Hootie & the Blowfish never were cut out to be superstars. They were meant to be the best band at the local bar. They were ordinary guys, and they played ordinary music, the kind that could be heard in any college town on the East Coast or Midwest during the early '90s when the local bar wasn't having grunge night. It was the ordinariness of the music on their 1994 debut, Cracked Rear View, that connected with millions of American listeners – they sounded like everybody's favorite local band. Once they were superstars, their bubble burst fairly quickly as the 1996 follow-up sold considerably fewer than the debut, and by the end of the decade, they had settled into a reliable routine of turning out modest records and touring steadily, without many people outside of their core fans noticing. Their popularity might have declined, but as the 2004 Atlantic/Rhino compilation The Best of Hootie & the Blowfish (1993 Thru 2003) illustrates, their music changed very little over the course of the decade, nor did the quality of their music decline.

Released in 1989, "Ghosts Upon the Road" was Eric Andersen's first American album in 12 years. Making his best album since his classic "Blue River". The sound here is friendly, rich and mostly acoustic. Andersen's smoked tenor is as reassuring as ever, and his deft control of melody pleasingly familiar. The Stories here are not all pretty, but they ring true, even if it hurts. "Though a lot of the songs on the album were written in Norway, they're very much about America," Mr. Andersen said. "I can see New York City more clearly when I'm away from it that when I'm there".

2007 release to coincide with the recent #1 UK hit re-recording of 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)', which they did for Comic Relief. This is the most complete collection from this Scottish Pop/Folk duo currently on the market and contains songs filled with melody, heartache, humor and strength. Features 21 tracks including both versions of 'I'm Gonna B (500 Miles)' (the original and the Comedy Relief version), 'I'm On My Way' (featured in Shrek), 'Letter From America', 'Throw The R Away' and many others. A fantastic introduction to the rest of their catalog if you are only familiar with the 'big' hits previously mentioned.

Ten English composers set the Latin text of the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the mid-16th century, in the reigns both of the Catholic Queen Mary and the Protestant Elizabeth I. Precise details are hard to establish of when works were performed, as Andrew Carwood explains in an illuminating note to this disc, but there seems little doubt that Tallis, though a Catholic, wrote his masterpiece for Elizabeth. The repeated final lines, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, turn to the Lord your God”, unforgettable once heard, have a dark resonance here, thanks to the sonorous basses of the Cardinall’s Musick (Robert Macdonald, Simon Whiteley). The rest of this fine recording draws on music from across Tallis’s career, with English and Latin settings (Sancte Deus, Te Deum, Come, Holy Ghost and more). The singers reach the highest standards.

Two years after they recorded Friday Night in San Francisco, John McLaughlin, Al di Meola and Paco de Lucía reunited for another set of acoustic guitar trios, Passion, Grace and Fire, If this can be considered a guitar "battle" (some of the playing is ferocious and these speed demons do not let up too often), then the result is a three-way tie. This guitar summit lives up to its title.

Clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh bridges the gap of Middle East and jazz with this richly swinging collection of concert material during his band’s stay in Berlin. Azmeh’s clarinet unites the team of Kyle Sanna/g, Josh Myers/b and John Hadfield/dr to walk the tightrope of the mystical world of the Middle East and modern tones, rhythms and passions. The melding is a richly textured album that is as flavorful as Turkish coffee freshly brewed in hot sand.

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II, also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits, is the second compilation album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on November 17, 1971 by Columbia Records. With Dylan not expected to release any new material for an extended period of time, CBS Records president Clive Davis proposed issuing a double LP compilation of older material. Dylan agreed, compiling it himself and suggesting that the package include a full side of unreleased tracks from his archives. After submitting a set of excerpts from The Basement Tapes that Davis found unsatisfactory, Dylan returned to the studio in September 1971 to recut several Basement songs, with Happy Traum providing backup. The final package included one previously uncollected single, "Watching the River Flow", an outtake from the same sessions, "When I Paint My Masterpiece"; one song from Dylan's April 12, 1963 Town Hall concert, "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", and three songs from the September sessions, "I Shall Be Released", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", and "Down in the Flood". The remaining tracks were drawn from existing releases.

