We are told:
Laura Nyro Was One of the Great Singer-Songwriters of Her Generation
She Penned Such Classic as “Stoney End,” “And When I Die,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Eli’s Comin’,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Sweet Blindness,” and “Blowin’ Away,” All of Which Came from the Two Albums That Make Up This Two-CD Collection
A Little Magic, A Little Kindness—The Complete Mono Albums Collection Brings the Extremely Rare Mono Versions of Nyro's First Two Classic Albums to CD for the First Time
More Than a New Discovery Came Out Initially on Verve Folkways, and Was Later Re-Sequenced and Re-Titled as The First Songs by Columbia
More Than a New Discovery Appears Here in the Hard-to-Find Sequence and Mix from the Very First Edition of the Album
The Mono Mix of Her Second Album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, Is Very Rare and Preferred by Many Nyro Devotees
Bonus Tracks Include the Bones Howe-Produced “Pop” Version of “Save the Country,” and CD Debuts of the Verve Censored Single Version of “Stoney End” and the Single Mix of “Eli’s Coming’”
- Liner Notes by Joe Marchese
- Rare Photos from the Columbia Label Archives
- Remastered by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York
Can you surry? Can you picnic? Laura Nyro, to use her own fanciful word, surried onto the scene 50 years ago with the release of her debut album More Than a New Discovery. Its title was certainly apt. Throughout the course of her life, Nyro wrote and introduced some of the most beloved popular songs of all time with her singular fusion of pop, jazz, R&B, soul, Broadway, and folk sounds. Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are proud to celebrate the golden anniversary of Laura Nyro’s debut with a landmark 2-CD collection.
A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection features, for the very first time on CD, both of Nyro’s original mono albums newly-remastered by Vic Anesini at Sony’s Battery Studios from the original master tapes. More Than a New Discovery, originally released on Verve Folkways in 1967, premiered the songs that Barbra Streisand, Blood Sweat and Tears, and The 5th Dimension would all take up the charts, including “Stoney End,” “And When I Die,” “Blowin’ Away,” and perhaps the most famous song Nyro ever wrote, “Wedding Bell Blues.”
This special edition restores the original album sequence and mono mix from the very first version of the album. In 1968, Nyro moved to Columbia Records for her most acclaimed album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. Its songs were once again adopted by other artists such as Three Dog Night, Frankie Valli, and of course, The 5th Dimension. Featuring “Eli’s Comin’,” “Emmie,” “Sweet Blindness,” and the era-defining “Stoned Soul Picnic,” this ultra-rare album – thought by many Nyro connoisseurs to be superior to the familiar stereo version – also makes its maiden appearance on CD. A handful of bonus tracks round out this special package, including the Bones Howe-produced “pop” version of “Save the Country,” and the CD debuts of the Verve “censored” single version of “Stoney End” and the single mix of “Eli’s Comin’.”
The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese provides new liner notes; the crystal-clear remastering is by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York. A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection pays tribute to one of pop’s most enduring iconoclasts. It’s a soul picnic you won’t want to miss.
