***The thirteen edition in the Imaginational Anthem series features renditions of Bruce Cockburn tunes by James Toth (Wooden Wand), Kyle Hammett Duo (ft. Luke Schneider), Wet Tuna (Matt Valentine), Jerry DeCicca (ft Bill Callahan), and others.
CD $11.25
04/05/2024
LP $20.50
04/05/2024
***Muireann Bradley is a young blues, ragtime, roots and folk guitarist and singer based in Ballybofey in County Donegal Ireland. Tompkins Square actually signed her when she was 13, but because of Covid and just “growing up", the process of recording took place over three years. She will be 17 in December, 2023. "This is my first album. Most of these tunes were originally recorded by the great blues men and women who were making records from the 1920s and 1930s right up in some cases to the early 1970s. I have also found inspiration for the renditions recorded here in the playing of some of the musicians who began recording this music in the 1960s and later, and who in some cases learned at the feet of the greats. Many of these guitarists played pivotal roles in the 1960s blues revival and subsequent 'rediscovery' of many of the greats of country blues. I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news. My father could of course play all this stuff on guitar, I remember watching him when I was very young and thinking 'I want to...
CD $15.50
12/08/2023
LP $20.50
12/08/2023
MC $10.25
TBD
V/a
Imaginational Anthem XII: I Thought I Told You - A Yorkshire Tribute to Michael Chapman
Tompkins Square
***Michael Chapman (1941-2021) released his debut album Rainmaker in 1969 on Harvest. He went on to release over fifty albums and influence many with his evocative songwriting and guitar prowess. From heady jams to expressive ballads to experimental noise, Chapman’s work continues to inspire. Tompkins Square recruited Henry Parker to curate a collection of covers by working musicians from Chapman’s home turf in Northern England. With stunning artwork by local artist Bunty Marshall mapping the important places in Michael’s life, this 12th volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series is the ultimate tribute to a very dearly missed artist.
CD $15.50
10/20/2023
LP $20.50
10/20/2023
MC $10.25
10/20/2023
***Ohio-born Rick Deitrick took up the guitar at 16 and decided to approach his playing as if he was the only guy on an island and the instrument had just washed ashore one day. According to Rick, "I completely divorced my playing from any formal music knowledge, but it was very important to me to use original tuning. During those years, the ‘60s/70's, there was a lot of acoustic guitar playing, often using open tuning as a base. I wanted to create whole tones without de-tuning and keep access to the complex sounds stock tuning provided." Rick pressed 500 LPs of his tranquil solo guitar record, Gentle Wilderness, in 1978. He gave copies to libraries and left a few in the middle of the wilderness, next to trails, "so people would find them." Rick sought inspiration in nature and in particular the various rivers scattered around the Western United States, often composing songs while seated beside them. Now, Tompkins Square is proud to present a 5CD retrospective box set, Rick Deitrick, The Unguitarist : Complete Works, 1969 - 2022, which makes a strong case for Rick as one of the most individual voices in acoustic guitar music over the past half century.
5XCD $47.85
06/16/2023
***REISSUED!!! Bobby Lee trades in a wide screen brand of cosmic country-folk, full of space and pawn shop guitars. There are touches of JJ Cale's analogue Americana, the swampy groove of Tony Joe White and Richard Thompson's sinewy, modal guitar work. Amps hum in the warm afternoon sun, kids and dogs snooze on the grass and broken drum machines keep time with the universe... Open sky/scorched earth improvisations recorded to four track tape during the rare moments of solitude afforded by lockdown and early fatherhood. Bobby Lee's "worn-denim psych-country" remains, but the ancestral spirits of Ashra, Popol Vuh and Terry Riley are present here too. Time and technological limitations have been embraced. A song dreamt up, tracked and mixed in an afternoon, never to be tampered with again. Imperfections allowed to stand; knowing that nothing is ever truly finished. The Bob Ross school of philosophy. Pressed on limited colored vinyl.
