Posts Tagged ‘Wendy Rene’

2012 Light In The Attic Subscription Package!

Friday, November 18th, 2011

For rates and to purchase, click here.

The days have grown short and it is once again time to look back on the last year and begin to anticipate the next. 2011 was the year of the rollercoaster. After much internal debate, we decided to not purchase the Dodgers or EMI and turned down Universal’s multi-trillion dollar buyout. And somehow won the NBA Finals in November of all months – just to satisfy the shareholders. Most importantly, we managed to survive another year operating in this strange landscape called the music business. We’re confident that while 2011 was mighty fine, 2012 will be our finest. So without further adieu we’d like to present the 2012 Light In The Attic Subscription Package

For newbies, we’ve been doing this for a number of years. Like your subscription to Boy’s Life, you’ll receive our first 8 releases of 2012 as they become available – often before they hit shops, and at a much cheaper price.  Later in the year, we will be offering a subscription for the second part of 2012. Along the way you’ll receive various downloads, sweet surprises, and an official membership card (distinctly not available in the back of Boy’s Life). We’re still fanatically hunting down some long lost musicians in Kiribati, so we can’t spill the beans on the full release schedule just yet, but there are a few things that we’d like to reveal as part of your 2012 Subscription Package -

Lee Hazlewood

Lee Hazlewood – I Just Learned To Run (Unreleased Studio Outtake) by LightInTheAtticRecords

For the past 7 years we’ve been begging, pleading, and praying to re-release some of Lee’s greatest solo recordings and production work, including material from LHI, Lee’s own label from ‘66 to ’71. We are ecstatic to announce that we will launch a detailed Lee Hazlewood Series this spring all gloriously re-mastered from the original analog master tapes. The series will include scores of unreleased sides and unseen photos. As I write this, we’re digging through hundreds of tapes that have been untouched for over forty years, meticulously transferring the reels, and drooling in anticipation for the months ahead.

Wendy Rene – After Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-65
(LITA 080 CD, 2xLP, Digital)

Wendy Rene – The Same Guy by LightInTheAtticRecords

This will be the first ever anthology of the mysterious Southern soul queen who cut some of the most achingly gorgeous 45s on Stax and Volt back in the day. While she’s been sampled to death by everyone from Wu Tang Clan to Alicia Keys and covered by Lykke Li, little is known about the singer’s short but brilliant career until now. Betty Davis excluded, she’s about as reclusive as they come. After deciding to retire to raise a family, Wendy agreed to do one more concert with Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays in December ‘67, but at the last minute changed her mind. As we know, that plane crashed in Lake Monona, killing everyone on board other than trumpeter Ben Cauley. After 45 years spent decidely out of the spotlight, we’re grateful to have Wendy involved in putting together this special anthology, which includes all of her singles and close to a dozen rarities. Memphis native Andria Lisle contributes stellar liner notes.

Michael Chapman – Rainmaker
(LITA 079 CD, LP)

Michael Chapman – You Say by LightInTheAtticRecords

In 2011, British folk legend Michael Chapman conquered the world. The man celebrated his 70th birthday, toured the States and Europe countless times, played Daytrotter, and pretty much melted our minds opening for Bill Callahan on the West Coast. During those same 12 months, Michael released 6 albums: among them an insane noise record for Ecstatic Peace and our reissue of his sophomore album, Fully Qualified Survivor. We’d like to re-release Michael’s entire oeuvre, but that’s going to take us some time. So next up we’ll be reissuing his landmark debut, Rainmaker, originally released on the Harvest label in 1969. Rainmaker is another superb psych-folk offering from one of the true living greats. Writer Byron Coley sat down with Michael to bring us some incredibly insightful liner notes.

V/A Listen, Whitey: The Sounds of Black Power 1967-74
(LITA 081 CD, 2xLP, Digital)

Amiri Baraka – Who Will Survive America by LightInTheAtticRecords

This one has been a beast. Through inhuman perseverance, our friend and fine Light In The Attic A&R man Pat Thomas brings us this phenomenal comp. Befriending key leaders of the seminal Black Power Movement, digging through Huey Newton’s archives at Stanford University, and spending his life’s fortune on eBay, Pat may have only nearly averted death by A&R, but he has skillfully painted a complicated time period when revolutionaries like Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis were seen as pop culture icons and musicians like Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, and Bob Dylan were seen as revolutionaries. The disc presents a unique cross-cultural overview where Dylan’s 1971 single “George Jackson” sits alongside insanely rare private press 45s and the almighty Gil Scott. Interspersed are selections from the Black Forum label, Motown’s early ‘70s Black Power militant imprint featuring SNCC spokesman Stokely Carmichael, poet Amiri Baraka, and Black Panther Party singer/songwriter Elaine Brown. It’s safe to say that this is the definitive Black Power aural document. The comp will play as a soundtrack to Pat Thomas’s 70,000-word hardcover book of the same name to be released by Fantagraphics in early 2012.

