Cale, JJ Stay Around 7"

In 2007, six years before his death, Time Life issued Rewind: Unreleased Recordings, a mixed bag of outtakes, demos, and other material -- some of it not up to John Cale's usual standards. Six years after his passing, songwriter, singer, and widow Christine Lakeland and manager Mike Kappus deliver Stay Around, a 15-track set of unreleased material drawn from the whole of Cale's career. Unlike Rewind, however, these cuts were sitting in the vault, mixed, mastered, and finished. According to Lakeland, Cale always cut more songs than necessary, holding back tracks that didn't fit the particular album he was working on, or to have on hand in case he needed them later.Of Stay Around's 15 songs, all but one were penned by Cale; the lone exception is "My Baby Blues," a tune Lakeland wrote specifically for him. The sessions are peopled with the usual spate of greats Cale surrounded himself with: Jim Keltner, Kenny Buttery, Tommy Cogbill, David Briggs, Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, and many mor