LOVE FOR PEARL

2021 will be a big year for fans of Janis Joplin. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is curating a special exhibit devoted to her that is scheduled to open in May.

- Ray Chelstowski

Genesis Publications will be releasing a limited-edition book, Janis Joplin: Days & Summers - Scrapbook 1966-68. During her career, Joplin created a personal record of her remarkable rise to fame. Throughout it all, she collected posters, souvenirs, press clippings, photographs and records, and annotated them with her comments. Featured alongside are previously unpublished items from her personal archive, including letters she wrote home to her family and a preceding scrapbook from her high school years, 1956-59. There’s even a baby book, a comic book and an exclusive capsule collection that includes a fine art collaboration with the estate of Barry Feinstein, the acclaimed celebrity photographer who captured some of Joplin’s most iconic images.

But the real big news comes with the 50th anniversary of her seminal record Pearl. It was originally released on January 11, 1971, three months after her passing and eight days before what would have been her 28th birthday. It was her last studio recording and the only album Joplin ever recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, the touring ensemble that had backed her on the Festival Express (the infamous 1970 concert tour by railroad across Canada with the Grateful Dead, The Band and others). Pearl included songs she’d introduced to audiences on tour. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, a position it held for nine weeks, and it showcased some of Joplin’s most familiar and best-loved performances including her cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” and the off-thecuff a cappella “Mercedes Benz,” the last song she ever recorded.

To celebrate, Columbia/Legacy recordings announced that Vinyl Me, Please is releasing a collectible 50th anniversary limited edition of