Cicadas chirp in the heat of the south, a bell alarms frantically in the distance, warning of the approaching train. After a short breeze of the rushing express, heat, silence and the cicadas take over again, until an irresistible lick of a dobro musically takes the heat to the extreme. These first notes show everyone who doesn’t yet know the blues man: He can do it! And, the man and his band can rock and have the blues.

One of the most striking debut albums ever released, this disc instantly established Chapman as a musical force, and with good reason. Immediacy, integrity of purpose and unqualified artistry are apparent in nearly every song. And while "Fast Cars" remains Chapman's best-known work, "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" is that rarest breed: a song which is both topical and timeless. Any exploration into Chapman's work should begin with this at times stunning effort; it is a disc of remarkable uniformity and clarity that Chapman has yet to improve on.

Aboriginal Australian blues, country, and gospel by the great Kankawa Nagarra, Queen of the Bandaral Ngadu Delta.
These intimate recordings introduce the world outside Australia to Kankawa Nagarra, a beloved Walmatjarri Elder, teacher, human rights advocate, and environmental activist.

Originally on the scene as a tenor saxophonist with the bands of Lucky Millinder, Hot Lips Page, Dizzy Gillespie and others in the late 1940s, Yusef Lateef spent most of the 1950s leading his own combo, studying at Wayne University, and taking up flute and oboe. I started using them in Detroit, to get rid of the monotony, said Lateef, this was one of the initial thoughts. After all, basically, music is just sound, in my opinion, any sounds of definite pitch.

The legendary 101 Strings Orchestra and the Alshire Singers present a set of Songs Made Famous by Olivia Newton-John! The collection comes courtesy of Countdown Media's restoration of the master tapes from renowned legacy label, Ashire/Somerset.

Australia's Midnight Oil brought a new sense of political and social immediacy to pop music: not only did incendiary hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine" bring global attention to the plight of Australia's indigenous people and the working class, but the group also put its money where its mouth was; in addition to mounting benefit performances for groups like Greenpeace and Save the Whales, frontman Peter Garrett later became a member of the Australian House of Representatives on the Labor ticket.

Tenor sax battles have been an indelible part of jazz, as witnessed by the legendary Coleman Hawkins/Lester Young battles, the classic Dexter Gordon/Wardell Gray albums, and the Rollins/Coltrane "Tenor Madness". Add this 1971 skirmish between James Moody and Al Cohn to the list. A mainstay in Gillespie's big band and quintet, Moody worked with many of the music’s greats. His solo on I'm in the Mood for Love is a jazz classic. Cohn is recognized for his part in Woody Herman’s famous Four Brothers tenor sax section, as well as his quintet with fellow tenor great Zoot Sims.

Anna Marie Genovese, a gifted singer from Syracuse, New York, born in 1929, began enchanting audiences from a young age. Known professionally as "Anna Marie," she released her only LP, "Interludes with Anna Marie," on the Syracuse-based Vesta label in January 1955. Nat Hentoff praised the album in Down Beat, awarding it four stars. Despite being paralyzed by polio since age one, Anna Marie's determination and talent shone brightly.

Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul.

The Swiss-Franco-American virtuoso, Celeste-Marie Roy, elevates the sonorous splendour of the bassoon to vibrant new heights, dispelling many a preconception about her instrument. Roy's flexible tone, technical finesse and striking interpretation ensure this solo programme in high-resolution 3D reproduction is a dynamic listening experience!

Tyler Bull grew up in Fort Worth, Texas traveling the country playing baseball. After college at Texas A&M, he picked up the guitar and started writing songs and playing live at bars around the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Cinematic, adventurous, varied and full of colors, it´s never exactly the same, just like life. Recurring themes are different when returning. Moods transform and change.

Darren Hayman made a name for himself as a member of the indie rock outfit Hefner back in the ‘90s. After they disbanded, he pursued a successful solo career, but, itching to be back with a band, he’s now formed the aptly-titled New Starts, recruiting members from Adults and Tigercats. “I wanted a band again,” says Hayman, “and not a band that just backed me up and played my old songs. When we form our first bands in our teens we just find some friends and work through the musical differences. I usually look for players who play in a way I’m used to. This time I looked for variance and was led by people’s personality.”

This Finnish group was born form a jamming music project MYSTERY SPACE, founded at city of Turku in year 2005. In year 2010 this instrumental group has line-up of guitar (Tuomas), saxophone & perc (Sini), keyboards & voices (Teppo), bass (Ville) and drums (Marko). As a team they head towards the realms of heavy riffed space rock directions, catching along musical ideas from diverse array of psychedelic vintage influences to their unique and interesting personal sound. The melodic saxophone and rhythm sector counterbalance this cosmic sound with more classical jazz presence. Music consists from both predefined structures and more open sequences for interactive improvisation, distributing much musical information and several emotional elements in a professionally balanced and well-matured form.

Stevie Ray Vaughan had always been a phenomenal guitarist, but prior to In Step, his songwriting was hit or miss. Even when he wrote a classic modern blues song, it was firmly within the genre's conventions; only on Soul to Soul's exquisite soul-blues "Life Without You" did he attempt to stretch the boundaries of the form. As it turns out, that was the keynote for In Step, an album where Vaughan found his own songwriting voice, blending blues, soul, and rock in unique ways, and writing with startling emotional honesty.