2024 holiday guide: Gift ideas for music lover on your list (including yourself)

Here we are, sitting in the shadow of Black Friday, our unsuspecting souls (and wallets) about to be hurled into a commerce-driven firestorm of congested parking lots, crowded malls and fanatical searches for that lone, specific gift that a certain family member simply HAS to have.

Sounds kinda scary, doesn’t it?

To simplify and perhaps soothe the holiday shopping weeks ahead, I offer my annual guide to newly released music — a check list of gift ideas that will hopefully satisfy most tastes and pocketbooks.

Things are divided up differently this year into four categories. Two of them cover epic, sometime budget-busting boxed set retrospectives and more modestly priced new recordings. Added is a section devoted to new books detailing various aspects of modern music. As a bonus, there is a closing look at digital recordings that will allow you relive three of Rupp Arena’s most popular concerts from 2024.

Here are they all are, a list and guide of the top sounds of the season as they unfold in four vivid formats.

Box sets: Hendrix, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell

We begin with bigger-budget purchases for more devout — make that fanatic — listeners. Each examines, in detail, specific vintage eras of a vanguard artist’s career. In these recommended boxed set collections, such a mission unfolds with an embarrassment of artistic riches that translates into loads of unreleased demo, studio and concert recordings. But as the old saying goes, “It’ll cost ya.” Prices here are listed in this order: CD edition/vinyl LP edition. They are based on the record label’s list price. Many retailers, though, sell for them for less.

Jimi Hendrix, “Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision” (3 CD/1 Blue-Ray; 5 LP)

Unlike many posthumous Jimi Hendrix sets that unearth concert recordings from his shamefully brief touring career (1966-1970), this package sits us squarely in the studio as the guitarist jams with his final Experience band (drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox) in June and August 1970 (Hendrix died that September). An insightful look at newer sounds that never got to flourish. ($60-$120)

Miles Davis, “Miles in France 1963 & 1964 — Miles Davis Quintet, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8” (6 CD/8 LP)

We head to Antibes and Paris for this wonderful expansion of 1964’s “Miles Davis in Europe” album. This set boasts five full concert performances and over four hours of unreleased music that mark the beginning of Davis’ fearsome “Second Great Quintet” with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and a switch of saxophonists from George Coleman to Wayne Shorter. Incendiary stuff. ($80-$225)

Joni Mitchell, “Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years 1976-1980” (6 CD/4 LP)

For the fourth volume of Mitchell’s “Archives” series, we find the fabled songwriter shifting from folk and pop to jazz. Demo recordings from 1976’s spacious, mysterious “Hejira” (still, in my book, her finest album), “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter” and “Mingus” mingle alongside unreleased concert material with the all-star jazz troupe featured on 1980’s live album, “Shadows and Light.” ($80-$100)

Talking Heads, “Talking Heads ’77: Super Deluxe Edition” (3 CD/1 Blue Ray; 4 LP/4 7” singles)

The record that started it all for David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. The playfully unnerving, post-punk quartet pop of “Talking Heads ’77” is presented here in a new Atmos mix along with unreleased tunes and alternate takes, a full recording of the Heads’ final New York concert at CBGB’s (from October 1977) and an 80-page hardcover book that annotates everything. ($100-$150)

Neil Young, “Neil Young Archives Vol. III, 1976-1987” (17 CD/5 Blu-Ray)

Neil Young’s third “Archives” outing is an another weighty, and expensive, treasure — a 22-disc blitz that runs from the late ’70s, when the famed songwriter released three of his greatest albums in succession (“American Stars ‘N Bars,” “Comes a Time” and “Rust Never Sleeps”) through the genre-jumping ’80s where Young juggled synth-rock, country and rockabilly. Loads of unreleased live and studio tracks with a hefty number of familiar recordings. ($240-$450)

New recordings: Dwight Yoakam, Gillian Welch

Recordings of new music by five veteran acts — some enduringly popular, other comparatively unobvious. Prices range from approximately $13-18 for CDs and $32-$38 for vinyl LPs.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, “Woodland”

For as long as they have been collaborating on each other’s music, this is the first record of original songs cut by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings as a duo. Their only other album together was 2020’s Grammy-winning covers collection “All the Good Times (Are Past and Gone.)” The reflective folk leaning “Woodland” is named after the famed Nashville studio Welch and Rawlings purchased in 2001.

Dwight Yoakam, “Brighter Days”

On his first album of new songs in just under a decade, Pikeville-turned-California country champion Dwight Yoakam jams with Post Malone, covers songs by two of Americana’s most heralded groups (The Carter Family and The Byrds) and dives into some of the sunniest sounding originals of his five-decade career. A bit slicker and more streamlined than usual, but a splendid Yoakam adventure nonetheless.

