Arrow Fat Left Icon Arrow Fat Right Icon Arrow Right Icon Cart Icon Close Circle Icon Expand Arrows Icon Facebook Icon Instagram Icon Twitter Icon Hamburger Icon Information Icon Down Arrow Icon Mail Icon Mini Cart Icon Person Icon Ruler Icon Search Icon Shirt Icon Triangle Icon Bag Icon Play Video

Tompkins Square

  • Various Artists 'Let Me Play This For You: Rare Cajun Recordings' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Let Me Play This For You: Rare Cajun Recordings'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out
    Let Me Play This For You: Rare Cajun Recordings By Babineaux & Guidry, Angelas Le Jeune, & Blind Uncle Gaspard, 1929-1930.

    This latest installment in the Long Gone Sound series features some of the rarest, most compelling tunes and heart-breaking songs from Southwest Louisiana. Most of the performances on this collection have not been heard since they were originally recorded on 78 rpm disc and yet they serve as a discrete Rosetta Stone for the traditional Cajun and Creole repertoire that exists today. Not to be understated, this collection features some of the most vexingly rare & valuable Cajun 78s ever recorded. Cajun discs such as those found in this release are valued not only for their magnificent artistry but also because of their desperate scarcity.

    In the isolated back-water bayous & prairies of South-West Louisiana a profoundly unique and powerful form of indigenous music developed among the French speaking white Cajuns and black Creoles. Drawing from a rich range of cultural sounds, this music was first recorded in the 1920s & 1930s and featured such luminaries as Amede Ardoin, Dennis McGee and Joe & Cleoma Falcon. This special collection includes all of Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry's 1929 recordings and most of Angelas Le Jeune's 1929-1930 recordings with Denus McGee & Ernest Fruge. Found within is also the newly "discovered" 78 of Blind Uncle Gaspard & Delma Lachney. Respectfully crafted by Christopher King, Susan Archie & Ron Brown for Tompkins Square.

    Tracklisting:
    1. La Valse De La Veuve Angelas LeJeune
    2. J'Vai Jouer Celea Pour Toi Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    3. Valse De La Lousianne Angelas LeJeune
    4. Perrodin Two Step Angelas LeJeune
    5. Vien A La Maison Avec Moi Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    6. Bayou Pom Pom One Step Angelas LeJeune
    7. Valse De Pointe Noire Angelas LeJeune
    8. I Am Happy Now Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    9. Petit Tes Canaigh Angelas LeJeune
    10. La Valse De Church Point Angelas LeJeune
    11. Ella A Plurer Pour Revenir Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    12. La Valse A Tidom Hanks Angelas LeJeune
    13. One Step Du Maraist Bouler Angelas LeJeune
    14. La Valse Du Bayou Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    15. Madam Donnez Moi Les Angelas LeJeune
    16. Baltimore Waltz Blind Uncle Gaspard & Delma Lachney
    17. Je Tai Toujors Dis Dene Pas Fair Sa Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    18. Qu'est Que J'Ai Fait Pour Etre Peuni Si Longtemps? Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    19. Le Petit One Step Angelas LeJeune
    20. The Waltz Of The Long Wood Percy Babineaux & Bixy Guidry
    21. La Valse Du Texas Angelas LeJeune
    22. One Step A Cain Angelas LeJeune
    23. Marksville Blues Blind Uncle Gaspard

    Visit product page
  • Dino Valente 'S-T' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Dino Valente 'Dino Valente' Vinyl LP

    Sold out

    Sold out
    v

    Tompkins Square

    Dino Valente 'Dino Valente' Vinyl LP

    £14.99

    Sold out

    First-ever vinyl re-issue of the 1968 psych classic by Dino Valente (Quicksilver Messenger Service)

    First time commercially available in glorious MONO.

    Recorded under the supervision of Bob Johnston (Dylan, Cohen, Cash).

    Remastered from the original tapes by Grammy-winning engineer Warren Russell-Smith.

    Original liner notes by Ralph Gleason.