LP $20.50
04/28/2023
***Under An Endless Sky represents the interchange that took place between electronic composer Francesco Paolo Paladino, composer and writer Luca Chino Ferrari, and the legendary Dorothy Moskowitz, an icon of underground culture who broke all kinds of new ground as a member of The United States of America. Led by the charismatic composer Joseph Byrd, the band released their lone eponymous album on Columbia Records in 1968. It has taken on a mythic status that has grown through the years, sampled by Diplo and Mac Miller and widely acknowledged as a visionary psychedelic classic. Francesco Paolo Paladino, an avant-garde Italian composer contacted Dorothy, inviting her to sing on some of his compositions. When she heard his 2021 CD release of "Barene & Other Works, " she recognized that they shared a similarly experimental point of view and she accepted his invitation. Paladino is known for his collaborations with Martyn Bates, Allison O'Donnell, Simon Fisher Turner, and other world-renowned contemporary composers, as well as his own sought-after 1985 debut LP Doublings and Silences Volume 1. Francesco has long collaborated with Italian writer Luca Chino Ferrari, author of biographies of Nick Drake, Third Ear Band, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley and Syd Barrett, among others. He submitted lyrics to Dorothy and together they began a profound and unique collaboration on the adaptation of lyrics to music, delving into words and meanings, phonetic properties and their singability. “Lyrics that have the audacity to deal with complex themes of human existence, real philosophical cutaways that...
CD $15.50
03/17/2023
***Endless Skyways is Bobby Lee’s third full album and second release on Tompkins Square. Returning to the full band sound of his debut, the name Endless Skyways is borrowed from a line in Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, one of the cornerstones of American music. That song’s mix of the terrestrial (“ribbons of highway”) and celestial consciousness encapsulates Lee’s brand of widescreen cosmic americana; a duality also evident in the album’s split between deep-fried rural rock and ambient country. Dusty boots but third eye open.
MC $10.25
02/17/2023
LP $20.50
06/23/2023
***Harvey Mandel is among the most innovative guitarists to emerge from the Chicago blues scene of the late 1960s. His career began at Twist City and other local hotspots, sharing stages with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy. He came up in that scene alongside Charlie Musselwhite, Mike Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg and Steve Miller, leading to an invitation from Bill Graham to open for Cream at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium in August 1967. Mandel was a member of Canned Heat, appearing with them at Woodstock. He played on numerous John Mayall albums, and on the Rolling Stones' 1975 LP Black and Blue ("Hot Stuff", "Memory Motel"), having auditioned for Mick Taylor's job, which ultimately went to Ron Wood. Who’s Calling is the 16th album under Harvey Mandel’s name as a leader, and his second for Tompkins Square following the 2016 acclaimed comeback, Snake Pit. Joined by drummer and co-producer Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker, Laraaji) and bassist Andy Hess (Gov't Mule, Black Crowes), Who’s Calling finds the 77 year old guitar legend as vibrant and creative as ever. Despite unspeakable health setbacks and of course a Covid shutdown, Harvey has emerged miraculously stronger, proclaiming he’s never played better than on Who’s Calling.
CD $15.50
02/03/2023
***"If there was a silver lining to the cloud of uncertainty that was life during the early days of the pandemic, it was that all of the isolation provided a clear break from the entrenched routines of day to day life. This respite allowed me to see in sharp contrast all of the things that were important in my life, and all of the things that were trivial, and thus expendable. It was during this time that I began to write in earnest for this second Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble record." "Over the course of a year, I would bring my new compositions to my collaborators (Jason Toth and Joel Styzens), and usually after a very limited number of rehearsals we would enter the studio at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago and record the songs on an old Tascam ½” tape machine. There were four such studio sessions, in which all recorded material was culled down to these 9 songs. We recorded the material with a strong improvisational approach, and a couple of these songs are essentially first takes. I am very proud of the material on this album, and the energy we captured in the studio. I am glad to partner with Tompkins Square in sharing this album with the world." "The Chicago group, which features Elijah McLaughlin on 12 and 6 string guitars, Joel Styzens on hammered dulcimer, and Jason Toth on upright bass, blends elements of American primitivism guitar styles, with free jazz and modern classical music...
