[Cover photo features Barbara Lynn]
For more than 20 years, archival label Light in the Attic (LITA) has spotlighted some of music’s unique, and often forgotten, voices. The new 20-track collection, Light in the Attic & Friends, presents over a decade’s worth of performances from the label’s Covers Series.
LITA Founder and Co-Owner, Matt Sullivan discusses Cover Series:
We believe that an essential component of archival work, aside from simply honoring the music, is to seek ways in which to bring fresh perspectives, context, and reverence to the original artists and their work.
For the Cover Series, contemporary acts pay homage to their favorite LITA artists and songs. For the collection, a handful of these recordings have previously been issued as limited-edition 45s, while eleven of the tracks are brand-new recordings.
Now, all twenty of these tributes will be available together for the very first time as a digital collection and special limited-edition 2-LP set, titled Light in the Attic & Friends, being released exclusively for Record Store Day’s annual Black Friday event, taking place on November 24th, 2023 at participating independent retailers.
Some of the tracks include Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band covering Detroit singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez and Mac DeMarco performing a song by Japanese icon Haruomi Hosono, as well as Iggy Pop & Zig Zags honoring funk queen Betty Davis, Angel Olsen paying homage to Karen Dalton, Ethan & Maya Hawke covering Country great Willie Nelson, and Swamp Dogg, John C. Reilly, Jenny Lewis, and Tim Heidecker covering a country classic by The Louvin Brothers.
Mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer John Baldwin, Light in the Attic & Friends is pressed on smash colored wax and features cover artwork by British artist Sophy Hollington. Rounding out the package is an eight-page booklet, featuring in-depth track notes by North Carolina-based filmmaker and writer Lydia Hyslop, as well as artist photos.
In celebration of the album’s upcoming release, LITA has released three recent digital singles, including Barbara Lynn’s cover of The Supreme Jubilees’ “We’ll Understand”, Vashti Bunyan & Devendra Banhart’s cover of Madelynn Von Ritz aka Lynn Castle’s “How Could You Let Me Go”, and Mary Lattimore’s cover of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s “Blink”.