    Dino Valente's best known tune, 'Get Together', served as a counter-culture anthem for millions. He was also lead singer for seminal San Francisco psychedelic band Quicksilver Messenger Service. But it's his lone solo LP which has often been held in the same vaunted company as Skip Spence's 'Oar' as a lost, forgotten classic.

    The album continues to inspire new generations of artists, such as James Toth of Wooden Wand, who says, "This long overdue reissue is a public service to loners, stoners and dreamers everywhere. Buy two copies; you will wear the first one out."

    Matt Valentine of MV&EE also effuses, "It's a masterpiece . . . the songs, the vibe, the verb, the cojones. A stoned out killer - an LP that I continue to listen to regularly to this day. It was a huge influence on my first solo LP "Space Chanteys" and the production is awe-inspiring, in many ways ground zero for my spectrasound techniques."

    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 6' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 6'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out
    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 classic 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.
    Visit product page
  • Don Bikoff 'Celestial Explosion' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Don Bikoff 'Celestial Explosion'

    £12.99

    v

    Tompkins Square

    Don Bikoff 'Celestial Explosion'

    £12.99

    Don Bikoff released one lone, rare solo album, 'Celestial Explosion', on Keyboard Records in 1968, now reissued on LP/CD/DL by Tompkins Square. Watch the YouTube video of Bikoff playing on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, taped May 12, 1968.

    You'll see the sheepish, long-haired, mustachioed musician spinning gold in a style (still?) so foreign to the mainstream listener. The befuddled host concludes after Don's performance, "That's unusual to say the least." A kid from Oyster Bay, LI, Bikoff got his start in Greenwich Village, annoying Dave Van Ronk and playing the folk/blues circuit where he met Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Jesse Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt.

    The comparisons to John Fahey's and Robbie Basho's work stated in the LP liner notes touched a nerve with Fahey himself at the time. Today, those comparisons are still inevitable, however they are for lazy ears. Bikoff has his own approach. Don is only 65 years old, and he's still playing strong.
    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 1-5' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 1-5'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out
    All five volumes of the acclaimed series, in their original packaging, plus a bonus disc : 'Elvis Was A Capricorn', a previously unreleased live CD by William Tyler.

    Limited to 999 units.
    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out
    Hard Time, Good Time & End Time Music : 1923-1936

    Work, play, pray - the lifecycle of the rural America that created our greatest generation of country music, 1923 to 1936.

    These volumes survey songs of labor and occupation, hardship and loss; dance tunes, comic numbers, and novelties that provided distraction and fun; and the hymns and sacred pieces that reached beyond the raw material of daily existence for something enduring. Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard features 19 previously un-reissued sides and is largely drawn from the collection of the late Don Wahle of Louisville, Kentucky.

    A hillbilly 78 collector for many years, his records were hours away from the dump when producer
    Nathan Salsburg recovered them. Compiled and annotated by Salsburg with accompanying essays by Sarah Bryan(editor of the Old Time Herald), Amanda Petrusich (New York Times; author of It Still Moves), and John Jeremiah Sullivan(Southern editor of the Paris Review; author of Blood Horses and the essay collection Pulphead).
    Visit product page
  • Lena Hughes 'Queen Of The Flat Top Guitar' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Lena Hughes 'Queen Of The Flat Top Guitar'

    £12.99

    v

    Tompkins Square

    Lena Hughes 'Queen Of The Flat Top Guitar'

    £12.99

    A musical 'amateur' who best exemplified true artistry, Lena Hughes was born in Grape Grove Township, Missouri, in 1904. Though she never recorded any 78s and only one LP, Hughes was most influential through her steady performances at various fiddler conventions and folk festivals throughout the Ozarks. She was an excellent fiddler, banjoist and guitar picker who retained the largely extinct repertoire of parlor pieces and the variety of specialized tunings that were necessary to play them. She lived most of her life in Ludlow, Missouri and passed away in 1998.