LP $17.75
09/30/2022
***Searching In Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert is a previously unissued recording of jazz icon MAL WALDRON's mesmerizing performance at the Five Days of Jazz series in Grenoble, France on March 23, 1978. Waldron was Billie Holiday’s final accompanist, played on classic sessions with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Jackie McLean among others, and recorded dozens of solo albums as a leader before his passing in 2002. Originally produced by the legendary ANDRE FRANCIS and transferred from the original Radio France tapes, this is the first official release of this music in cooperation with the Mal Waldron Estate and Ina (The Institut national de l'audiovisuel). The beautifully designed, deluxe 2-CD set includes photos by K. ABE, BRIAN MCMILLEN and RAYMOND ROSS; an extensive 24-page booklet with a heartfelt statement by Mal's daughter MALA WALDRON, plus essays by producer/"Jazz Detective" ZEV FELDMAN, journalist ADAM SHATZ and Ina's PASCAL ROZAT; and interviews with modern jazz piano luminaries RAN BLAKE and MATTHEW SHIPP. Searching In Grenoble features classic Waldron originals such as "Soul Eyes" and "All Alone," and jazz standards "You Don't Know What Love Is," "It Could Happen to You" and "I Thought About You.”
2XCD $23.95
09/23/2022
V/a
Imaginational Anthem XI - Luke Schneider Presents Chrome Universal - A Survey of Modern Pedal Steel
Tompkins Square
***Curated by in-demand Nashville pedal steel maverick and Third Man recording artist Luke Schneider, the eleventh volume of Tompkins Square’s venerable acoustic guitar series Imaginational Anthem features exclusive tracks by legend BJ Cole, as well as leading exponents on the instrument including Susan Alcorn, Luke himself, and British expat / Nashville hotshot Spencer Cullum among others. Nashville native and Merge recording artist William Tyler has written a beautiful detailed history of the pedal steel for the package.
MC $10.25
06/03/2022
CD $15.50
08/12/2022
LP $20.50
12/02/2022
***The first official release of the legendary and influential Brazilian acoustic guitarist BOLA SETE's live recordings at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle, WA featuring bassist SEBASTIÃO NETO and drummer PAULINHO MAGALHÃES. Produced by Grammy-nominated jazz detective ZEV FELDMAN, and remastered from the original tape reels in cooperation with The Bola Sete Estate, this deluxe 3-CD set includes an extensive 40 page booklet with rare photos from The Penthouse; essay by music critic GREG CASSEUS (aka GREG CAZ); new interviews and statements by guitar icon CARLOS SANTANA, legendary composer/pianist LALO SCHIFRIN, Sete's friend, pianist and producer, GEORGE WINSTON, and Bola Sete's widow ANNE SETE; plus an effusive tribute by the late guitar great JOHN FAHEY. Samba in Seattle is a significant addition to the recorded legacy of an oft–sampled musician (A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla and Dan The Automator) whose career straddled bossa nova, jazz–pop and early New Age.
3XCD $36.25
12/03/2021
***Elsa Hewitt is a London-based music producer and writer hailing from Sussex, via Yorkshire. Beginning as a young singer-songwriter producing demos on a four-track, she progressed through fronting post-punk bands and solo electronic songwriting, all the while developing a passion for album-making which would ultimately lead her to electronic production, establishing her name producing avant-garde, experimental & ambient, leftfield dance, and lo-fi, psychedelia. Since her 2017 official debut ‘Cameras From Mars’, stepping onto the scene as a Future Bubbler and Lynsey de Paul Prize winner, Hewitt has amassed a series of distinct yet interlinked philosophical worlds; each one holding its own tones of joyful beauty and abstract darkness. With a boundless approach to merging elements of dance & ambient, Hewitt’s adventurous approach remains pinned by her earthy voice, idiosyncratic songwriting style and sharply poetic lyricism.
