Monday, March 30, 2009

New AWB Reissues

Edsel Records ( a division of Elvis Costello's Demon Music Group) is proud to announce the acquisition of the license to issue the complete Average White Band catalogue of albums released from 1973 to 1982. They will be issuing all twelve albums in four 2 CD slip-cased sets, all overseen by AWB's Alan Gorrie, Hamish Stuart and Onnie McIntyre, featuring memorabilia from their own collections and fully annotated.
The first package contains the band's first album Show Your Hand (never previously issued on CD in Europe). The album is expanded to feature eight bonus tracks, seven of which are previously unreleased.
The second disc in the package contains what was intended to be the band's second album for MCA, How Sweet Can You Get?. This album, originally rejected by MCA, has only been released as part of a "White Album" package many years later. Edsel has recreated the original artwork for this special release.

Atlantic Records Jerry Wexler heard the songs, signed the band to Atlantic Records, and with producer, Arif Mardin, set about re-recording eight of the songs, along with two new compositions. The resulting album Average White Band was released in September 1974



Show Your Hand & How Sweet Can You Get & Average White Band
The second reissue in the series contains Cut The Cake, Soul Searching and the long unavailable Benny & Us.

Cut the Cake/Soul Searching/Benny and Us

The third package contains the live Person to Person double album and Warmer Communications. This package includes to bonus fracks:Joe Zawinul’s “Walk Tall”and a previously unreleased version of Diana Ross and The Supremes and The Temptations hit “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”.

Person to Person/Warmer Communications
The fourth and final release in the series includes three and-a-half albums: Feel No Fret, Volume VII (along with bonus track "Miss Sun"), Cupid's In Fashion and Shine (with a 6 minute 12" version of "Let's Go Round Again" and the previously unreleased bonus track "Wasn't I Your Friend").


Feel No Fret/Volume VIII/Shine/Cupid's in Fashion