    Lena Hughes' repertoire can be divided roughly in half: finger-picked numbers adapted from fiddle tunes and recast parlor guitar pieces gleaned from popular sentimental songs, hymns, and 19th century airs. As a faithful attendee at folk festivals, Hughes was accompanied by her guitar-playing husband, Jake. Her most mesmerizing performances, such as Pearly Dew, Spanish Fandango, and Kentucky Moon Waltz, depend heavily upon the resonance of the open chord as it relates to the picking of the melodic line, primarily on one string. This tonal reliance is most similar to the "celestial octave" that Washington Phillips employs, with similar effect, on his Train Your Child. This ethereal harmonic technique, which seems so natural in Hughes' playing, is the holy grail for most finger-picking guitarists. Her lack of pretense and her mastery of this repertoire is what defines her legendary status.

    These recordings were made in the early 60's in Arkansas and released in very limited fashion as a private press LP. Remastered by Chris King. Designed by Susan Archie.
    Visit product page
  • Daniel Bachman 'Seven Pines' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Daniel Bachman 'Seven Pines'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    v

    Tompkins Square

    Daniel Bachman 'Seven Pines'

    £14.99

    Sold out
    Daniel Bachman is a 22 year old musician born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has been playing what he describes as "psychedelic appalachia" since he was a teenager, releasing small run editions of tapes, CDs and LPs for the past three years, with a sound that evolved from drones and banjos to a now guitar centered focus.

    Touring off and on since the age of 17, Bachman has managed to cover thorough ground across the US, sharing stages with like minded folk such as fellow Fredericksburg native Jack Rose, for whom he fashioned the artwork for the posthumous release of 'Luck In The Valley'.  His newest effort is the full length LP 'Seven Pines', sprung from a year living and working in the city of Philadelphia.

    The sound results in a combination of homesick worried blues and the ecstatic buzz of fresh experience and a new life in unknown territory. Familiar and known, but also seeking to access memories from lives past, dead and gone.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Copperhead
    2. Seven Pines
    3. Sun Over Old Rag
    4. Long Nights I
    5. Mount Olive Cohoke
    6. With Signs Following
    7. 218 To Caledon
    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'Oh Michael, Look What You've Done : Friends Play Michael Chapman' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Oh Michael, Look What You've Done : Friends Play Michael Chapman'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out

    Michael Chapman began his career on the Cornish folk circuit in 1967. Signed to the Harvest label, home to Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, he recorded four quasi-legendary albums. The influential 'Fully Qualified Survivor' was John Peel's favorite record of 1970, and featured future Bowie collaborator Mick Ronson.

    After decades of recording and touring, Chapman remained an obscure figure in the States until his profile was raised by a lengthy 2009 interview with big fan Thurston Moore in Fretboard Journal. He toured extensively with the late guitarist Jack Rose, and more recently, with Bill Callahan. Seattle-based indie label Light in the Attic began a reissue campaign of his Harvest work, and Tompkins Square released the internationally acclaimed double disc,'Trainsong : Guitar Compositions, 1967-2010'.

    All this has brought newfound attention to a singular guitarist and songwriter.

    'Oh Michael, Look What You've Done : Friends Play Michael Chapman', compiled by Michael's wife Andru and Tompkins Square's Josh Rosenthal, features artists who have shared a stage with Michael, or share a personal connection. These include some of his contemporaries like Bridget St. John, Maddy Prior, and longtime cohort Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span), as well as young guns inspired by Michael's legacy.


    Tracklisting:
    1. Black Twig Pickers - Life on the Ceiling
    2. D. Charles Speer - Expressway in the Rain
    3. Lucinda Williams - That Time of Night
    4. Thurston Moore - It Didn't Work Out
    5. Meg Baird - No Song To Sing
    6. Maddy Prior - The Prospector
    7. Hiss Golden Messenger - Fennario
    8. Rick Kemp - Vanity and Pride
    9. Two Wings - You Say
    10. Nick Jonah Davis - Little Molly's Dream 
    11. Bridget St. John - Rabbit Hills
    12. William Tyler - Naked Ladies and Electric Ragtime

    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 5' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 5'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out

    The essential contemporary guitar anthology series continues. Since 2005, Tompkins Square label's 'Imaginational Anthem' compilations have featured some of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world, with recordings spanning five decades. 