LP $17.75
10/15/2021
***Coyote Canyon is a wilderness area behind my daughter's house where coyotes gather and howl before taking off for their nightly foraging. Little Tujunga (pronounced "Tuhunga") is a river running through the Angeles Forest near a house I lived in five decades ago. Half my ideas for this piece came from onshore guitar ruminating. The rest was improvised in studio. "Emma" was my close and sweet companion during this period, a lifelong deep friend. I composed her song one evening at the kitchen table of our place while she was cooking. "Tumbleweedin'" describes a desert tumbleweed storm. I menaced every inch of the Yamaha, recreating the effect of these windblown monsters screeching along boulders, smacking into cactus and anything else in their way at often impossible speeds, following the whims of the heavy winds. This song was completely improvised at the moment in studio and forgotten. "Roy's Rain" is a tribute to my great good friend and musician killed in a car accident in 1973. I found "For Marsha Version2" on a well-worn studio tape. It's a variant of the same composition on the Gentle Wilderness album. I like this loose and flowy version. "Movin' On" has one thing on its mind—getting away fast and now. "Going Home" is my improvised take on an American root song. The above seven were recorded between 1972-1975. "Three Sisters" was recorded on a 20-minute studio break in 1999 describing three barren red hills somewhere in the Arizona desert, a cherished location.
LP $17.75
08/27/2021
***In 1967, the folk-pop group The Association had a massive hit with a song called “Windy” penned by an unknown young woman named Ruthann Friedman. Two years later, she released her own album Constant Companion on Warner/Reprise Records that sounded nothing like “Windy”—it had more in common with her labelmate Joni Mitchell or cult-hero Linda Perhacs. Decades later, Ruthann would be declared an “astral folk goddess” and championed by the likes of Devendra Banhart. Around that time, reissue producer Pat Thomas compiled a collection of previously unreleased demos, home recordings, and lost songs circa 1965-1970 from Ruthann's personal archive including the original version of "Windy." Titled Hurried Life, Ruthann recently declared, “That’s the one that I really like—that was the first time going back into the archives to find songs that might be reissued. I think those were representative of me.” First released on CD in 2006 (and long out of print), it’s now available for the first time ever on vinyl LP! With delicious artwork by Nat Russell.
LP $17.75
07/17/2021
***“The two latest reissues to spin off from our acclaimed Imaginational Anthem Volume 8: The Private Press feature the solo guitar compositions of Russell Potter, recorded in the last waning days of the initial American Primitive explosion. A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone’s Throw’, while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979. Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, from the initial record label name of Fonytone (which more than a little recalls Fahey’s earliest record label, Fonotone), to the arcane song titles and references to obscure rags. Even as he looks to his elders, Potter’s debut release nimbly evinces a complete mastery of his form and is all the more remarkable for one of such tender years, as only the chutzpah of youth can account for such moves as successfully grafting one of your own composition to one of John Fahey’s, as he does here. There’s a very immediate, lovely, and real homespun quality to Potter’s chiming twelve-string compositions that puts it in the realm of those classic records that seem to simply exist outside of time. Shortly after ‘A Stones Throw’, Potter produced & released a 45rpm...
LP $17.75
06/25/2021
***“The two latest reissues to spin off from our acclaimed Imaginational Anthem Volume 8: The Private Press feature the solo guitar compositions of Russell Potter, recorded in the last waning days of the initial American Primitive explosion. A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone’s Throw’, while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979. Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, from the initial record label name of Fonytone (which more than a little recalls Fahey’s earliest record label, Fonotone), to the arcane song titles and references to obscure rags. Even as he looks to his elders, Potter’s debut release nimbly evinces a complete mastery of his form and is all the more remarkable for one of such tender years, as only the chutzpah of youth can account for such moves as successfully grafting one of your own composition to one of John Fahey’s, as he does here. There’s a very immediate, lovely, and real homespun quality to Potter’s chiming twelve-string compositions that puts it in the realm of those classic records that seem to simply exist outside of time. Shortly after ‘A Stones Throw’, Potter produced & released a 45rpm single by an...
