Travellin' Tracks is a great collection of lively blues by slide guitar specialist Roy Rogers and harmonica wiz Norton Buffalo. Of the 11 songs recorded 5 are live recordings with Mercury Blues; Down In Mississippi; and Move On Way From Here recorded from The Sierra Nevada Taproom in Chico, CA (Love the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale too).
The song Hey There Grandpa is an appropriate change of pace mellow one otherwise Travellin' Tracks is all fast and fun and cool blues with a hip country tinge.

Jethro Tull and Comus had a baby, and they named it Gravy Train. That's not strictly accurate, of course, but as the band's eponymous debut opens with the fluid changes of "The New One," it's not too far of a reach, either. Richly harmonic, daringly jam-laden, and peppered with guitar roars that simply defy comparison, Gravy Train is the sound of the British underground at its most joyously liberated peak - a time when a bunch of apparent freaks could simply go into a major recording studio and let rip. Except Gravy Train's concept of "letting rip" has more in common with a symphony orchestra than the Edgar Broughton Band. Without, of course, the orchestra. But there's a moment in the midst of "Think of Life" that cannot help but put one in mind of later Deep Purple, as the flute and guitar battle for supremacy, while the blues workout "Coast Road" is as breathtaking as any of that genre's better-feted exponents…

In 1991, Klaus Schulze performed three concerts to celebrate his 20 years as a solo recording artist. The Dome Event: Cologne Cathedral is the third concert and the third CD. Like the other two CDs, this disc has an extra track, composed to match the live material and recorded in the studio. Schulze is a prolific live performer, and his music loses nothing in the translation to the concert stage. This disc features his signature heavy sequences, some very gentle acoustics, and deep atmospheres. Strange vocal samples take the set over the top.

Blood, Sweat & Tears didn't get around to cutting an official live album until they were well past their prime years - in this case, 1975, long after every original member (and even most of their first-generation successors) except for drummer Bobby Colomby (a true founding member, going back to the Al Kooper lineup) and vocalist David Clayton-Thomas, was gone. But, as Clayton-Thomas was back for the accompanying album, New City, and was with the group on this tour, one supposes that Columbia Records decided to take advantage of its good fortune by taping several shows. For his part, the singer is more mannered and pretentious than ever on most of this album, his singing powerful enough but his instincts pushing him more toward loud, ultimately over-the-top soul strutting, lacking any hint of subtlety…

Jazz critic Will Friedwald has stated that Julie London's records were so popular in the 1950s mainly because she looked so drop-dead gorgeous on the album covers. The marketing hook behind Calendar Girl may just be the main example for those critical of London's musical career, since its sleeve has made it a prized collector's item. The famous wraparound cover depicts cheesecake shots of London posed for every month of the year, while original issues of the album included a more-than-suggestive insert photo of the singer stretched out in bed. While Friedwald's correct about London's physical beauty, he's wrong in suggesting that the vocalist didn't have the talent to go along with her looks. Like Chet Baker, Julie London had an extremely limited vocal range but she did the most with what she had, possessing a special knack for torch songs that cast her in the role of a woman constantly being destroyed by love in general and by men in particular…

Pickin’ on Pink Floyd delves into the extensive catalog of the world’s premiere cosmic rock band. This experimental and unique approach marries excellent bluegrass instrumental interpretations with the psychedelic space rock of Pink Floyd. Featuring some of America’s finest on mandolin, acoustic guitar, 5-string banjo and fiddle, this collection is a journey into the world of Pink Floyd in an organic improvisational nature. Pickin’ on Pink Floyd will take listeners on a ride through the imagination on a trip that is both mystical and fun.

The latest suite by composer (and Stars Of The Lid co-founder) Adam Wiltzie took shape following a move north from Brussels into the Flemish countryside, although it was initially inspired by a recurring dream wherein “if someone listened to the music I created, then they would die.” The album uniquely evokes and evades the allure of oblivion, keening between beauty and ruin, forever unresolved.
Recorded at Wilzie’s home studio, with strings added in Budapest at the old Hungarian National radio facility (Magyar Radio), the tracks feel simultaneously intimate and infinite, unfolding vistas glimpsed in an inner space. Robert Hampson of English drone rock icons Loop mixed the album, further lending the music a sense of cinematic expanse and oblique hypnosis…

After a career as a local bluesman and blues promoter in Texas and Oklahoma, Gary Coleman found his niche when he signed over his first album, a self-produced outing originally issued on his own label, to the fledgling Ichiban company out of Atlanta in 1986. Since that time, both Coleman and Ichiban have made their marks in the blues field: not only did Coleman release half-a-dozen of his own albums, he also oversaw production of the bulk of Ichiban's hefty blues catalog, bringing to the studio a number of artists he'd booked or toured with in his previous career (Chick Willis, Buster Benton, and Blues Boy Willie, among others). A singer/guitarist on-stage, Coleman often took on a multi-instrumentalist's role in the studio. His music remained true to the blues and to the King legacy saluted in his "B.B." moniker and in his acknowledged debt to fellow Texan Freddie King.

