Souvenirs

Souvenirs is the brainchild of Expansion Team Records, an independent label based in New York City, NY. It is an all-new collection of classic songs of the heart, performed by a handful of much-loved, modern and truly diverse musicians from the Expansion Team Records "family & friends" collective.

Music lovers indeed - Founder/CEO Alex Moulton & GM Howard Wulkan got permission to rummage through the vaults of Universal Music Publishing Group's catalog and assembled a list of arguably some of the finest songs in the popular music canon. "What was originally to be a `seasonal' release, explains Wulkan, became a project that took on a life of its own. We had some minor concerns that it might not make sense to the listener, since the collection was so diverse. Thankfully, since people seem to listen to everything these days, it couldn't have turned out better."

The result of almost a year's work, Souvenirs pairs musicians, producers and DJs with over 4 decades of classics. Imagine Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love," performed by 50FootWave (Kristin Hersh), or "You Are So Beautiful," made famous by gravel-voiced singer Joe Cocker, sung in earnest by Dirty Vegas-founder Steve Smith and multi-instrumentalist/Cornershop alum Anthony Saffery. Also featured on Souvenirs, Strange Kids' (Mike Genato [The G:Neus] & soul-singer Peter Hadar) rendition of the Bill Withers-classic "Lean On Me," a fabulously wonderful take on the original, a pulsing reggae version of Steve Winwood's "Back In The High Life Again," by Easy Star All-Stars (Radiodread, Dub Side Of The Moon) and a whole lot more! Beautifully packaged and presented, Souvenirs has a surprise around every corner. These all-new versions are as undeniably wonderful as originals.

Moulton and Wulkan add, "It's only fitting that the music on this album is as diverse as the people who contributed to it. It's the kind of album we always dreamed of putting together - our favorite songs performed by a selection of our favorite artists. The `family spirit' in which this project came together made us realize that Souvenirs is only the beginning. We're going to work on an 80's collection next."

Steve Smith (Dirty Vegas) had this to say about his involvement with the Souvenirs project: "As a long-time fan of this Billy Preston classic (made famous by Joe Cocker), I have always loved the power and simplicity of the lyrics. We (Anthony Saffery and I) wanted the power of the words to be delivered as delicately and intimately for our version, to take this legendary song to another place and Souvenirs afforded (us) the opportunity!."

50FootWave's Kristin Hersh adds: "It's uncanny. I'm usually the last person to want to do a cover, but 50FootWave had been talking about "Somebody to Love" for years. We liked the drive of the song and the vocal performance was so intense -- it just seemed so 'punk rock' -- but with a Velvet's edge. When Expansion Team proposed that particular song, it seemed meant to be." - Kristin Hersh, 50FootWave, Throwing Muses