LP $17.75
06/25/2021
***Welsh musician GWENIFER RAYMOND's 2018 debut album, You Never Were Much of a Dancer, introduced a new voice on acoustic guitar, receiving 5 stars in The Guardian, big spreads in MOJO and UNCUT, and airplay on multiple BBC programs. This led to months of touring on the European festival circuit. Her latest, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, finds Raymond ranging into unexplored experimental territory, drawing from her Welsh roots. “My new album, 'Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain', has eight songs in it. All were recorded in a basement flat in central Brighton, locked-down amidst a global pandemic. I recorded them myself and neither I, nor any of the songs saw said outbreak coming. Coronavirus may have dictated the circumstance under which the album was recorded but it did not otherwise inform any of the compositions that run through it; like I said, we didn't see it coming. Growing up in Wales was not a theme strongly present in my first record (perhaps not too surprising in an album of 'American Primitive'), but I feel as though my memories of that time have started to insinuate themselves in the tunes here. In my opinion, landscape does a lot to shape a community's folk music; from my childhood I recall tall, spooky trees, black against the grey sky, breath misting in cold air, and I have tried to take something of Welsh folk horror to make my own 'Welsh Primitive'. Whilst this isn't the only theme present in the album,...
LP $15.50
11/13/2020
CD $12.75
11/13/2020
***Tompkins Square is the early label home of such talents as William Tyler, Ryley Walker, Hiss Golden Messenger, Gwenifer Raymond and many more. Joining the stable is SAM BURTON, from Salt Lake City, now based in Los Angeles. After several years circulating homemade cassettes on labels like Chthonic and embraced by blogs like Cassette Gods, Sam has recorded his first proper debut album with producer JARVIS TAVENIERE (PURPLE MOUNTAINS, WOODS). The LP is preceded by two limited edition 45s. Sam's music has appeared on a MOJO CD sampler, on the BBC, and is now being discovered the world over.
LP $11.25
10/30/2020
CD $8.95
10/30/2020
7" $7.25
01/31/2020
***Tompkins Square is the early label home of such talents as William Tyler, Ryley Walker, Hiss Golden Messenger, Gwenifer Raymond and many more. Joining the stable is SAM BURTON, from Salt Lake City, now based in Los Angeles. After several years circulating homemade cassettes on labels like Chthonic and embraced by blogs like Cassette Gods, Sam has recorded his first proper debut album with producer JARVIS TAVENIERE (PURPLE MOUNTAINS, WOODS). The LP is preceded by two limited edition 45s. Sam's music has appeared on a MOJO CD sampler, on the BBC, and is now being discovered the world over.
LP $15.50
10/30/2020
CD $12.75
10/30/2020
***Guitarist WALL MATTHEWS is the surviving member of experimental '70s collective, ENTOURAGE. Sampled by Four Tet, their name whispered in reverence through the decades, Entourage forged bold musical ideas on their two rare ’70s Folkways LPs. Tompkins Square released Ceremony of Dreams: Studio Sessions and Outtakes, 1972-1977, in 2017 to wide acclaim. Spine River: The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981 is a collection of unreleased or obscure music by the master guitarist. This volume will be released as a limited edition LP, along with four other digital volumes of Wall's music, chronologically mapping his career.
LP $14.50
05/08/2020
***DANIEL MANDRYCHENKO is a multi-genre guitarist from the Bay Area, currently residing in Long Beach, CA. As an active member of the Bay Area jazz community, Daniel shared the stage with Dave Liebman, Marcus Printup, Carl Allen, and Charles McPherson among others. For his debut, Daniel chose producer ADAM MUNOZ, known for his work on multiple Grammy-nominated Bill Frisell records, and with Herbie Hancock, Joanna Newsom, Branford Marsalis and many more. Daniel also assembled a crack team to accompany him on his debut album. EVAN WILLIAMS (drums) and DANNY CASTRO (upright and electric bass) cut their teeth playing with a litany of the Bay Area’s best musicians: Howard Wiley, Akira Tana, Calvin Keys, John Stowell, Mitch Butler, Darryl Green. DANN ZINN (tenor saxophone) has played with many greats such as Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard. Anti is one of the last records ever recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. A remarkable musical statement from this promising young guitarist.
