UK box-set compiles, for the first time, all the British vocalist's single (A & B-sides), rarities, CD debuts, & 19 previously unreleased tracks. The 64-page booklet is lavishly illustrated with photographs & memorabilia from Sandie's own archive. EMI. 2004. Nothing Comes Easy Review by Bruce Eder
Four CDs and 101 songs may seem like more Sandie Shaw than most listeners would want to own, much less hear – that's what this reviewer thought, until he started going song by song through this set, and damned if there was not one song in this collection, covering her complete single A- and B-sides from 1964 through 1988, that wasn't worth hearing. Indeed, there are revelations throughout, starting with the superb sound and the use of proper first-generation masters on everything here, and the digital production to back it up with a warm, rich sound that's quietly intoxicating and seductive. The evolution of Shaw's style and approach to singing is so gradual that it catches you unaware when she shifts from one style to another – her 1980s sides may be far removed from the British Invasion sides in style, but you hardly notice the incremental moves, from being surrounded by electric rhythm guitars to accompanied by synthesized drums, and she's pretty powerful in either mode. The sound is amazingly crisp throughout, making up for a multitude of sins evident in past compilations of Shaw's work. The fourth disc is made up of rare tracks that, for a change, can be taken as simply more good music by the casual listener, as much as savored by the true fan. The accompanying booklet would also make a pretty good core for a serious hardcover book on Shaw.

Released for the occasion of Johnny Cash's 78th birthday, American VI: Ain't No Grave is the final installment in the collaboration between Cash and Rick Rubin that began with 1994’s American Recordings. These ten songs were cut during the same sessions for American V: A Hundred Highways. Guitarists Mike Campbell, Matt Sweeney, Smokey Hormel, and Benmont Tench on keyboards were present, as were other musicians. June Carter Cash died during routine surgery during these sessions. Cash, though grief stricken and with full knowledge that he too was dying due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, worked as often as his health would allow.

Electric Mud is the fifth studio album by Muddy Waters, with Rotary Connection serving as his backing band. Released in 1968, it imagines Muddy Waters as a psychedelic musician. Producer Marshall Chess suggested that Muddy Waters record experimental, psychedelic blues tracks with members of Rotary Connection in an attempt to revive the blues singer's career. The album peaked at #127 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. It was controversial for its fusion of electric blues with psychedelic elements, but was influential on psychedelic rock bands of the era.

This extravagant six-CD set documents the astonishing life span of the first pop independent label in the U.K., Immediate Records. Founded in 1965, Immediate flipped, flopped, and staggered its own way, competing against unhip American labels like EMI and Decca until late 1969. The label, and the documentary CD set, showcases in particular the Small Faces, who enjoyed a brief U.K. number one hit, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. More familiar to American listeners will no doubt be the three-chord sock-hop favorite "Hang on Sloopy" by the McCoys, and a number of covers of familiar American folk-rock hits are present as well. The esoteric collector will appreciate inclusions by such café balladeers as the Poets and Les Fleurs-de-Lis, also signed by Immediate before the advent of the swinging London sound, marked by the Rolling Stones revolution and other mod developers influencing the pants off the tiniest studio cover bands. Immediate also helped sculpt the success of anguished bellower Chris Farlowe, soon to be joined by the similarly throaty vibrato of PP Arnold and, of course, manager/producer Andrew Oldham's best toss of the dice, the Small Faces, whom he ripped away from Decca. By the fourth disc, you are, in fact, in the throes of swinging London, featuring Farlowe's heart-stopping "Yesterday's Papers" and Arnold's "The First Cut Is the Deepest," written by the much-in-demand Cat Stevens. Most of the music is minimal and often out of tune, production at an early-time low, replete with tinny echoes and accidental outtake moments.

Recorded live at Landsdowne Park Stadium Ottawa, Canada 9.9.1987.

1996 compilation on Connoisseur featuring 16 amazingrecordings by the band in its various incarnations from 1965-1992, as well as solo recordings by various members of theMac & some of the other bands the various members were withor worked with before…

Stainer's Crucifixion unfolds with a seamless ease, never jolting the listener with gratuitous theatricality or the type of rhetorical intensity which the English find mildly embarrassing. The emotional engagement here is about an unintrusive sobriety, affected by a glowing sentimental identification with the Saviour's plight.