The Cure, “Songs of a Lost World”

Amazingly, “Songs of a Lost World” is the first studio album from The Cure in 16 years. The wait seems to have purified the band to an extent. Pop accents are absent here. With former David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels now fortifying the sound and vocalist/songsmith Robert Smith still as torchbearer, “Lost World” is something of a Goth opera — a dramatic, expertly paced adventure that unfolds in dark sonic waves.

Kim Deal, “Nobody Loves You More”

Her near 40-year career has placed Kim Deal at the core of two major post-punk bands, The Pixies and The Breeders, thus cementing her place as one the true pioneering women of modern rock ‘n’ roll. Yet “Nobody Loves You More,” is Kim Deal’s debut solo album. Engineered by the late Steve Albini, the record’s grit is balanced by candid sensitivity, as revealed in “Are You Mine,” a stark, loving eulogy to her mother.

Charley Crockett, “$10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas”

Texas country revisionist Charley Crockett’s first “$10 Cowboy” album, released last spring, embraced honky-tonk tradition while flipping it on its side with a slap of vintage soul. It also earned Crockett his first Grammy nomination. The quickly issued addendum album, “Visions of Dallas,” is equally literate in its storylines and solidly solemn in how it teams retro roots savvy with modern Americana.

BOOKS: R.E.M., Van Halen, Dr. John

Quite often a great recording triggers a greater interest in discovering more about the artists who created it. Besides, nothing beats kicking back with a great book on a dead-of-winter evening. True, music sings. But sometimes it’s cool to read about it, too.

“How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music” Edited by Alison Fenderstock

A detailed look at the inspirations and insights of female artists culled from NPR Music’s series “Turning the Tables.” Included are interviews with such earthshakers as Odetta, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, Patti Smith, Taylor Swift and Nina Simone with an introduction by “Turning the Tables” co-founder Ann Powers. ($40)

“Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts in Dr. John’s Gris-Gris” David Toop

Described as a “forensic investigation” of the 1968 psychedelic album that introduced the world to Dr. John, known up to that point as the prolific New Orleans pianist/studio musician Mac Rebbenack. The book details recording sessions with producer Harold Battiste (then music director for, of all acts, Sonny & Cher) and as well as the cultural inspirations Rebennack drew on for his artistic transformation. ($25)

“The Name of this Band is R.E.M.” Peter Ames Carlin

Having written biographies of such rock/pop leaders as Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Brian Wilson, journalist Peter Ames Carlin examines the rise of R.E.M. from its Athens, Ga., beginnings to its 1980s emergence as cherished indie stylists and, eventually, mainstream hitmakers. The New York Times tagged the book as “sensitive and well-made.” ($32)

“Brothers” Alex Van Halen

Drummer Alex Van Halen has largely stayed in the shadows since the death of his famed guitarist brother Eddie and the demise of the arena rock juggernaut band that bore their name. Alex’s biography chronicles the siblings’ childhood days in the Netherlands as well as an extended and fond look at the Van Halen band’s scrappy Southern California beginnings. ($32)

“Spirit of the Century: Our Own Story” The Blind Boys of Alabama with Preston Lauterbach

A great read for three reasons. It rounds up the surviving members of the eight-decade old gospel vocal group, one that saw a remarkable career renaissance at the dawn of the 21st century thanks to an eager, young secular fan base. But it also serves as a vivid history lesson on the gospel traditions that brewed in and around the Birmingham region. The book also nicely compliments the Blind Boys’ Dec. 3 concert at the Kentucky Theatre. ($30)

DIGITAL: Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson live

Here we have a musical gift idea that is distinctive and fun. If you enjoyed this year’s sold-out Rupp performances by modern bluegrass journeyman Billy Strings and/or Americana renegade and recent Kentucky Music Hall of Fame inductee Sturgill Simpson, here is your chance let someone else in on the fun.

Recordings of these concerts — along with a truckload of performances by Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket and many others — are available for purchase at nugs.net. You can stream them for a set fee or, in a format more fitting for gift giving, purchase them in digital, downloadable formats of MP3, ALAC or FLAC. Prices are less than a CD and way less than a vinyl album — $10-$19.

Here are the recommended shows by our Rupp faves.

Billy Strings, April 26-27, 2024, Lexington, KY, Rupp Arena

Both nights of Strings’ sold-out, two-set concerts are the prize picks here. Having built up a local following through numerous club performances as an unknown, this Rupp engagement marked the arrival of the champion guitarist/vocalist/song stylist as a joyous ambassador of a new bluegrass generation.

Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies, Sept. 27, 2024, Lexington, KY, Rupp Arena

He goes by Johnny Blue Skies these days, but the Rupp marquee still said Sturgill Simpson. This tireless, three-hour, one-set performance celebrated the Breathitt County native’s myriad shades of country, soul, rock and blues. It was an ironically electric evening given how many in Lexington were without power that night due to wind and storms brought on by Hurricane Helene.