CD $12.75
02/21/2020
***Crow Autumn is the latest album by English composer RICHARD SKELTON, who releases haunting and evocative music under a variety of guises through his own much-acclaimed Sustain-Release Private Press. From CLOUWBECK to HEIDIKA, CAROUSELL to RIFTMUSIC, his recordings brim with intensity and stark beauty, redolent of the landscapes that inspire them. Recording here as A BROKEN CONSORT—his most prolific and successful pseudonym—Skelton expertly builds on the achievements of last year's Box Of Birch, creating a dense-yet-delicate weave of textures from a broad palette of acoustic instruments, including guitar, mandolin, piano, violin and accordion. The result is a stunning sequence of swells and eddies, culminating in the orchestral intensity of “The River,” with its torrent of interleaved violin melodies and seething undertow. Originally released in two installments on the artist's own label, this special edition for Tompkins Square distills the essence of those recordings into a coherent whole, and augments them with new material, including the beautifully elegiac “Like Rain,” and the brooding coda of “Leaves.” With Crow Autumn, Skelton has created a work of enduring beauty that should firmly establish him as one of England's most uniquely talented contemporary artists, capable of rendering with a fine brush the visceral majesty of the natural landscape.
LP $9.35
01/01/2020
LP $15.50
01/01/2020
LP $15.50
01/01/2020
***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! The first-ever full length commercially available live album by old-time legend ROSCOE HOLCOMB. Notes by festival producer LOU CURTISS, and folklorist JOHN COHEN, who first discovered Holcomb in 1959. A favorite of Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton Features a duet with JEAN RITCHIE.
CD $13.75
01/01/2020
LP $15.50
01/01/2020
CD $13.75
01/01/2020
LP $15.50
01/01/2020
CD $13.75
01/01/2020
CD $13.85
01/01/2020
***If American Primitive Guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound is found within this collection of fourteen solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 to 1930, this set is the "Rosetta Stone" of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho & Rose, among many others. SAM MCGEE, RILEY PUCKETT, BAYLESS ROSE, SYLVESTER WEAVER, LEMUEL TURNER, FRANK HUTCHISON and DAVEY MILLER are the rural artists included in this anthology. Each one of these showcases a particular technique and sensitivity sourced from the earlier 19th century parlor guitar tradition. Several of these sides are reissued for their first time including Sylvester Weaver's "Guitar Blues," which is the first solo finger picked guitar solo ever recorded. Stunningly remastered and annotated by CHRISTOPHER KING. LP packaged in gatefold sleeves.
CD $14.00
01/01/2020
LP $15.50
01/01/2020
***Imaginational Anthem Vol. 7 is compiled by 20 year old guitarist HAYDEN PEDIGO, from Amarillo, TX. Hayden has recently been featured in Vogue and The Fader behind his own recent album release, Five Steps. Hayden's curation represents a balanced cross-section across the modern solo acoustic guitar spectrum. As with previous volumes, this one truly represents the state of the art—an area of evolving musical expression that is very vibrant and healthy indeed. Features tracks from CHUCK JOHNSON, SEAN PROPER, NORBERTO LOBO, SIMON SCOTT, DBH, JORDAN NORTON, KYLE FOSBURGH, CHRISTOPH BRUHN, MICHAEL VALLERA, DYLAN GOLDEN AYCOCK, M. MUCCI, MARIANO RODRIGUEZ, ANDREW WEATHERS, and WES TIREY.
CD $14.00
01/01/2020
***Tompkins Square reissues an obscure treasure. ROLAND WHITE’s 1976 solo album I Wasn’t Born To Rock ‘N Roll, originally issued on the Ridge Runner Records label, is remastered from the original tapes and released for the very first time on CD. Roland White, along with his brother CLARENCE, made bluegrass and country music history as members of the KENTUCKY COLONELS. Roland also played in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass, and later in Country Gazette and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Clarence famously played with the Byrds, among many others, until his tragic death in 1973. This album features ALAN MUNDE, KENNY WERTZ, ROGER BUSH and DAVE FERGUSON playing traditional tunes, as well as a composition called “Powder Creek,” co-written by Roland & Clarence. This was the first appearance of this special tune on an album, a song which Roland now describes as having been composed with his brother on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1963! The package includes original liner notes by GENE PARSONS (THE BYRDS)), new reflections from Roland, original album artwork, and one unreleased bonus track not included on the original LP.