    More than mere samplers, these albums have served as state-of-the-art dispatches from the front lines of the art form. The first three volumes, available as a low-priced box set, intermingled generations of American Primitive players - lost, forgotten masters next to contemporary players.

    Volume 4 saw a departure from that formula, featuring only new jack players. Volume 5, available November 13, also features the current crop of younger players, but with a twist. This is the first volume not compiled by Tompkins Square's Josh Rosenthal. Instead, he recruited guitarist Sam Moss.

    "I felt I'd exhausted most of the older guys I wanted to dig up, and I wasn't hearing that much new guitar that I really liked. I sensed that Sam knew what was going on." The result is a gorgeous panoramic view of contemporary guitar, full of agile finger-style, and a few jagged detours.

    Tracklisting:
    1. Temple Walk - Steve Gunn
    2. I Think We'll Be Happy Here- Jordan Fuller
    3. Lookout Point- Danny Paul Grody
    4. There Is A Place In This Old Town- Nick Schillace
    5. Hemet Pine Singer- Will Stratton
    6. John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can- Bill Orcutt
    7. Confederate Rose- Daniel Bachman
    8. Through A House Of Violet Abandon- Eric Carbonara
    9. Her Unmediated Eyes- Tom Lecky
    10. Standing At The Entrance Of A Hidden City- Alexander Turnquist
    11. Modern Man In Search Of A Song- Cam Deas
    12. Rivers Gone Badly Wrong- Yair Yona

    Visit product page
  • Mark Fosson 'Digging In The Dust : Home Recordings 1976' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Mark Fosson 'Digging In The Dust : Home Recordings 1976'

    £14.99

    Kentucky native Mark Fosson recorded one album for John Fahey's Takoma Records in 1976 which went unreleased until 2006. Mark recently found the home demos for that session. Here's what he has to say about them :

    "These 11 tracks are the songs I began writing after acquiring my first 12-String guitar. I recorded them in my living room on a Pioneer RT1050 2-track reel-to-reel with a rented microphone (I believe It was an AKG414 but I won't swear to it). All are originals except for "Back In The Saddle Again" which resulted from my other obsession at the time of watching old black & white Gene Autry movies any chance I could...usually at 5:00AM! I met Mr. Autry many years later and tried to tell him this but the crowd was too loud & his ears were too old & he couldn't hear a word I was saying. Anyway...thanks Gene.

    Most of these songs would appear later in slightly altered form on 'The Lost Takoma Sessions', but these original versions are my personal favorites. I can't believe the tapes have survived so long and still sound as clean as the day I recorded them."

    - Mark Fosson
    Visit product page
  • Arizona Dranes 'He Is My Story : The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Arizona Dranes 'He Is My Story : The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes'

    £26.99

    A singer sits at the piano and loses all inhibitions while in complete control of the instrument: Little Richard, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis. Although church singer Arizona Dranes doesn't come close to the stature of those icons, she set the mold for rockin' singer/ pianists in 1926 with six "test records" that have stood the test of time.

    Until now, very little has been correctly reported about Dranes other than the facts that she was blind, from Texas, had a piercing Pentecostal voice and was the first recording artist to play piano in the secular styles of the day, while singing words of deep praise.

    Michael Corcoran, former music critic and columnist for the Austin American-Statesman, has spent years unearthing revelatory details on the life of the mysterious woman behind the music. The book includes a CD containing all 16 of Arizona Dranes' recorded tracks, expertly remastered from the original OKeh label 78 RPM records by Grammy-winning producer Christopher King.

    The book is also available digitally (without the music) as an eBook.

    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'This May Be My Last Time Singing : Raw African-American Gospel On 45rpm 1957-1982' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'This May Be My Last Time Singing : Raw African-American Gospel On 45rpm 1957-1982'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out

    Get ready for fiery sanctified soul, heavy Pentecostal jams, drum machine gospel, slow-burning moaners, glorified guitar sermons and righteously ragged a cappela hymns! The music on this compilation was originally released on small label 45s, mostly in the 1960s and '70s.

