Louisiana slide master Sonny Landreth takes his time between releases – his last studio disc of original material was five years prior to this – but when they arrive, the wait seems justified. For the debut album on his own Landfall records, Landreth calls in marquee name guitarists Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, and Vince Gill to bolster the visibility factor. Rather than focusing on guitar duals, Landreth wrote songs that incorporate their styles, and occasional vocals, organically into the material. There are plenty of stunning solos of course, but they are integrated into the tunes that stand up just fine without the six-string fireworks. The album's title is a double entendre as "reach" is a body of water and also describes Landreth inviting his guests to be part of the project.

Three Dog Night kept up its reputation for putting other artists' songs on the charts with Naturally, one of the group's finest offerings. With Hutton, Wells, and Negron sounding amazingly tight and fluid, they took their soft rock dynamics and mixed them with an abundance of hooks and harmonies to produce three Top 20 singles, eventually earning the band a gold disk. The fresh-sounding "One Man Band" hit number 19 in December of 1970, followed by Three Dog Night's most acclaimed tune, the Hoyt Axton-penned "Joy to the World," which spent six straight weeks at number one, and Russ Ballard's "Liar," which peaked at the number seven spot only four months later.

Early Steppenwolf is a collection of live recordings by Steppenwolf when they were still known as "The Sparrow". It was released in July 1969 on the ABC Dunhill Records label. Prior to the formation of the Steppenwolf partnership in 1968, music producer arranger, Gabriel Mekler changed the name of the band based on a book he was reading at the time by Hermann Hesse. Nick St. Nicholas was one of the driving forces in music of the hippie counterculture movement, the Summer of Love, having booked the band at the Matrix club in the San Francisco Bay Area. On May 14, 1967, the manager of the Matrix club recorded two shows, including a 20-minute version of The Pusher. These are the live recordings released by ABC Dunhill Records as Early Steppenwolf.

The Hooters' first album of new material since 1993, TIME STAND STILL sounds as if the intervening 14 years had never happened. Featuring a full reunion of all five original members, as opposed to singer-songwriters Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian simply resurrecting the name, the Philadelphia quintet's familiar blend of traditional folk instruments and glossy rock remains. This includes Hyman's trademark melodica solos that gave the band their name. Along with 10 new songs, the album also includes a faithful cover of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer".

This beautifully recorded debut release confirms not only the Rolston String Quartet’s superb technical accomplishment and their impeccably blended sound, but also a maturity of interpretative approach that can only be achieved after long and patient engagement with the music.

Claudio Abbado uses Mussorgsky's text in a condition almost as complete as Mstislav Rostropovich's but avoiding some overlap from variant readings. He brings to his conducting the same vitality and scrupulous attention to small details that are familiar from his work in Italian opera. His cast is good throughout and particularly strong in the leading roles. This is a Boris to live with, one that gets better with repeated hearings.

Porpora is best known for his open rivalry with Handel on the London operatic scene, and is remembered more for the ferocious controversies that raged between the two men than for his music. But this dazzling new disc from Auser Musici shows the composer to be a profound musician with a rich and wide-ranging output, a mastery of compositional technique and a keen sense of theatre and dramatic pacing. Stylishly performed and recorded, this disc will surely force a reappraisal of Porpora’s artistry and reawaken interest in this great composer.

Alexei Lubimov is a Russian pianist who also plays fortepiano and harpsichord. In his early years he studied at the Moscow Central Music School, and in 1963, entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Heinrich Neuhaus and Lew Naumov. He developed a strong interest in Baroque music and 20th century modernist works. Lubimov gave the Soviet premieres of many western compositions, including pieces by Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage, Terry Riley, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, which brought censorship from the Soviet authorities. For a number of years he was prevented from traveling outside the Soviet Union. Turning to his interest in period instruments and authentic performance practices, he founded the Moscow Baroque Quartet and co-founded the Moscow Chamber Academy with Tatiana Grindenko.

Just when the first-generation British Invasion bands galloped ahead into pop art in 1966, the Small Faces worked a heavy R&B groove on their 1966 debut. That's not to say that this pack of four sharp-suited mods were unaware of the times. If anything, no other British band of the mid-'60s was so keenly tuned into fashion, the four Small Faces capturing the style and sound of dancing pilled-up mods better even than the Who, possibly because the group could carry a groove better than the Who, as this tightly propulsive debut amply illustrates. Like many '60s debuts, The Small Faces is split between covers, songs the label pushed on the band, and originals, some clearly interpolations of songs they'd been covering in clubs. "Come on Children" echoes James Brown's "Think," and "You Need Loving" is based on Willie Dixon's "You Need Love"…

This short-lived formation from the 70's were an offshoot of Welsh psychedelic band Man. Two of its members, namely keyboard player Phil Ryan and guitarist/bassist Will Youatt, left in 1973 to form the Neutrons with drummer John Weathers (Gentle Giant), violinist Stuart Gordon (Incredible String Band) and a slew of other musicians. They took their name from Iorwerth Pritchard and the Neutrons, a band Ryan and Youatt had created prior to forming the Neutrons.
Whereas the music of Man was predominantly guitar based, the Neutrons concentrate on the keyboards; their heavy use of synthesizers, a strong Gentle Giant edge as well as slight Brit-folk overtones characterize their sound. Of interest to prog lovers is their first album titled "Black Hole Stars", which features interesting keyboard-driven psych prog with good guitar leads…

Speak of the Devil is the seventh studio album by the American rock musician Chris Isaak, released in 1998. The song "Black Flowers" is featured at the end of the sixth episode, first season, of "The Penguin" HBO series (S1E06). All tracks are written by Chris Isaak, except "Breaking Apart" by Isaak and Diane Warren.

Fittingly for an album called Mumbo Jumbo, Air Supply do employ some smoke and mirrors on their 2010 album – perhaps more than any of their previous albums, dabbling with a variety of textures and rhythms. Although their touch remains decidedly light, this isn’t merely a collection of romantic ballads: it opens with the spooky prog pomp of “Setting the Seen”; “A Little Bit of Everything” pulsates with the clean sheen of the late ‘80s; they work up a fairly good head of steam on “Me Like You”; they get a little dirty on the slow groove of “Lovesex”; “Until” approaches the baroque; and even on something as soft as “A Little Bit More,” the acoustic guitars are unadorned in a way Air Supply never have tried. While none of the songs approach the skyscraping hooks of their soft rock classics, this isn’t the sound of a band resting on its laurels; if anything, this is one the group’s most adventurous records, which may also be why it’s one of Air Supply's best.

Roll It Down begins with a funky, roots rock-based "Tomorrow's Yesterday,", a song that immediately brings to mind the super-group Little Village featuring John Hiatt. The bassline is also more prominent here. "Under The Bridge" is another slow blues-oriented song that could draw comparisons to Robert Cray without the great blues guitar solo but with a credible backing keyboard. The relaxing nature of most of Ray Bonneville's work is ever-present through the baker's dozen of offerings, especially the bounce emanating from "July Sun." "You might know the way to go/If you ask a passing crow," he sings as Colin Linden helps out on mandolin. Most of the time the arrangements work but the title of the album gets the tracks off on the wrong foot, and they can't quite right themselves. The shining moment comes during "Oxford Town," a heartfelt duet with Jonell Mosser on harmony vocals, bringing to mind a possible duet between Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris. Another very good effort comes from "Walk With Me," a toe-tapping melody straight from Waylon Jennings with some fine guitar picking.