Well, here's something awesome for you vinyl and Joe Henry enthusiasts!
New West Records has been spearheading a campaign to raise money for Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap, who suffered a stroke last year and needs help with his rehabilitation. The Replacements reunited to record an EP called Songs For Slim, and the vinyl 10-inch edition was offered for auction in a limited edition of 250 copies. That auction raised over $106K for Slim's family (wow!).
Now they are gearing up a follow-up campaign, featuring artists like Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, The Jayhawks, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and many others. These releases will be 45-inch singles pressed on colored vinyl in limited editions of 100. Each auction will commence on the 15th of the month and last for seven days.
The Joe Henry-related news today is that the first single is up for auction and features Steve Earle and Craig Finn. For Earle's track, he enlisted JH and some of his close associates: Jay Bellerose, Jennifer Condos, Greg Leisz, Keefus Ciancia and - new to the mix - guitarist Val McCallum, who is an ace guitarist you may have recently heard on Lucinda Williams' Blessed. Since I'm a nut for Steve Earle as well, this release qualifies as a dream pairing in my book. With folks like Lucinda and Ramblin' Jack slated for future auctions, might we see some more JH productions for this project?
Anyway, bidding starts at $50 for each single, and this month's auction ends this Thursday. There are quite a few copies still with zero bids, so if this is right up your alley, head over to Ebay to hunt one down.
Visit the Songs For Slim website for extensive info and updates.
UPDATE: Thanks to JC Ritchie for pointing out that that these tracks will be made available digitally sometime shortly after the auction closes. Will keep you posted on that.
The site also notes : All tracks will also be made available digitally, post-auction and there may be an album compilation of the tracks later in the year.
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