Best of 2019: Top Reissues, From the Vaults, or Box Set Releases

Jimi Hendrix, ‎’Songs For Groovy Children (The Fillmore East Concerts)’

Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts is a chronologically sequenced collection of American musician Jimi Hendrix’s 1969–1970 New Years recorded performances at the Fillmore East in New York City.

The Band, ‘The Band’ (50th Anniversary Edition)

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of The Band’s sophomore album, The Band an expanded 2CD version featuring a new stereo mix of the album by Bob Clearmountain, the previously unreleased complete “Live At Woodstock” performance from 1969, and thirteen bonus tracks including six previously unreleased outtakes and alternate versions.

The Beatles, ‘Abbey Road’ (50th Anniversary Edition)

The Beatles’ 50th-anniversary edition of Abbey Road isn’t the deep dive that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (from 2017) and the White Album (2018) were.

The Super Deluxe Edition includes three CDs, plus a Blu-ray that repeats the entire program, including the 2019 mix of the 1969 album found on CD One, in a variety of hi-res formats. That leaves two discs of sessions, basically 23 tracks in 90 minutes that chart the evolution of the band’s last-recorded LP. (Let It Be was released later but recorded before Abbey Road.)

Various Artists, ‘Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969, Vol. 1 & 2’

In 1969, a group of enthusiastic college students at the University of Michigan organized North America’s first music festival dedicated to celebrating the blues in all its varied forms. Captured on a new reissue from Third Man Records, Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969, Vol. 1 & 2 offers a snapshot of a moment in time when the giants of Black music converged at a Midwestern college campus and delivered stunning performances.

John Coltrane, ‘Blue World’

Long-lost soundtrack recordings by the saxophonist’s powerhouse quartet, made shortly after 1964’s Crescent sessions, capture the band at the peak of its cohesion.

Rocky Velvet, ‘Shuckin’ the Corn: The Great Lost Album’ 

Marty Stuart, ‘The Pilgrim’ (20th Anniversary Edition)

The Clash, ‘London Calling’ Scrapbook

Hamell on Trial, ‘Choochtown’ (20th Anniversary Edition)

The Kinks, ‘Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)’ (50th Anniversary Edition)

Dave Alvin, ‘King of California’ (25th Anniversary Edition)

Bob Dylan, ‘Travelin’ Thru (featuring Jonny Cash) / The Bootleg Series Vol. 15′