and the vinyl debut of Thomas’ GRAMMY® Award-winning 2006 LP, After the Rain

Both reissues are due out July 31st and part of year-long celebration of

Los Angeles, CA (June 4, 2020) — Craft Recordings is proud to reissue two significant titles from New Orleans royalty: Classified from R&B piano virtuoso James Booker and the GRAMMY® Award-winning After the Rain, from soul singer Irma Thomas.

More about Irma Thomas and After The Rain:

While James Booker was “The Bayou Maharajah,” Irma Thomas continues to reign as the “Soul Queen of New Orleans.”

For her 18th studio album, After the Rain, Thomas lent her rich and deeply nuanced vocals to a varied repertoire that spanned 75 years of American songwriting—from Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas’ “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” to Blind Willie Johnson’s “(The) Soul of a Man” to Eleni Mandell’s more recent “Another Lonely Heart.”

It was an unusual selection of songs for Thomas, but Billington—who was about to produce his seventh album for the singer —“wanted to try something new,” he recalls.

Billington enlisted an all-star collection of local talent to join Thomas in the studio, including singer-songwriter Marc Broussard on backing vocals, blues and reggae artist Corey Harris on acoustic guitar, jazz and funk percussionist Stanton Moore on drums, the late David Egan on piano, and bassist James Singleton (who was also, coincidentally, the bassist on Classified).

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