NEW YORK, NY (By Alexis Tedford/ Shore Fire Media for eMusic) - Experts at eMusic, the world's largest digital retailer of independent music and the world's second-largest digital music retailer after iTunes, have, astonishingly, discovered nineteen previously unknown and unreleased songs from Sun Records artists Charlie Rich, Rosco
Gordon and Bill Justis that will only be available on eMusic. This amazing trove is part of a new collection of more than 400 tracks that also includes long out-of-print and rare music from Sun artists
James Cotton, Ike Turner,
Sonny Burgess and others. Expert eMusic curators have organized the material into album-length sets and several shorter collections, all of which include detailed notes from eMusic Blues columnist and music scholar John Morthland. The tracks are now available for download at www.emusic.com.
This new set of songs adds to the more than 350 Sun Records tracks already available on eMusic, including seminal work by giants such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin' Wolf, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison.
"It's amazing that there are still unheard Sun Records tracks fifty years after Sam Phillips recorded them," said eMusic President and CEO David Pakman. "When we began our relationship with Sun a year ago, we committed ourselves to making this historic material accessible. Our experts are proud to have curated this important catalogue and we're thrilled to have a hand in bringing it to fans of great music everywhere. This is just another example of the value of eMusic's focus on selling great music beyond the commercial mainstream."
eMusic unearthed thirteen previously unreleased tracks from Charlie Rich, many of them solo efforts. The newly discovered Rich recordings are particularly startling as they include twelve titles not previously known to exist, even to Rich fanatics. In addition to his role as a hit artist, Rich served as a staff writer for Sun Records during the '50s, and "Seven Dreams," "Waiting All Alone," and "Unsuspecting Me" are thought to have been demos written by Rich that were recorded at his home between in 1957 and 1962 and never released.
eMusic has also found twenty-five tracks by beloved piano man Rosco Gordon, of which four have never been released in any format. An additional thirteen are long out of print and believed to have never been released on CD in the U.S., while the remainder of the new tracks are rare and/or alternate versions. Gordon got his start as a member of the pioneering Memphis Blues group, the Beale Streeters, whose members also included B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Johnny Ace. In the '50s, he joined the Sun Records roster, becoming an architect of the label's early sound. Gordon, whose Sun 45s and distinctive "Rosco's Rhythm" were hugely popular in Jamaica, is also credited as an important early influence on ska music. After success in the '50s and '60s, Gordon's star faded; he moved to Rego Park, Queens, in New York City in 1962 and ran a dry cleaning business, performing sporadically in later years. He appears in the 2003 PBS documentary "The Road To Memphis," directed by Richard Pearce and Robert Kenner and produced by Martin Scorsese. Six weeks after filming, in 2002, he passed away.
Saxophonist Bill Justis, best known for the 1957 hit "Raunchy," also has three newly unearthed tracks on eMusic, never before released.
New Sun Records material available on eMusic:
Sonny Burgess, "The Sun Sides, Vol. 1"
Sonny Burgess, "The Sun Sides, Vol. 2"
James Cotton, "The Complete Sun Singles"
Rosco Gordon, "The Complete Sun Sessions, Vol. 1"
Rosco Gordon, "The Complete Sun Sessions, Vol. 2"
Bill Justis, "The Sun Sides"
Joe Hill Louis, "Sun Masters"
Carl Mann, "Sun Masters, Volumes 1 & 2"
Little Jr. Parker's Blue Flames, "The Complete Sun Singles"
The Prisonaires, "Sun Masters"
Charlie Rich, "The Sun Sides/ Band Tracks, Vol. 1"
Charlie Rich, "The Sun Sides/ Previously Unreleased"
Charlie Rich, "The Sun Solo Sides"
Billy Lee Riley, "The Sun Masters"
Warren Smith, "The Sun Sides"
Rufus Thomas Jr., "The Complete Sun Singles"
Ike Turner, "The Sun Sides"
Various Artists, "Sun Alternate Takes, Vol. I"
eMusic sells music beyond the commercial mainstream in every genre, including rock, jazz, comedy, hip-hop, blues, classical, country, folk, children's music, electronic, world, reggae and more. The web site offers a catalogue more than 1.5 million tracks deep, culled from over 4,000 record labels worldwide, all in the universally compatible MP3 format. Entertainment Weekly recently hailed the site as "the music geek's alternative to iTunes." From indie bulwarks like Matador, Epitaph and Merge, to historic imprints like Stax and SST, to genre-definers like Blood and Fire, Sundazed and Definitive Jux, eMusic is continually expanding.
About eMusic
eMusic (https://www.emusic.com) is the world's leading digital retailer of independent music, second only to iTunes in number of downloads sold. Delivering more than 4.5 million downloads per month, eMusic offers over 1.5 million tracks from established and emerging artists in every genre from the world's leading independent labels. The eMusic Web site is created by music experts for music fans, with award-winning editorial content, a vibrant online community and unrivaled music discovery tools. A subscription-based service that offers 25 free downloads at sign-up, eMusic gives consumers an inexpensive, low-risk way to explore great new music they wouldn't find otherwise, and unlike other download services, its universally compatible MP3 files play on any device including the iPod. Based in New York, eMusic.com Inc. is wholly owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc.