    At least one-third of the records were self-released, paid for by a church congregation or the artists themselves. Others were on regional labels (typically run by one single producer) little known today outside of a small circle of collectors. This vibrant music is incredibly honest and almost criminally unknown.

    All tracks were sourced from 45s collected over the last decade by compiler Mike McGonigal, who also produced 2009's three disc set Fire in My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007) for Tompkins Square. McGonigal, who has compiled records for Mississippi Records and his own Social Music label, lives in Portland, OR where he is the editorial director for Yeti Publications. He writes in the liner notes that he "chose to source this compilation entirely from 45s because of their democratic/DIY nature; almost anyone could raise enough money to release a seven-inch single."

    "Maybe you'll feel like I did on first hearing these tracks, that you've stumbled in on someone else's tenderly private moment. Or that you've been swept up in a collective delirium. You'll hear deep soulfulness here, with heavy admixtures of rhythm and blues and rock'n'roll.

    There are echoes of '60s and '70s pop too. You'll also catch bits of country and western, and something like surf guitar. In another way, much here uncannily resembles the unruly sound and spirit of 1960s garage. Give yourself over to this compilation: there's delight and surprise in every track."

    - PETER DOYLE, author of Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960; The Devil's Jump and Crooks Like Us
    Visit product page
  • Various Artists 'Aimer Et Perdre - To Love And To Lose Songs 1917-1934' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Various Artists 'Aimer Et Perdre - To Love And To Lose Songs 1917-1934'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    Sold out
    This is one from the heart. The unique pre-war music of the Cajun bayous, the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine and Poland, and the American rural countryside has been collected to narrate the human odyssey of love gained and love lost. Early songs of unbridled anticipation and desperate longing color the canvas of love, courtship, dejection and marriage... a never-ending cycle.

    The accompanying 60-page booklet features many rare, previously unpublished images and comprehensive lyrical translation. Three original artworks by Robert Crumb provide a backdrop for these sublime songs of passion and despair. Respectfully crafted by Christopher King and Susan Archie for Tompkins Square. 36 Songs on 2CDs.
    Visit product page
  • James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg 'Avos' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg 'Avos'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    v

    Tompkins Square

    James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg 'Avos'

    £13.99

    Sold out
    Albums of guitar duets are rare. Albums of guitar duets featuring one American and one Englishman, synthesizing their geo­graphically specific approaches in a collection of new compositions, are rarer.

    Not since Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn’s partnerships of the 1970s has there been such a happy reconciliation of Merrie Old England and the good old USA, in which baroque meets the blues, music-hall steps out to ragtime, and Benjamin Britten sits down with Blind Blake.

    James Elkington moved from London to Chicago around the turn of the millennium and has since released a string of albums as leader of The Zincs for Thrill Jockey Records.

    After dissolving the band in 2008, Elkington has concentrated on acoustic, folk-tinged music with his band The Horse’s Ha (that he shares with Freakwater’s Janet Bean).
    Nathan Salsburg is best known as an archivist and producer for the Alan Lomax Archive, curator of the Twos & Fews vernacularmusic imprint on Drag City Records, and host of the “Root Hog Or Die” program on East Village Radio.

    He appears on Tompkins Square’s ‘Imaginational Anthem Volume 3’ compilation, and produced a tribute album to EC Ball, also on Tompkins Square. Elkington suggested a leap of faith into a collaboration, despite the fact that the two had never previously played guitar together.

    AVOS, then, hither and thither over several seasons, between a porch in Louisville and a kitchen in Chicago, slowly took shape. Aptly, the name comes from the Russian word for the confident approach to new situations, and the faith that nothing tragic will occur once in them.