A few years into the British folk-rock boom, came along a band called the Trees, that got slagged off by the mindless British weekly press as Fairport Convention sound-alike. If those so-called journalist had actually listened, they might have seen their mistake as the Trees were a lot more like the fantastically fabulous The Pentangle but only even more progressive. True the dual guitarist and female singer was a sort of blueprint (almost cliché) for bands of those days into folk-rock, but here the musical interplay got uncommon space to develop and the numbers frequently grew longer in time, something rare in the genre and only followed by Comus. But that SMBWMP (stupid mindless British weekly music press) would keep on deriding this band that folded after two excellent but unsuccessful albums.
The Trees are recommended to everyone wanted to investigate the folkish side of progressive rock and its acoustic side.

When it was originally released in 1964, this set of music was a bit of a hit, selling over 100,000 copies. In the early '60s when many Brazilian musicians brought bossa nova to the United States, classically trained guitarist Baden Powell took his guitar to France. Hence, the rest is history, as this Brazilian artist infused his hybrid jazz/classical/bossa nova articulations into the European scene. On various works, Powell melds a distinct sense of classicism with buoyancy and sophistication.

Cervello are another example of a seventies Italian prog band who only managed to release one album. They formed in Naples in 1972 and quickly appeared at a number of festivals including the Palermo Pop Festival. They had a connection with Osanna as Corrado Rustici (guitar and flute) was the brother of Danilo Rustici, their guitarist. As well as family ties Cervello also occupied similar musical territory to Osanna. A high standard of musicianship is present on "Melos" and they should appeal to fans that enjoy the wilder excesses of RPI, not only Osanna but the likes Il Balletto di Bronzo and Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno. They combine a fairly eclectic blend of musical styles ranging from acoustic folk, occasional avant moments to more bombastic instrumental workouts. The excellent guitar work of Rustici display's a John McLaughlin influence at times. Notable is the absence of keyboards, in their place sax and flute playing a more prominent role.

Opal Fire (2002). Son of a UN diplomat and classically trained, exciting young pianist Akram grew up digesting musical influences from around the world. These exotic flavors are brilliantly woven together in melodies that take flight and soar with expansive orchestrations and passionate rhythms and in more soothing moments, evoke an emotional response in a beautifully serene way.
Free As A Bird (2004). Free As a Bird is the much-anticipated follow-up to Omar's 2002 release, Opal Fire. Exotic, sensual, and brimming with life, it was worth the wait! Richly arranged and orchestrated by David Dial and Gregg Karukas, real instruments replace some of the keyboards from the earlier release, and the interaction of great musicians…

Considered by many music historians as one of the most important group out of Germany, Faust were certainly ahead of their time. They took their music to unsuspecting heights somewhere in between Can, Velvet Underground, Neu, LA Dusseldorf or Henry Cow but also much farther and can be considered as founding fathers of the Industrial Rock. Having made their debut in 71 in Hamburg, Faust will never stop their groundbreaking and will be always one step ahead of everybody else including the groups above mentioned and are the prime example of Rock In Opposition (RIO) along with Henry Cow. Faust is definitely not for the faint-hearted person and can only be recommended in small doses because it is very dangerous for the sanity of the average proghead.

20th anniversary reissue of Type O Negative's 6th album "Life Is Killing Me". A relentless work from the kings of New York Gothic Metal.
In the past, Type O Negative dared the listener to sit through aural jokes to weed out the four or five cuts of ghoulish greatness only these Brooklyn boys could devise. At this point, slab number six, everyone knows what to expect from the drab four, and they now know how to deliver it consistently. Ultimately, Life Is Killing Me breaks no new ground, but engages throughout, always touching on the Type O oeuvre. "I Don't Wanna Be Me" easily qualifies as one of the band's best singles…

Canadian brass rock band Lighthouse were formed in Toronto 1969. Unusually, the band leader Ronn "Skip" Prokop was a drummer, he has played previously with artists such as Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana and Al Kooper before forming his first band The Paupers. Of these, the Kooper connection is probably the most significant, as the music of Lighthouse is based around a solid brass section and big arrangements, similar to those of Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago.
Prokop's ambitions were made clear from the outset when the first line up of Lighthouse had no less than 11 members. The were quickly picked up by RCA Victor, who release the bands self titled debut in 1969. Further albums followed quickly, but the punningly titled "Peacing it all together", their third release, would see the end of their relationship with RCA…