CD $9.25
01/01/2020
***This collection of rare black gospel from the Midwest—featuring church congregations, basement recordings sessions, family bands and children’s choirs—is drawn together by two threads. The first—hope—which holds fast and unchanging, even in the most trying of circumstances. The second—circumstance—the way these recordings fell into the hands of producer, RAMONA STOUT, in Chicago at the dawn of the Obama era, when she had just about lost hope in her American Dream. Over the course of five years (2006-2011) of vinyl hustling in Chicago’s South and West Sides, these 45s came into Ramona’s hands, mixed up in milk-crates stacked with Northern Soul, water-damaged jazz and Hall and Oates LPs. After much travel and time, Ramona has articulated the spirit that drove this music forward. In this collection, she writes of this music and its relationship to the struggling communities where the records were found. Sourced from exceedingly rare 45s—many of which were vanity pressings of less than 100 copies—all of the tracks found on this collection appear for the first time since their original release. Remastered by Grammy-winning producer CHRISTOPHER KING, these recordings have been resurrected for a new generation of listeners. With art direction by Grammy-winning graphic designer SUSAN ARCHIE, this collection is a tangible, immersive experience in the struggles—the victories, the failures and the lingering hope—that defined Chicago in the post-Civil Rights era. No Other Love is a singular, impressionistic journey into music that expresses faith, despair and exuberance. It is also a profound exploration of the very meaning of...
LP $15.50
12/13/2019
CD $12.75
11/08/2019
***Tompkins Square label's very first release in 2005 was the acoustic guitar compilation, Imaginational Anthem Volume One. The concept was to showcase new talents alongside first-gen American Primitive guitar legends, a formula that stuck across the first three volumes. Volume Four, released in 2010, featured all contemporary players, giving many folks their first taste of William Tyler, C Joynes, Chris Forsyth and Tyler Ramsey. The label then started farming out curation duties to others : Sam Moss for Volume 5, Chris King for Volume 6 (Origins of American Primitive Guitar), Hayden Pedigo for Volume 7, and Michael Klausman & Brooks Rice for Volume 8 (The Private Press). Tompkins Square recruited label alum RYLEY WALKER to compile Volume Nine. Given his deep Rolodex and exquisite taste, it's no surprise that this comp is probably the most diverse of the series. Nine of the eleven artists were previously unknown to us, so we get to discover new artists just like our label fans do.
LP $15.50
09/20/2019
CD $12.75
09/20/2019
***Tompkins Square is very proud to release the long awaited new album from WILL BEELEY—the acclaimed Texas singer-songwriter’s first new LP in four long decades. Highways & Heart Attacks is a remarkable return from a singer-songwriter whose work might well have been lost to dusty record crates and the secret annals of Americana musical history. But with Tompkins Square’s 2017 reissues of Beeley’s two stunning albums, 1971’s Gallivantin’ and 1979’s Passing Dream, the Texas-based troubadour finally earned the applause his distinctive songcraft long deserved, with Noisey praising his “deeply felt, little heard, folk music” and Paste noting, “With the re-release of these fine LPs, we can spend some time more fully appreciating them before (Beeley’s) very welcome return to the music world.” Recorded at San Antonio’s Blue Cat Studios with producer Jerry David DeCicca (Chris Gantry, Ed Askew, Larry Jon Wilson), Grammy Award-winning engineer Joe Trevino (Flaco Jimenez, Los Lobos, Los Texmaniacs), and Grammy Award-winning mix engineer Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, Cat Power, Phosphorescent), Highways & Heart Attacks sees Beeley backed by a combo of Americana all-stars that includes accordionist Michael Guerra (The Mavericks), guitarist Don Cento (Sarah Jaffee), bassist Canaan Faulkner (The Black Swans, Ed Askew), drummer Armando Aussenac (Neon Indian), organist Richard Martin, and Grammy Award-winning violinist Bobby Flores (Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm, Willie Nelson). Songs like “Been A Drifter” and “Don’t Rain On My Parade” are both wistful and warm-hearted, Beeley’s rough-hewn vocals the ideal vehicle for his one-of-a-kind tales of a road well traveled and a...
