Prince’s estate releases raw ‘Calabama’ after posthumous overdub dispute

Prince’s estate has released the original horn-free version of ‘Calabama,’ giving listeners a direct comparison after a dispute over music added to the track years after Prince’s death. The four-song ‘Calabama’ EP arrived October 9 through NPG Records under exclusive license to Legacy Recordings. It pairs the version issued on August’s posthumous album ‘Timeless’ with ‘Calabama (Vault Raw)’ and two previously unreleased raw performances of ‘Prince And The Band.’

The release metadata is unusually clear about what listeners are getting. Apple Music lists the EP at four songs and 18 minutes. NPG Records says Prince recorded ‘Calabama’ at Paisley Park on January 21, 2003, with John Blackwell on drums. In the archived recording, a synthesizer fills the space after Prince calls for horns. For the ‘Timeless’ release, Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield and Lynn Grissett recorded a live horn line after Prince’s 2016 death.

That distinction became public only after questions about the album’s credits. At a ‘Timeless’ event, estate representative Charles Spicer Jr. initially said that nothing on the recordings had been added or edited. When fans noticed the horn players’ names, Boyer confirmed that the part had been recorded recently. Spicer then corrected his statement and accepted responsibility for the inaccurate description. The estate later said Prince’s recorded parts remained intact, that ‘Calabama’ was the album’s only track with added music and that no artificial intelligence was used.

The disagreement was not simply about whether the new horns sounded good. It centered on transparency and authorship: listeners had not initially been told that musicians completed part of a track Prince left in the Vault. The estate defended the choice by pointing to Prince’s call for horns and to the players’ histories with him, while acknowledging that some people would disagree. It also promised to provide more detail about future archival releases.

The new EP is a practical response because it makes both versions available rather than asking listeners to accept one account of the song. ‘Calabama (Vault Raw)’ removes the posthumous horn overdub, while the album version preserves the estate’s completed arrangement. That comparison establishes what changed. It cannot establish which version Prince would have chosen for release, because he did not approve either 2026 edition. Treating that uncertainty honestly respects the difference between documented studio material and speculation about an artist’s wishes.

The two additional tracks widen the view beyond the contested song. ‘Prince And The Band (Vault Raw 1)’ features Prince on all vocals and instruments, according to the release notes. ‘Vault Raw 2,’ recorded and mixed by Ian Boxill at Paisley Park on August 22, 2006, captures Prince on vocals, guitar and keyboards with Cora Coleman-Dunham on drums, Josh Dunham on bass, Maceo Parker on saxophone, Ray Monteiro on trumpet and Boyer on trombone. Their inclusion shows Prince working with a live horn section during his lifetime, though that separate session does not prove how he would have finished ‘Calabama.’

The EP extends the campaign around ‘Timeless,’ a 10-song collection of previously unreleased recordings made between 1977 and 2016. The album reached No. 59 on the Billboard 200 after its August 28 release, according to the estate’s announcement. NPG Records also says selected untouched Vault recordings will be available for listening at Paisley Park in 2027 as archival artifacts, another attempt to let the public hear process alongside finished product.

Posthumous archives always involve choices: which take to release, whether to mix unfinished material, how much context to disclose and who has authority to complete work the artist left behind. For Prince, those questions carry added weight because control, ownership and presentation were central to his public life. The estate’s decision to release the raw recording does not settle every argument. It does give listeners evidence they did not have before—and creates a more accountable model for discussing what belongs to Prince’s performance and what was added later.