APOLOGIES: Our repeated excuses for tardy posts are beginning to sound like a litany, but we hope that the reasons and the delayed news are absolutely justified this time. This summer has blessed us Bachelors with a marriage and a honeymoon (ironically, we recognize), publications, fruitful research projects, an NPR interview, University lectures, and a major career change, so things have been unusually busy.

LACQUERATION/CELEBRATION: But the more salient news, and the momentous occasion for this post, is that the David Lee anthology LP, “Said I Had a Vision”: Songs & Labels of David Lee, 1960-1988, the inaugural PoB release, is currently at the pressing plant! We hope to have it in our sweaty hands (and soon thereafter in yours, sweaty or otherwise) by the end of October, right ’round los Dias de los Muertos. The street date and official release parties will follow in November. Check out the sleeve art and track list (above) and the front cover of the extensive liner note booklet (below), which includes a full eight 11 x 11″ pages of historical essays, track notes, and discography.

SHELBY SHOUTS: Ann Sexton will be performing in Shelby, NC with David Lee and a crack band of Constellations and others, including former Ambassador Bunny Clyde, at the Art of Sound festival on Saturday, October 23, 2010. After years apart and out of touch, Ann and David are finally reuniting, and we’re thrilled to hear the results of their renewed collaboration. With some luck, we’ll be there with fresh boxes of LPs, offering fans of Carolina Soul the first opportunity to buy the record.

We are currently in the process of curating a separate Bachelors/Visionaires showcase at the Don Gibson Theater in Shelby on the afternoon of Sunday, November 7, 2010. A panel discussion with David Lee and local artists with whom he has worked over the years will precede a concert featuring the Constellations, Joe Brown and the Mellerairs, and David Lee himself. This event offers a rare opportunity to hear the “Said I Had a Vision” artists live on stage, in their own words, and in a brand-new hometown venue dedicated to the memory of one of Shelby’s most famous musicians, country songwriter and performer Don Gibson. Please join us for this official Cleveland County record release event, which also coincides with the community’s advance promotion efforts for the traveling Smithsonian Museum on Main Street vernacular music exhibition New Harmonies, which opens at the Don Gibson Theater on November 13. Details forthcoming here.

In further Shelby news, the Bachelors have recently met with a curator/copyright consultant for the future Earl Scruggs Center, and we were able to pass on a digital box full of Vision-related images and ephemera for potential use in a Scruggs Center exhibit dedicated to David Lee and Washington Sound. David has generously agreed to donate the original Washington Sound record shop sign to the collection, which will be a wonderful addition to this regional museum, which aims to showcase the history, culture, and folkways of Cleveland County through the lens of its remarkable music and musicians, with particular attention to hometown heroes Earl Scruggs and Don Gibson. The Bachelors worked on a musical and folklife survey of Cleveland County a few years back–which is how we first met Mr. Lee–and it is satisfying to see this project approach fruition.

TRIANGLE CONFIDENTIAL: Stay tuned for news of a record release party and Soundsystem affair in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro, NC area in November.