So that’s a little taste of 2012.

YOUR 2012 SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGE INCLUDES:

  • The first 8 CDs, 8 LPs, or 5 Digital* releases from Light In The Attic in 2012, excluding box sets
  • 15% off ALL online orders for the entire year, excluding subscriptions
  • First dibs on various rarities and exclusives throughout the year
  • Our first Light In The Attic Family T-Shirt. Yes, we’ve been slow to get off our asses and make a damn shirt. We are fortunate to have talented Seattle illustrator Drew Christie do the honors. The shirt is free as part of your subscription.***
  • And to make it feel official: a fancy 2012 Membership Card
  • Free shipping within the USA**

To purchase, visit the Subscription page HERE. We look forward to seeing you in 2012!

* Due to licensing restrictions, unfortunately not everything will be available digitally.
** Please email for international shipping rates: subscriptions@lightintheattic.net
*** T-shirt available for LP and CD subscriptions only.


Get Ready, Wendy Rene “After Laughter Comes Tears” release is around the corner!

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

It’s been a long time coming, but After Laughter Comes Tears is the first ever anthology of southern soul legend Wendy Rene, whose classic, organ-driven “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” has been covered or sampled by everyone from Wu Tang Clan (“Tearz”, from 36 Chambers) to Alicia Keys (“Where Do We Go From Here”), Lykke Li and El Perro Del Mar. “If I could sing like anyone,” said Lykke Li, “It would be her.”

Includes 11 singles, 9 rarities and 2 previuosly unreleased songs from the Stax/Volt archives! CD and double LP available for pre-order now (out 2/7/12)!

Born Mary Frierson in Memphis, Tennessee, home of Stax Records, Wendy Rene was christened by Otis Redding on signing to Stax as a teenager in 1963. Back then, she and brother Johnny Frierson, both singers at the Church of God In Christ, were determined to make it in music. Forming singing quartet The Drapels with two friends, they took the bus to 926 E. McLemore Avenue, auditioned for Stax co-founder Jim Stewart, and won a deal on the spot.

“As soon as we finished with the Drapels’ songs and [the rest of the band] were going to the bus stop, I showed Mr. Stewart my songs,” recalls Rene. The result? Stewart found two acts in one, and Mary had two contracts with Stax.

Both Drapels and Wendy began recording with the greats – that’s The MGs on the group’s “Young Man”, Booker T. Jones playing organ on “After Laughter” and Steve Cropper playing guitar on the dance craze-inspired “Bar-B-Q”, the success of which caused Wendy – then a teen bride – to leave school.

Young Wendy Rene

The Drapels dissolved almost as quickly as Wendy’s first marriage, partly due to the attention lavished on youngest member Wendy’s solo career. But a real hit eluded the singer, and in 1967, with a growing family with second husband and Stax employee James Cross, Wendy decided to retire from the business. “I wanted a baby to hold and coochie-coo to, and I didn’t want to miss any more time away from my kids,” she says.

Wendy was due to perform one last show with Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays, but changed her mind at the last minute. It was an auspicious decision – that weekend, Redding and four Bar-Kays died when their plane crashed in Lake Monona.

Wendy mourned her friends but not her music career. She taught harmony to her children and she sang in church, not in the studio. Then, in 1993, something strange happened – a friend of her son heard Wu Tang Clan’s “Tearz” on the radio. As new generations of artists have rediscovered Wendy Rene’s work, they have touched her life in various ways: Alicia Keys’s remake of “After Laughter…”, “Where Do We Go From Here”, for example, helped pay for her current home. Keys tried to meet up with Rene when she played in Memphis. “I wasn’t able to do it,” says Wendy, revealing little.

In September 2010, Wendy Rene returned to live performance, albeit very briefly, playing a set at Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans. It was to be a bittersweet occasion – Wendy’s beloved brother Johnny had died suddenly in June 2010 and performing brought back a flood of memories. “I was so choked up I wasn’t able to perform like I wanted,” she admits. Available on CD with a 40 page booklet and a as a double LP housed in a deluxe “Tip-On” gatefold jacket, both sporting liner notes by Memphian Andria Lisle (liner notes writer for our Lou Bond, Charles ‘Packy’ Axton, and Jim Sullivan releases) and original 45 labels and unseen photos courtesy of Wendy Rene.

Listen, delve and enjoy. Pre-order your copy of After Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965 (LITA 080 | CD | 2xLP | Digital)

Wendy Rene “After Laughter Comes Tears” Anthology OUT TODAY!

