Light in the Attic Records has announced the next installment of their ongoing and widely acclaimed Country Funk compilation series: Various Artists – Country Funk Volume III (1975-1982). Previous releases in the series mined the swampy, fertile grounds of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but this time around, the compilation stretches into the 1970s and 1980s where the jeans are tighter, the hair is bigger and the disco ball spins along to a country-synth beat.
Produced and compiled by Jason Morgan (Bay Area DJ/collector) and Patrick McCarthy (co-producer of Country Funk Volume I & II), the tracklist features regulars Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Larry Jon Wilson and Tony Joe White (whose track is released here for the first time) alongside new faces like Steven Soles, Gary & Sandy, Conway Twitty, Travis Wammack, Rob Galbraith, Brian Hyland, and so many more.
Available for pre-order beginning July 1, 2021, Country Funk Volume III features brand-new original artwork by renowned artist J. William Myers (poster artist for Robert Altman’s Nashville, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson’s Waylon & Willie album, Charlie Daniels Band). The vinyl configuration will be available in both standard black wax and a special clear vinyl pressing with red and blue swirl, which will be housed in a special foil-stamped jacket.
The compilation will also be available on CD and four songs will be available digitally. All configurations boast newly remastered audio. Additionally, to celebrate the release, Light in the Attic will offer a limited run [a 50” x 60”] woven throw blanket featuring the J. William Myers original album cover.
Also available will be Country Funk-branded dad hats and trucker hats. All Country Funk merchandise is available now for pre-order in the Light in the Attic online store. To pair with the excitement around the new release in the series, Light in the Attic is proud to announce a special colored vinyl pressing of the release that started it all, Country Funk Volume I (1969-1972), which is available now for the first time ever.
More about Country Funk: Country Funk 1969-1975, first released in 2012 and co-produced by Zach Cowie, Patrick McCarthy and Matt Sullivan, brought together a disparate group of artists that were neither bound by geography nor a shared ideology, but connected through the simple feel of their songs.
Their sound wasn’t so much a genre, but a feeling – its sound both studio slick and barroom raw. Johnny Adams, Mac Davis, Dale Hawkins, Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry, Larry Jon Wilson, and many others shared commonalities that put them at home together on the same platter.
Just two years later, Country Funk Volume II (1967-1974) arrived and heavy hitters like Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and J.J. Cale shared barstools with the lesser known voices of Bill Wilson, Donnie Fritts and Thomas Jefferson Kaye.
With Country Funk Volume III 1975-1982, as the 1970s began to wane and the 1980s approached, the sonic pallet of the artists expanded to include disco beats, heavy Moog synth bass lines and more clavinet than you could shake a stick at, while retaining the essence of Country music and subject matter.
This next chapter showcases artists continuing to buck traditional tropes and production while embracing modern soul, disco, and coked-up 80s synth pop. The horse still bucks, the band still funks, and well…the fire still burns….
