Stony Plain
Records Announces New Compilation Series, The Best of the Stony Plain
Years
First Sets from
Joe Louis Walker and Long John Baldry Due June 17
EDMONTON, ALBERTA – Stony Plain Records announces it will
begin releasing an exciting new compilation series of CDs, titled The Best
of the Stony Plain Years, which includes tracks from the label’s vaults,
as well as rare and previously-unreleased material. The first CDs as part of the
new series will be albums from Joe Louis Walker and the late Long John Baldry,
both set for release on June 17. Stony Plain Records has been releasing
acclaimed and award-winning roots and blues music since 1976, and is
independently distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA).
2013 Blues Hall of Fame inductee Joe Louis Walker recorded
three albums for the label:
Witness to the Blues,
Between a
Rock and the Blues and
Blues Conspiracy: Live on the Legendary
Rhythm and Blues Cruise.
Between a Rock and the Blues won
The Blues Foundation’s “Blues Album of the Year” award in 2010.
An international blues all-star, Joe Louis Walker has
recorded a number of celebrated albums in a wide range of roots and blues
styles, with such guests as B.B. King, James Cotton, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal,
Steve Cropper, Branford Marsalis, Huey Lewis, Ike Turner, Shemekia Copeland and
Duke Robillard, who produced Walker’s first two Stony Plain CDs. The 11 tracks
on his Best of the Stony Plain Years reissue were compiled from
all three CDs of his recorded output for the label.
British blues pioneer Long John Baldry (1941-2005) recorded
for Stony Plain from 1991 up until his death. He started performing acoustic
blues in London in the late 1950s and worked with fellow leaders of the British
blues vanguard Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies in the early ‘60s.
Baldry was an inspiration to The Rolling Stones and Eric
Clapton. He mentored Rod Stewart and Elton John, who both produced and recorded
on some of Baldry’s early classic albums, Everything Stops for Tea
and It Ain’t Easy. Both albums were re-issued by Stony
Plain in 2012 with several bonus tracks and rare photos added and are still
active in their catalogue.
Long John Baldry’s Best of the Stony Plain Years
set includes songs from several of his label releases, as well as two
rare and previously-unreleased tracks, plus a duet recorded live with the
legendary Jimmy Witherspoon, “Time’s Gettin’ Tougher than Tough” (1995), with
backing by the Duke Robillard band. Baldry and Witherspoon were long-time
friends, dating back to when “Spoon” visited England on tour in the early
1960s.
Stony Plain Records President Holger Petersen contributes
liner notes to each of the CDs by Joe Louis Walker and Long John Baldry, adding
personal insights and memories to the compilations that promise to become
collector’s items.
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