    Tracklisting:

    Side A:
    1. Hospitality
    2. A Free Amft
    3. Sedentary Song
    4. Fez And Guinness
    5. Romany Belle
    6. Marjoram
    7. Avos

    Side B:
    1. Believer Field
    2. The Blurring Cogs
    3. Trois Poires
    4. Straight Up And Down
    5. The Queue Outside The Night Ministry
    6. Scarborough Fore And Aft
    Visit product page
  • Hiss Golden Messenger 'Poormoon' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Hiss Golden Messenger 'Poormoon'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    v

    Tompkins Square

    Hiss Golden Messenger 'Poormoon'

    £12.99

    Sold out

    "Mystical country, like an eerie yellowing photograph" - David Bowie

    "A small but grand statement, recorded in a week, but achieving country-soul greatness"
    - UNCUT * * * * stars

    "MC Taylor writes folk music that is at once firmly steeped in tradition and immediately accessible." -NPR Music

    "Fans of Will Oldham and Bill Callahan will find much to admire in the work of MC Taylor, a revivalist who also lectures in folklore." - Guardian UK

    Hiss Golden Messenger is Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter M.C. Taylor, in partnership with multi-instrumentalist and recordist Scott Hirsch, who lives in Brooklyn. The pair have been playing music together for nearly two decades. Poor Moon is the fourth proper Hiss Golden Messenger release, and serves as the best summation thus far of Taylor's lone journeys through the dark night of the soul. "God is good, and it's understood," he sings. "But he moves in mysterious ways." Poor Moon is a singular vision, one that only two companions could have made after twenty years of music-making, revelry, and repent.

    Featuring members of Black Twig Pickers, D. Charles Speer & the Helix, and Brightblack Morning Light.

    Visit product page
  • Calvin Keys 'Shawn-Neeq' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Calvin Keys 'Shawn-Neeq'

    Sold out

    Sold out
    v

    Tompkins Square

    Calvin Keys 'Shawn-Neeq'

    £18.99

    Sold out

    Originally released on the influential label Black Jazz in 1971, guitarist Calvin Keys' debut is a stone classic waiting to be re-discovered. The funky, deep grooves and Calvin's singular guitar stylings, coupled with a heady collaborative feel that inhabits so many early '70's jazz recordings, are all on beautiful display. 40 years later, Tompkins Square proudly re-issues this LP on 180g vinyl just in time for Calvin's 70th Birthday (February 6th, 2012).

    Calvin's musical roots originate in his hometown of Omaha, NE, playing with legends like Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson. Shortly after the release of his debut LP 'Shawn-Neeq', Calvin was hired to tour and record with Ray Charles. By the mid-70's, Calvin was working steadily with pianist Ahmad Jamal on the road and in the studio. Since settling in the Bay Area in the mid-70's, Calvin has recorded numerous solo albums and played with many greats, including Taj Mahal, Bobby Hutcherson, Big John Patton and Dr. Lonnie Smith. In 2007, fellow Midwesterner and big fan Pat Metheny included the song "Calvin's Keys" on his album, 'Day Trip'.

    Visit product page
  • Frank Fairfield 'Out On The Open West' - Cargo Records UK

    Tompkins Square

    Frank Fairfield 'Out On The Open West'

    £12.99

    v

    Tompkins Square

    Frank Fairfield 'Out On The Open West'

    £12.99

    'Out on the Open West' is Frank Fairfield's new album. It was produced by Michael Kieffer (Origin Jazz Library) and features guest accompaniment by Willie Watson (Old Crow Medicine Show) among others.

    The album is a departure for Frank, having written most of the tunes himself, and bringing in the other players to round out his songs.

    Handpicked by Fleet Foxes to open their U.S. tour in 2009, Frank released a 7" and his acclaimed debut LP on Tompkins Square. Since then, Frank has played many festivals in the U.S. and Europe, appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, released a compilation of 78 rpm recordings on Tompkins Square, was extensively interviewed by Pitchfork, and even had a film made about him (produced by KEXP's Greg Vandy).

    His music has made fans of people like Ry Cooder, Grammy-winning producer Chris King (Charley Patton, People Take Warning box sets) and Greil Marcus, to name a few.
    Visit product page