore East, the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame act settled in for a series of gigs at Fillmore West in San Francisco. Fillmore West ‘71 features highlights from the run in San Francisco spread across four CDs. The previously unreleased set has been compiled from reel-to-reel soundboard masters spanning January 29 – 31, 1971. As a bonus, Fillmore West ‘71 contains the first official release of the mammoth “Mountain Jam” the ABB laid down at The Warehouse in New Orleans on March 13, 1970.

Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.