Ray Dobard’s Music City Records of Berkeley, California, across the Bay from San Francisco, is a catalogue of mythic proportions that has been cherished for decades by a small hardcore of R&B, vocal group and, latterly, soul fanatics. Based on the available evidence – 50-odd 45 and 78rpm releases – and a lot of hearsay and rumour, many have spent hours fantasising about the purported riches in the possession of its famously protective, zealous owner.

Continuing his long-running and highly respected series for Ace, spanning year by year since the germination of his 1966 volume for both Ace and Faber Books, Jon Savage serves us up another of his spectacular insights into popular culture, this time for the years 1983 to 1985.

Summer's here and the time is right. . . for a carefully curated compendium of late 1960s California sunshine from the vaults of several hallowed West Coast indie labels and production houses. Big Beat's "Trip On Me: Soft Psych & Sunshine 1966-69" features 24 pop-psych nuggets replete with a healthy dose of dulcet harmony, jazz-tinged charts and studio freakery. All were recorded in Hollywood or the San Francisco Bay Area for collectable labels like Mira and Era or maverick outfits such as producer Gary S. Paxton and SF's Trident Productions. The legendary Curt Boettcher appears not only as producer but also as backing vocalist on several cuts, as well as featured artist on a fascinating demo. Collectable obscurities such as JP Rags, the Pretty People and The Thousand Faces are joined by sunshine pop staples The Forum, Primrose Circus and Filipino female quintet The Third Wave, who are represented by two rare early recordings. Drawn from unreleased masters and session tapes with top-notch sound quality, and detailed liner notes revealing the facts behind such unheralded acts as the Lollipop Fantasy, Candy Company and A Small World, "Trip On Me" is an essential purchase for 60s pop fanciers of all persuasions.

Bob Thiele is one of the great producers. For his work with John Coltrane alone, where he gave free reign to the saxophone great's wildest musical visions including 'A Love Supreme', ignoring the usual cost consciousness of a major label, he deserves to be lauded. In addition to this his 8 years at Impulse saw him recording seminal works by scores of musicians including late blooming masterpieces by Ellington and Hodges, and a whole wave of 'new thing' jazzers such as Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. He didn't stop there and when he launched his own label Flying Dutchman in 1969, he continued to innovate and record music that reflected its times, but that also resonates down through the ages.

He’s not perhaps the best known or most prolific of those who have featured in Ace’s Songwriter series, but few fans of American popular music from the 60s to the 90s would dispute that Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman is one of the most important. Chips wore many professional hats during his almost 50-year career. Musician, label-owner, producer and studio owner are other areas at which he excelled.

Strong new work from Dana Gillespie – a British singer, but one who's always had a love of American roots in her music – way back to when she was just performing as a schoolgirl back in the 60s! Yet somehow along the way, Dana didn't always get the setting that her voice deserved – sometimes records that were too polished, or to commercial – which is definitely not the case here – as Gillespie sings in this moody, mature vibe that really fits her look on the cover – given small group backing headed up by guitarist Jake Zaitz, who also co-produced the record, and wrote most of the songs with Dana too. The whole thing's great – understated, in a way that maybe even brings out more magic in Dana's vocals than she had back in the day – on titles that include "Putting My Dreams On Hold", "Howling Howling", "The Truth About Lying", "We Share The Same Sky", "Beat Of My Own Drum", and "Back In The Day".

Ace's much acclaimed Songwriter Series rolls into 2021 with a long overdue overview of the work of one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. Kris Kristofferson's catalogue has been visited and revisited on scores of occasions over the past half century, with almost 1000 covers alone of just three songs one of which For The Good Times gives this new 23-track collection its title.

Los Angeles features strongly throughout. As a taster of the pleasures to come over the next couple of years, the opening tracks by ex-Motowners Carolyn Crawford and Kim Weston, along with the Joe Buckner & Major IV number, are from Mickey Stevenson’s late 60s Los Angeles operation; and the Lovers’ acetate-only ‘She’s Supreme’ and John Wesley & the Four Tees’ stomping version of the Williams & Watson LP track ‘Love Is Such A Funny Thing’ were recorded under the aegis of the city’s great arranger Arthur Wright.

By May 1964, when The Sound of the R & B Hits compilation came out in the UK on Stateside, Motown had yet to have a hit or even a record issued on its own label, later to be Tamla-Motown. This LP was the first of many UK anthologies of recordings from the Detroit-based group of labels. At this stage, Motown was an underground affair, known only to aficionados of rhythm and blues music. Among those were members of groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames and super-fan Dusty Springfield. This was not music that was played on the radio, so it was through UK cover versions that many young people were directed to the Motown sound. Ace director Roger Armstrong bought The Sound of the R & B Hits at the time and always heard it is as a companion piece to With The Beatles from the previous year. They both contained the Barrett Strong song Money.

The doo wop, gospel, blues, girl group and ballad scenes of Los Angeles fused to make it one major soul city.Ace has very strong links with Los Angeles labels such as Modern, Combo, Flash, Flip, Mirwood, Money, Doré and Era, most of which had notable soul singles in their catalogues. Couple that with our many licensing deals of music made in that city and it is safe to say Los Angeles is just about our main area of expertise.

The prime of Lazy Lester's recording career was his stint for Excello Records in the 1950s and '60s, and he hadn't recorded in the studio for quite some time when the Rides Again album was cut in England over the course of four days in late May 1987. You wouldn't say this is a peak of his work by any means, but if you accept that he couldn't be reasonably expected to replicate the magic of his vintage swamp blues with producer J.D. Miller, it's fairly decent. Lester himself is in good voice and blows the harmonica well on a set mixing remakes of Miller-era material with newer songs.

The five original volumes of “The Ace (MS) Story” were part of the backbone of our catalogue during our early days. They disappeared for a long while after our licensing agreement with Johnny Vincent expired, but we were delighted to restore three of the original five to catalogue in 2010 and 2011. Judging by their sales figures, we were not the only ones to be delighted.

In revisiting the strength and depth of Johnny Vincent’s original Ace imprint, and its subsidiaries Rex and Vin, what’s immediately obvious is the quality of the often freewheeling studio musicians who recorded for the label. With rampant saxes and rolling pianos, more than likely anchored by Earl Palmer’s tight drumming, the Ace ensembles hit the button every time with their rocky, earthy tracks.

To clear up a couple possible points of confusion about this 2010 release: although it came out on the British Ace label, it's actually a compilation of material that came out on the American Ace label between the mid-'50s and mid-'60s (with the exception of a couple cuts that didn't appear until the early '70s). Also, it's not identical to the 12-track LP titled The Ace Story, Vol. 2 that came out in the '70s. This edition adds 12 bonus tracks, making it a more comprehensive sampler of the label's rock and R&B.

The great bluesman B.B. King, who died in 2015, was one of the few artists whose every note was of interest. This 25-track CD of mostly previously unissued recordings are drawn from his sessions for Modern Records between 1954 and 1962. Be Careful Baby is a rare thing a B.B. King song that has never been released before in any version, while two tracks appeared on Ace's 2014 RPM compilation Speak Easy. The version of Catfish Blues is from a completely different session to the familiar issued version and from B.B.'s commentary appears to be the version he played on the road. There are many comments from B.B. and the band which provide an insight into the recording process and B.B.'s relaxed and informal manner in the studio. The CD ends with a previous unheard interview, recorded backstage at the Fillmore Ballroom in San Francisco with radio station KSAY at the 10/10 spot on your dial. All tracks are from the original master tapes.