Mylène Farmer is a Canadian-born French pop superstar who rose to fame in the 1980s and topped the charts time and time again for decades thereafter. Known for giving precious few interviews, she is a deeply mysterious figure with a cult following of fans around the world. A strongly visual artist, Farmer has made videos and live performances an integral part of her musical statement and its inclination toward taboo subject matters such as sex and death.

Midwinter Graces is the 11th studio album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos. Released on November 10, 2009, through Universal Republic Records, it is the first seasonal album by Amos, and is also notable for marking a return for the artist to a more classical, stripped-down, baroque sound with various synths, string-instruments, the harpsichord and Amos' own signature Bosendorfer piano at center stage, once more. The album, like previous releases from Amos, is available in a single form CD or a Deluxe edition which includes 3 bonus tracks, a 20-page photo book, and a DVD containing an interview with the artist.

After Arthur Brown briefly ascended to stardom via the Crazy World of Arthur Brown's only album, it was a long three-year gap until the release of the next LP bearing his lead vocals, Kingdom Come's Galactic Zoo Dossier. (Although the material on Brown's Strangelands had been recorded in the interim, that record wasn't released until the late '80s.) And if not for Brown's immediately recognizable vocal histrionics, it could be the work of an entirely different artist. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's exhilaratingly jazzy, madcap psychedelia had been jettisoned for far darker excursions into mordant early progressive rock.

Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park, kicks off festival announcements for 2018 with another world-class headliner and the promise of yet another legendary night in the park. Pink Floyd visionary Roger Waters becomes the latest in a long line of era defining artists to grace Hyde Park – one of music’s most spectacular showmen at the greatest outdoor venue in the world. This new tour promises to be no exception, following months of meticulous planning and craft, it will inspire crowds with its powerful delivery to take the audience on a musical journey. Roger Waters – Us + Them will showcase highlights from Waters’ groundbreaking body of work, with songs from Pink Floyd’s greatest albums (Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Animals, Dark Side of The Moon), along with tracks from his critically acclaimed new album “Is This the Life We Really Want?”.

Known to music fans around the world as the “King of the Boogie,” John Lee Hooker endures as one of the true superstars of the blues genre. His work is widely recognized for its impact on modern music – his simple, yet deeply effective songs transcend borders and languages around the globe.

The winner of numerous international competitions, the brilliant young accordion player Ksenija Sidorova here presents her debut recording; a recital for solo classical accordion. A particularly accomplished artist, Ksenija has collaborated with many leading musicians (including the Belcea Quartet, and Valergy Gergiev with the CBSO), and won numerous awards and accolades. Still an underexploited resource in western classical music, the accordion has had a fast-increasing amount of music written for it since the mid-20th Century. Here, Ksenija Sidrova brings a varied recital featuring some of the best contemporary compositions for the classical accordion, alongside transcriptions of well-known works. No composer has been transcribed more often than Bach; but the accordion - heard here in Bachs Overture in the French Style - brings an advantage that few other instruments can offer; its notes do not die away as soon as they are sounded. This allows an array of colouristic possibilities, denied to other musicians.

Friday On My Mind is the first North American album from The Easybeats. The album was released as Good Friday in Europe, in the same month. This version omitted "Hound Dog" and replaced it with "Women" (re-titled "Make You Feel Alright (Women)") from the Australian It's 2 Easy album. A 1992 Repertoire CD release, under the same title and cover art as the North American album, has the track listing of the European Good Friday album.

One of Robert Cray's best albums ever, and the one that etched him into the consciousness of blues aficionados prior to his mainstream explosion. Produced beautifully by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, the set sports some gorgeous originals ("Phone Booth," "Bad Influence," "So Many Women, So Little Time") and two well-chosen covers, Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Don't Touch Me" and Eddie Floyd's Stax-era "Got to Make a Comeback." Few albums portend greatness the way this one did.