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Here it is! Out today – Wendy Rene After Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965 (LITA 080 – CD | 2xLP | Digital). Collecting for the first time ever all of Wendy Rene’s recorded output (including two songs never before heard!), After Laughter is an essential document of this Memphis Southern soul legend. Spanning her earliest recordings with The Drapels to her final sessions in ’65, this anthology includes her most well-known songs “After Laugher” (as sampled by Wu-Tang Clan on 36 Chambers and featuring Booker T. Jones), “Bar-B-Q” (co-written with and featuring Steve Cropper) in addition to never before heard greasy jams like “I Wish I Were That Girl” and “He Hasn’t Failed Me Yet.”

Both the CD and 2xLP versions feature book-deep liner notes interviewing Wendy Rene by Memphian Andria Lisle (who also penned notes for our Jim Sullivan, Lou Bond, and Charles ‘Packy’ Axton releases), with many rare photos provided by Wendy Rene, unseen shots of original tape boxes, and original 45 labels. And what else? 2xLP housed in an extra thick Stoughton “Tip-On” gatefold jacket with a gloss so shiny you’ll need shades to keep from going blind. And for all you heads out there, we couldn’t resist cribbing the Volt logo for the CD/LP labels…smooth!

For the full visual/audio scoop, check out the “What’s Inside?” videos below and hop on over here to pick up your copy today!

Free Basin’ Fridays – Grab some BBQ with Wendy Rene!

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Oh yeah, the hits just keep coming. For this week’s Free Basin’ Fridays giveaway, we’re gonna float one lucky winner both a CD and 2xLP copy of our latest release Wendy Rene After Laughter Comes Tears – Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965 (LITA 080). You know the drill, leave a comment below (favorite BBQ joint in Memphis? Fav Stax song/artist/story? First time you heard Wu-Tang’s “Tearz” which samples Wendy Rene?) and don’t forget to include your name and email so we can contact you if you win! Winner announced on Twitter and Facebook on Friday 2/17 at 12PM PST!

Wendy Rene – Listening Party in Los Angeles! Free BBQ and Beer!

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Come celebrate the first ever anthology of Stax/Volt recording artist and Memphis soul legend, Wendy Rene. After Laughter Comes Tears (out now!), includes all of Wendy Rene’s singles on Stax and Volt, plus many rarities, all recorded between 1964 and ’65. For all those who couldn’t make it to the Stax Museum last week, we’re bringing a little Memphis to you! Come to the Old Style Guitar Shop in Silverlake and enjoy some delicious BBQ (plus some veggie options) and cold beer, on us! We’ll spin the record in its entirety followed by a slew of other good tunes chosen by your’s truly.

Hope to see you all there!

Wendy Rene | Listening Party! | 3/3/12 | 5PM – 8PM | FREE!
Old Style Guitar Shop
510 N Hoover St.
Los Angeles, CA

LITA 7″ Series – Sweet Tea (members of The Black Angels & Heartless Bastards) cover Wendy Rene’s “After Laughter (Comes Tears)”

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Sweet Tea featuring Alex Maas (The Black Angels) & Erika Wennerstrom / Jesse Ebaugh (Heartless Bastards)
“After Laughter (Comes Tears)” (2012) b/w Wendy Rene “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” (1964) | 7″ 45 RPM | LITA 45-022
Pre-order now at LightInTheAttic.net - Ships Tuesday October 23, 2012 | In stores October 30, 2012

Celebrating Light In The Attic’s 10 year anniversary in 2012, we are releasing a series of very special colored vinyl 7”s and digital downloads. The series features contemporary artists covering a track reissued by Light In The Attic on the A-side, plus the original version on the B-side. First in the series was Iggy Pop & Zig Zag’s heavy psych-punk cover of Betty Davis’ “If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up”, out now here and at record stores world wide.

Second in the series we have Alex Maas of the Black Angels and Erika Wennerstrom / Jesse Ebaugh of Heartless Bastards (under the band name Sweet Tea) covering Wendy Rene’s ‘After Laughter Comes Tears’. Preserving the original song’s creepy organ and tortured soul, Sweet Tea adds deep dub bass and raw power. Wendy Rene’s original – beloved of Wu Tang Clan, who sampled it on ‘Tearz’ – was one of a handful of timeless soul songs she recorded with The Drapels and solo for Stax before retiring prematurely to raise a family.

A side is produced by Alex Maas / Brett Orrison and recorded at Out The Woodwork Studios, Austin, TX, July 2012. B side features the original Wendy Rene version as remastered by John Baldwin for our anthology of her work, After Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965. Design by Henry Owings, Chunklet Graphic Control.

+ Limited edition 7″ series on colored vinyl with custom LITA juke-box style sleeve in a poly bag with custom die-cut sticker
+ Other artists in the series include Iggy Pop & Zig Zags covering Betty Davis, Mark Lanegan covering Karen Dalton, and Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band covering Rodriguez. More releases in the series to be announced.