LP $15.50
06/14/2019
CD $12.75
06/14/2019
***KINLOCH (sounds like "kin-law") NELSON studied classical guitar privately with Stanley Watson in Rochester NY, jazz guitar with Gene Bertoncini at Eastman School of Music, and music theory at the University of Rochester. In 1973, he began teaching both privately and at The Hochstein Music School in Rochester where he was on the faculty for twenty-five years. In 1985, Nelson co-founded the Guitar Society of Rochester, which during its ten-year run presented many of the world's greatest guitarists. Nelson is the author of a book, Alternate Guitar Tunings. He currently teaches privately, conducts guitar workshops and maintains a performance schedule. Nelson came to the attention of Tompkins Square via Duck Baker, who visited Rochester in 2018 supporting his own Tompkins Square archival release, Les Blues Du Richmond : Demos & Outtakes, 1973-1979.
LP $15.50
03/22/2019
CD $12.75
03/22/2019
***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! Tompkins Square is proud to announce the release of the 1960 Time Sessions from the SONNY CLARK TRIO (Clark, MAX ROACH, GEORGE DUVIVIER). Sonny Clark's reputation as one of the finest jazz pianists of his era has grown in recent years, with many folks rediscovering his classic Blue Note recordings like 'Cool Struttin,' 'Dial 'S' for Sonny,' 'Leapin' and Lopin,' as well as session work with Lee Morgan, Grant Green and others. Cut down by heroin addiction at age 31 in 1961, Clark's legacy continues to expand. The Time sessions were produced by the late BOB SHAD, owner of Time and Mainstream Records. The reissue includes the original Time album remastered from the original tapes by DAVE DONNELLY, plus an extra disc of alternate takes previously unavailable on vinyl. NAT HENTOFF wrote the original liner notes, included in the reissue package, and former New York Times critic BEN RATLIFF contributes a new 3500-word essay. The set was produced for reissue by MIA APTOW (Time Records) and JOSH ROSENTHAL (Tompkins Square). “Top Ten Jazz Reissue of the Year”—NPR Jazz Critics Poll “The remastering has given the sound an intimate new presence.”—Downbeat, 4.5 / 5 stars “This is the way jazz re-releases should be done.”—All About Jazz, 4 1/2 stars "This lesser-known Sonny Clark session (his only studio album not made for Blue Note) is sometimes issued under drummer Max Roach's name, too. They are joined by bassist George Duvivier for a set of generally obscure...
2XLP $29.50
11/24/2017
2XCD $15.50
11/09/2018
***Longtime Woodstock resident, guitarist PETER WALKER recorded two albums for the Vanguard label in the late sixties in a style best described as American folk-raga. He studied with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and was Dr. Timothy Leary's musical director, organizing music for the LSD advocate’s “celebrations.” He was also a close friend of fellow Woodstock resident, the late folksinger Karen Dalton, and helped produce Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton (Tompkins Square), which features unrecorded Dalton compositions brought to life by Sharon Van Etten, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams and others. Rediscovered by Tompkins Square in 2006 after decades out of sight, Walker has remained active into his 8th decade, recording for Jack White's Third Man label, and now, collaborating anew with fellow Upstaters, HARMONY ROCKETS. Joined in a mighty super-session with Harmony Rockets (MERCURY REV), MARTIN KEITH, NELS CLINE (WILCO) and STEVE SHELLEY (SONIC YOUTH), Lachesis / Clotho / Atropos is a mind-melting inter-generational collaboration that could only have coalesced around the wool-sweaters, warm teacups and moldering bookstores of "Old Old Woodstock", both the real and mythologized versions.
LP $16.35
09/14/2018
CD $14.75
09/14/2018