Ike White’s – soul masterpiece ‘Changin’ Times’ receives 50th anniversary reissue

This Record Store Day, one of the most haunting and misunderstood soul albums of the 1970s returns as a limited-edition vinyl release: Changin’ Times by Ike White.
 
Recorded inside a California prison by a man serving a life sentence for murder, the album remains the only full-length studio release by the self-taught multi-instrumentalist. Fifty years after its original release, Changin’ Times is regarded as one of the most extraordinary and tragic albums ever made, and now returns in a special Record Store Day edition worthy of its singular legacy.
 
This 2026 reissue, arriving exclusively for Record Store Day on April 18, 2026, features audio cut directly from the original analog tapes by legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman. The release also includes brand-new liner notes by Cory Frye who sat down in conversation with the project’s music producer, Jerry Goldstein, the longtime producer of WAR and manager for Sly Stone, who first discovered White and oversaw the record’s original recording behind prison walls. Illuminating the album’s long-obscured legacy, this edition offers fans and collectors a rare opportunity to experience Changin’ Times in its fullest and most faithful form.
 
The story of Changin’ Times is as extraordinary as the music itself – an unlikely chain of events that drew an improbable cast of musical figures into Ike White’s orbit. It began at San Quentin in 1971 during Soul Day, a prison gathering honouring Malcolm X.

While blues legend Jimmy Witherspoon and Eric Burdon, formerly of The Animals and then frontman for WAR, performed alongside incarcerated musicians, one guitarist, Ike White, a prodigy, stole the show.
 
Goldstein, who had sent a recording truck to document the event, quickly realised that White had quietly mastered more than a dozen instruments while serving time in California’s prison system. Determined to capture his talent, Goldstein found a way to bring the recording process to White.
 
With Goldstein’s support, White was transferred to Tehachapi State Prison where the facility’s recreation hall was converted into a recording space.  Co-producer, Sly & The Family Stone’s drummer Greg Errico as well as musicians from Santana, and The Waters joined the sessions, helping bring White’s vision to life. The resulting album explored themes of love, freedom, and redemption with striking emotional depth. When Changin’ Times was released in 1977, it received critical praise, but quickly faded from view.
 
Following his release from prison in 1978, with Stevie Wonder advocating for his freedom and new opportunities on the horizon, White seemed poised for a second act. Instead, he disappeared, changing his name and identity and leaving behind one of the most compelling and enigmatic albums of its era.
 
Now, nearly 50 years later, Changin’ Times returns, offering listeners a long-overdue opportunity to rediscover a forgotten masterpiece, and the remarkable story behind it.

Changin’ Times Tracklist
 
Side 1
1. Changin’ Times
2. Comin’ Home
3. Antoinette
 
Side 2
1. I Remember George
2. Happy Face
3. Love And Affection