John David Souther
January 8, 2016

Description
Before he was co-writing #1 Eagles hits like “Best Of My Love,” “New Kid In Town,” and “Heartache Tonight” with Glenn Frey and Don Henley, JD Souther formed Longbranch/Pennywhistle with Frey when they were roommates. Their downstairs neighbor was a fellow by the name of Jackson Browne, who took Souther to audition for his boss, David Geffen, who had recently formed the Asylum Records label. After hearing two songs, Geffen told Souther to “go make a record.” And, that’s exactly what he did.

John David Souther arrived in 1971, and was immediately a critical success and established Souther as a, if not the songwriter to watch. (He would later be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame 42 years later…)

Co-produced by Souther and Fred Catero (who had recently finished Santana’s Abraxas), John David Souther featured 10 originals—all stunning, and many of which would be covered by artists like Bonnie Raitt (“Run Like A Thief”) and his old friends the Eagles, who released “How Long” as the first single from their 2007 comeback and multi-platinum smash, Long Road Out Of Eden.

To reintroduce this album, Omnivore has added 7 previously unissued bonus tracks, expanded artwork and liner notes by Scott Schinder taken from new interviews with Souther himself.

John David Souther was, and is, the perfect introduction to the singer and performer behind the songs. Still relevant over 4 decades later, John David Souther shows the emergence of one of music’s most influential artists.

Tracklist
1. The Fast One
2. Run Like A Thief
3. Jesus In 3/4 Time
4. Kite Woman
5. Some People Call It Music
6. White Wing
7. It’s The Same
8. How Long
9. Out To Sea
10. Lullaby
Bonus Tracks:
11. Kite Woman (Alternate Version)
12. Jesus In 3/4 Time (Demo)
13. The Fast One (Demo)
14. Run Like A Thief (Demo)
15. How Long (Demo)
16. One In The Middle (Demo)
17. Silver Blue (Demo)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017YHAM22/?tag=imwan-20

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Black Rose
February 12, 2016

Description
After his impressive debut, JD Souther worked with Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers) and Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) in the short lived Souther/Hillman/Furay Band. But, at that same time, his songwriting reputation grew, as friends and colleagues took his material to commercial heights.

Five years after John David Souther, Black Rose appeared. Beautifully helmed by Peter Asher, the album was not only full of incredible songs, but a who’s who of musicians including Lowell George (Little Feat), Joe Walsh, Waddy Wachtel, Jim Keltner, Andrew Gold, Russ Kunkel, Donald Byrd, and Stanley Clarke—with David Crosby, Art Garfunkel, Don Henley and Glen Frey adding their voices. In addition to the lush production and instrumentation, Souther’s ten songs were again exceptional. Linda Ronstadt had previously recorded “Faithless Love” on her breakthrough Heart Like A Wheel album, and would tackle “Simple Man, Simple Dream” in 1977—even basing that year’s album title on the song. (For the record, Ronstadt has recorded 10 Souther tracks, a relationship which began with his production on her 1973 album Don’t Cry Now, also named for a Souther composition. That album includes “I Can Almost See It”—presented as a bonus track here in Souther’s demo version.)

This expanded edition of Black Rose is made even more impressive by the addition of 7 bonus tracks including 6 previously unissued live performances and demos—the other taken from the only solo album from the Little Feat leader, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here.

“Black Rose was an ambitious undertaking, and it took a long time,” Souther states in the new liner notes from Scott Schinder. “I wanted to use all the musical influences I had, and I really had to dig deep. But when we were finished, I was almost as pleased with it as if it had sold a million copies. Almost.”

Now is the time for those million copies to bloom.

Tracklist
1. Banging My Head Against The Moon
2. If You Have Crying Eyes
3. Your Turn Now
4. Faithless Love
5. Baby Come Home
6. Simple Man, Simple Dream
7. Silver Blue
8. Midnight Prowl
9. Doors Swing Open
10. Black Rose
Bonus Tracks:
11. Faithless Love (Live)
12. Songs Of Love (Band Demo)
13. Can Almost See It (Demo)
14. Cheek To Cheek – Lowell George
15. Border Town (Solo Demo)
16. Texas Nights And Mexican Moons (Instrumental Piano Demo)
17. Songs Of Love (Solo Demo)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019R0L00W/?tag=imwan-20

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Home By Dawn
February 12, 2016

Description
After hitting the top 10 twice with “You’re Only Lonely” and his duet with James Taylor, “Her Town Too,” JD Souther released his only album in the 1980’s—Home By Dawn, produced by David Malloy (Eddie Rabbit, Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire).

