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The Sky Kings - 'From Out Of The Blue' £22.99 The Stalk-Forrest Group - 'St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings'
An individually numbered limited edition
of 5000 Copies.
24 Tracks, 19 Previously Unreleased, 20-Page Booklet 
An individually numbered limited edition of 5000 Copies.
18 Tracks, 16 Previously Unreleased, 20-Page Booklet
The Sky Kings were formed in 1988 by Rusty Young of Poco, Bill Lloyd of Foster & Lloyd and John Cowan of New Grass Revival. During the 1990s they recorded two remarkable albums, a 1992 set for RCA (with The Doobie Brothers’ Pat Simmons as a then-full fledged member) and a 1996 release for Warner Bros (back as a trio). And most remarkable of all, neither of these fine albums was ever commercially issued. 

As a result, The Sky Kings have become one of those legendary bands known more by rumor and reputation than by its musical output. Until the release of this CD. From Out Of The Blue features 24 Sky Kings recordings, all taken from their Warner Bros years. 

It begins with that unreleased 1997 Warner Bros album, plus nine additional tracks that had been recorded for possible use on the album but which were not included. There are also three demos for tracks that were under consideration, but not recorded, for that album, as well as the A-side of their third promotional-only single and their cover of a classic Smokey Robinson track included on a 1996 Warner Bros Christmas collection. 

Compiled with the active assistance of the band, The Sky Kings’ From Out Of The Blue rescues more than an-hour-and-a-quarter's worth of Warner Bros masters and wraps them up with a 20-page booklet filled with recollections from each of the bandmembers, archival photos, and proposed artwork from that lost Warner Bros album. 

According to Sky King Bill Lloyd: "Warners really gave us a lot of time to get our sound together. We got together, knee to knee, with guitars, bass and dobro and those kinds of instruments and worked things out. The chemistry felt good and it really defined the group's sound, which was a country band with country-rock/pop roots." Or as a 1996 Warner Bros press release put it, "The Sky Kings add a new intensity and sound to country music." 

From Out Of The Blue is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 copies. 


TRACK LISTING

Picture Perfect (3:11 ) 
That Just About Says It All (3:35 ) 
Lonely Only Goes So Far (3:53 ) 
Doin' What I Shouldn't (3:08 ) 
Love On Our Side (3:31 ) 
That's How You Learn About Love (2:16 ) 
A Shot At Loving You (3:35 ) 
I Must Be Doin' Something Right (3:27) 
Who Cares (3:25 ) 
I Can't Trust My Heart (2:40 ) 
Fooled Around And Fell In Love (SINGLE VERSION) (3:23) 
A Great Day To Be Alive (4:10 ) 
Right From The Git Go (3:42 ) 
If She Didn't Love Me (2:53 ) 
I Don't Wanna Live Like That (4:01) 
Angeline (3:23 ) 
Real Good Place To Start (2:43 ) 
Watch The Stars Come Out (DEMO) (2:55 ) 
That's What Love Can Do (DEMO) (3:35 ) 
You're Not There (3:48 ) 
I Just Did What I Didn't Wanna Do (DEMO) (2:45 ) 
Long Arms Of Love (3:51 ) 
Christmas Everyday (2:56 ) 
Just About Interlude (1:04 ) 

Over three decades ago, the band that would become Blue Oyster Cult created two albums' worth of recordings for Elektra, using a different name for each album's sessions, first Oaxaca and then The Stalk-Forrest Group, and, after delivery of the finished recordings to Elektra, neither album was ever released.

Though they were signed as Soft White Underbelly, and are now known as The Stalk-Forrest Group, they began recording tracks for their first Elektra album using the name Oaxaca. Ten tracks were completed in early 1970. Though recollections are sketchy, it appears that Elektra Records were none too pleased with these recordings, and all of them were shelved.

Sandy Pearlman, ever persuasive, convinced Elektra to take yet another chance with this version of the band. Elektra finally agreed, and in early 1970, the band began recording masters for another album. This time the recordings were made as The Stalk-Forrest Group. And this time an album was completed, mixed and mastered.

However, Elektra decided again not to release any Stalk-Forrest Group recordings at all. Soon after recording the second unreleased Elektra album, Andrew Winters left the band and soon after that The Stalk-Forrest Group was under no further obligation to Elektra's recording contract. Other than an Elektra MONO promotional single of "What Is Quicksand?" and "Arthur Comics" and other than the appearance of "Arthur Comics" on a 1986 Elektra Records compilation entitled Elektrock (The Sixties), all of these marvelous psychedelic Stalk-Forrest Group recordings have remained unreleased in their original tape boxes on a dusty tape vault shelf.

St Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings collects together all of the surviving Elektra Archive STEREO masters for both the final Stalk-Forrest Group albums as well as the unused masters from the initial Oaxaca sessions. We say "unused masters" because three Oaxaca sessions tracks, "What Is Quicksand?" "Donovan's Monkey," and "Arthur Comics," were snipped out of the first album master tapes by the original producers so that they could be included without change in the delivered Stalk-Forrest Group album master. In addition, we’ve included the MONO masters from both sides of The Stalk-Forrest Group single.

St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 copies. 

TRACK LISTING

What Is Quicksand? (3:21 ) 
I'm On The Lamb (3:00 ) 
Gil Blanco County (3:37 ) 
Donovan's Monkey (3:44 ) 
Ragamuffin Dumplin' (5:12 ) 
Curse Of The Hidden Mirrors (3:17 ) 
Arthur Comics (3:10 ) 
A Fact About Sneakers (7:54 ) 
St. Cecilia (6:44 ) 
Ragamuffin Dumplin' [Original Version] (5:23 ) 
I'm On The Lamb [Original Version] (2:52 ) 
Curse Of The Hidden Mirrors [Original Version] (3:18 ) 
Bonomo's Turkish Taffy (2:14 ) 
Gil Blanco County [Original Version] (3:38 ) 
St. Cecilia [Original Version] (6:45 ) 
A Fact About Sneakers [Original Version] (3:08 ) 
What Is Quicksand? [MONO Single Version] (3:22 ) 
Arthur Comics [MONO Single Version] (3:11 )