Two Cratedigger Gems In The VMP Store Now

The first, which is hitting the Vinyl Me, Please store today, is Party Down, the 1974 sophomore album from Willie George Hale, better known to the world as Little Beaver. Party Down was Hale’s debut for the Cat label, after he became the go-to session guitarist for a variety of artists (Betty Wright being the biggest) in the early-’70s, thanks to his distinct, funky, clear-as-a-bell guitar playing. His biggest single by a wide margin was the two-parter “Party Down,” which gives this album it’s name. There are few songs on earth that drip with this much sweat, and capture the mood of a kickback with your friends:

Another of the album’s tracks--”Get Into The Party Life”--became the backing for Jay-Z’s 2007 song “Party Life” from the album, American Gangster.

The album has been reissued only once: a Japanese pressing more than 20 years ago, and all of them go for at least $40. Vinyl Me, Please’s new edition of the album is on red and orange splatter vinyl, and is limited to 750 copies. 

Earlier this week, Vinyl Me, Please released our exclusive edition of The Giant Is Awakened, from the Horace Tapscott Quintet. Tapscott is one of the bigger what-if’s? of jazz, as he broke new ground in free and spiritual jazz on a curve slightly ahead of some of its most famous practitioners, but he was leery of the record business, and made only a few LPs in his career. The Giant Is Awakened was the first, and it’s a complicated, oft-stunning record that has remained out of print since it first came out, and sells for hundreds of dollars. Vinyl Me, Please’s edition is limited to 300, and as of this writing, has less than 10 copies remaining.