As Souther took distinctive creative turns with each release, Home By Dawn emerged at the beginning of the new wave of country music. In fact, legendary producer/engineer, and David’s father, Jim Malloy (Townes Van Zandt, Eddy Arnold, Sammi Smith) told Souther, “You were about 15 minutes ahead of your time!” That timing was confirmed when Dixie Chicks covered “I’ll Take Care Of You” on their 12x Platinum Wide Open Spaces.

The album has steadily earned a reputation as the groundbreaking and important statement it was, and continues to be. From rock to roots-rock to rockabilly, Home By Dawn took Souther in a direction reflecting his Texas upbringing.

The album’s original 9 songs are joined by 4 bonus tracks—a demo of “I’ll Take Care Of You,” two outtakes from the original sessions and his Urban Cowboy duet with Linda Ronstadt, “Hearts Against The Wind.” Packaging includes new liner notes from Scott Schinder, based on recent interviews with Souther.

Home By Dawn has proven to be an important and influential album released before its time. Now is the perfect time to discover, or rediscover it.

Tracklist
1. Home By Dawn
2. Go Ahead And Rain
3. Say You Will
4. I’ll Take Care Of You
5. All For You
6. Night
7. Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do
8. Bad News
9. All I Want
Bonus Tracks:
10. Hearts Against The Wind – Linda Ronstadt/JD Souther
11. I’ll Take Care Of You (Demo)
12. Little Girl Blue
13. Girls All Over The World

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019R0L09I/?tag=imwan-20

Renny and I are in I am sure! Wonder if the bonus tracks are demos?

'one in the middle' is the only rarity on here....i think

I'm in for this...too bad that the Longbranch Pennywhistle songs are not included. I know there are gray-market versions on cd but I would really like a proper one

yep, that and the shiloh album, i don't know whether it is henley and frey stopping it or the label, because they were both on amos records.

Bump with excellent news for fans of the man: Omnivore will be doing remasters for more J.D. Souther albums beyond just his debut. The expanded edition of the first album is still scheduled for January 8th, pre-orderable via the link in the first post. Details for the next two remasters in the series are also now in the first post, but they haven't been listed at Amazon yet. Here's the promo trailer for all three CDs:



(And Jay, the bonus tracks on the debut album did turn out to be demos as you suspected.)

i am in for the second and third, lots of unreleased stuff on those.

Great news!

Bump: Pre-order links for all three titles are now in the first post.

We need a reissue of You're Only Lonely with bonus tracks to go along with these...

Would love that, but that one is Sony not WEA, so different licensing. Maybe Iconoclassic can do it if Omnivore doesn't get it?

what we really need is longbranch pennywhistle on an official CD.

If you're any kind of fan of the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, etc., do yourself a favor and pick up Black Rose. It's pretty much on par with the best Eagles or Ronstadt albums of the 70's, and almost as good as Jackson Browne's best 70's albums. Kind of hard to figure why it didn't rack up huge sales or at least a big hit single.

i 100% agree......i bought this when it came out and loved it form the first listen. not only didn't garner many sales, it got very little airplay, even back in the heydays of FM radio, when just about anything got played.

i sold better than terence boylan' 2 albums (which are also remarkable if you haven't heard them), but if i had to guess it wasn't even close to the big "california" rockers of the day.

Love the Terrance Boylan albums, too, especially the first (self-titled).

What's so puzzling about Souther's Black Rose is that he was so thick with the Eagles, Browne, and Ronstadt (they dated for a while, I believe) and was on the same label. Maybe after the failure of the Souther/Hillman/Furay band albums (which have some good tracks, but are pretty lackluster overall), they weren't interested in promoting a new solo album.

crosby tells a great story about souther.....

souther knew crosby always had the best pot, but didn't like to pester him for it, so he always sent linda to crosby to get pot, knowing full well that crosby had a thing for beautiful women and that he would never say no to linda, crosby told this story on howard stern's show, and of course stern asked him if he ever had done anything with linda, and crosby said absolutely not, nor did nash, she was just too sweet of a girl he said, even though he always wanted to.

I like the Eagles and Linda a lot, but just now getting into Souther's work and really enjoying it.

Are there any good documentaries on the Southern California singer song writer scene? It just seems like there are so many stories to be told because of the circles they all ran in...

video docs i am unaware of, but the book "canyon of dreams" is a pretty good read.

Thanks!