Where No One Stands Alone is a compilation album by American singer Elvis Presley (1935–77). It was released worldwide on August 10, 2018 by RCA Records and Legacy Recordings, entering at number one on Billboard's Christian Album chart and remaining there for two weeks and in the top ten for an additional two weeks. The album features archival vocal recordings of Elvis mostly from the gospel albums How Great Thou Art (1967) and He Touched Me (1972) accompanied by newly-recorded instrumentation and backing vocals. The album's title track, "Where No One Stands Alone", is a newly recorded duet with Lisa Marie Presley.

Peter Bence has attracted a worldwide following for his signature style, passion and unique approach to chart-topping songs, transformed through his virtuosic, percussive arrangements.

"Red Hot + Dance" is an album produced by the Red Hot Organization, an organization dedicated to raising money and awareness to fight the onslaught of HIV/AIDS. Pop star George Michael was instrumental in bringing the project to fruition and the album was notable for featuring three new songs by him. Originally intended for his aborted project "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 2", the tracks were instead donated to this LP. Apart from "Too Funky", which was released as a charity single (along with a video featuring several "supermodels"), these tracks are exclusive to this album. George Michael later launched a legal action against record label Sony, citing their lack of support for this project as one of the reasons he no longer wished to work with them. The album also included tracks by Madonna, Seal, Lisa Stansfield and Sly & the Family Stone, and was released by Epic (Sony) in the UK. The album cover features artwork by Keith Haring.

A host of horns, trumpets, sax, electric guitar and traditional Senegalese drums all feature on Awale Jant Band’s new studio album – YEWOULEN –Senegalese soul recorded and mixed in the heart of south London’s Peckham Road Studios, SE15. Awale Jant Band have good reason to celebrate! The band’s last 2019 concert was an all-African celebration headed by "perhaps the greatest drummer ever" (Brian Eno), Nigerian percussion master Tony Allen and then straight into 2020, with YEWOULEN - their first signed album for international release on the ARC Music label.

The debut recording of guitarist Bill Frisell's trio with bassist Thomas Morgan & drummer Rudy Royston is a wide-ranging 13 song set that mixes Frisell originals new & old, jazz standards, traditional songs, and covers. Valentine explores the creative freedom of the trio format and the profound musical relationship between these three musicians after years of touring.

A reissue of Dimples' album originally released in 1981. Nicknamed because he has two prominent, deep dimples, the late Louisiana-born, Oakland, CA-raised singer sung in an extra low voice that worked with the right material but sounded incredibly weak on mismatches. The material fit like a glove on this release that includes his first smash "She's Got Papers on Me," a fine update of the Penquins' "Earth Angel," and the humorous "I've Got to Learn to Say No" where he laments about all his women and his ability to turn down new desires.

Few musicians have engaged with Beethoven’s music as intensively and over such a long period as the Austrian Maestro Rudolf Buchbinder. In performing the 32 piano sonatas as full cycles countless times all over the world, he has developed his interpretation over decades. This edition is the complete cycle recorded over several recital concerts at the 2014 Salzburg Festival, where he has been the first pianist ever to accomplished this feat.

Great songs live forever. Whether you write 'em, sing 'em, or just love the stories they tell and the way they make you feel, make no mistake - the great ones will survive the blessed lot of us. Maurice Frawley left scores behind when he departed this world, after a short fight with cancer, in May 2009. To some folks - Paul Kelly, Charlie Owen, Tex Perkins, Tim Rogers, Mick Thomas and Don Walker for instance - plenty were already classics. For the rest of us, Long Gone Whistle is a gift we never heard coming. This triple CD set features original performances by Maurice Frawley, plus new interpretations of his songs by Adalita, Chrissie Amphlett, Sarah Blasko, Clare Bowditch, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, the Drones, Renee Geyer, Paul Kelly, the Charlie Owen & Chrissie Amphlett, Panics, Tex Perkins, Luke & Katy Steele, Dan Sultan, and many more. Many of these singers - like most of the rest of US - never had the good fortune of knowing Maurice Frawley. But his songs came from a place that we all share, both geographically and emotionally.