Tarkio - Omnibus (2006)
VBR (220 kbps av) mp3 | 165 Mb | Tarkio - 1998 Live at KGBA | 192 kbps mp3 | 75 Mb
Genre: alt country/indie rock

Anyone who likes or loves the early R.E.M. shouldn't miss Tarkio. Cause at times they even outplay and outsing their more famous brothers of American guitar rock. Tarkio was the first band of Colin Meloy, who later came to fame with his follow-up band The Decemberists. Like most alt country and American guitar bands Tarkio follows the path that was opened by The Byrds, further explored by Tom Petty and later inspired Paisley Underground bands like Green on Red, The Long Ryders or Guadalcanal Diary and most of nowadays alt country bands. Tarkio means great songs, great singing and great playing. Omnibus is a 2006 reissue of the EP and CD Tarkio recorded in the second half of the 90's. One song that is a bit out of line with the rest of the material, Never Will Marry, even gives an answer to those who wonder what The Everly Brothers would have sounded like if they had been born 40 years later. The 1998 KGBA radio recording shows the band live in its full glory. Wish I had been in that studio.

One of the best albums Elektra released in the 60's. In 13 songs, Neil transformed the folk genre into something wholly other yet not unfamiliar to itself, and helped pave the way for an entire generation of singer/songwriters who cared as much for the blues as they did for folk revival traditions. If you like Dylan, you'll love this! Five stars in All Music Guide.

Bonnie Raitt turned John Prine's Angel From Montgomery into an evergreen. Not by hazard, cause he's one of the best.

Almost everybody knows one of Chip Taylor's songs, but most of them don't have a clue who he is, or how and what he sings. 'Wild Thing' for instance was a giant hit for The Troggs and was even played by Jimi Hendrix. 'Angel of the morning', 'Try (just little bit harder)', 'Anyway that you want me' and 'I can't let go' were also written by him. His own records are just wonderful. His warm voice is great in ballads, but he can also be hilariously funny and humoristic in his laid-back rockers and folky country songs. Here are three of his albums from the early 70's including his masterpiece Chip Taylor's Last Chance and the album Hit Man from 1996 on which he sings all his well known songs and hits scored by others in beautiful stripped down versions.

Two great CD's not covering the smooth, slick and sophisticated Nashville side of country, but the rougher, less cultivated and more adventurous real wild west. A bunch of Texans and one New Yorker (!) take you to the land of roughnecks and real men and great songs. These renegade outlaws are: Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Townes van Zandt, Steve Young, Guy Clark, Jimmi Dale Gilmore, John Prine, Chip Taylor, Jerry Jeff Walker, Terry Allen, Billy Joe Shaver, Rodney Crowell and Doug Sahm.

Bob Neuwirth is a painter and a musician and is also known as one of Bob Dylan's best friends in the 60's and his tourmanager. His legs can be admired on the cover of Highway 61 Revisited. So if you ever wondered who was wearing those black jeans, here's your answer. Neuwirth made 5 solo albums ranging from pure country-rock to latin influenced songs. His albums are crowded by friends like: Kris Kristofferson, Dusty Springfrield, Don Everly, Rita Coolidge, 'Mama' Cass Elliott, Richie Furay, Chris Hillman, Booker T. Jones, Ian Matthews, Timothy B. Schmidt, Donnie Fritts, T Bone Burnett, Patti Smith, Peter Case, Bernie Leadon, Butch Hancock, Elliott Murphy, Victoria Williams, Steve Young and Katy Moffat.

More real Danish dynamite on request by people who already were happy to download 'In The Plain'. Anisette still sings like a witchy mix of Janis Joplin, Grace Slick and Kate Bush. The psychedelic rock is still haunting and enchanting, this was underground in the Swinging Sixties.

Steve Miller is one of the best guitarists in the world who started as a bluesman, but was openminded enough to also incorporate elements of the psychedelic underground of the 60's and pure rock and popmusic, as his serie of hits proved. These 8 albums show his development.

The Sir Douglas Quintet was for the TexMex music what Chuck Berry was for Rock 'n' Roll. Doug Sahm and his friends knew how to party with their great mix of rock, boogie, blues, country and norteno conjunto music and they were of great influence to bands like Los Lobos or Los Lonely Boys. I've posted two early albums with bonus tracks: 1968's Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 = Honkey Blues and 1970's Together After Five.

Gene Clark was one of the founding fathers of America's answer to the Beatles: The Byrds. This solo album, generally known as White Light, was pronounced Album of the Year 1971 in the Netherlands by the best Dutch music magazine of those days and it took quite some time before it was rereleased on CD in a small production. This album is still quite rare, but a must if you like singer/songwriters, or are a Byrd-maniac.

The real Danish dynamite! Singer Anisette Koppel is still sensational with a performance somewhere between Janis Joplin, Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) and Kate Bush. This album from 1968 is still fresh after almost 40 years. Listen to 'Ride my Mountain' and be surprised.

Jesse Winchester's first LP is one of my favorite albums ever. It is produced by Robbie Robertson and Todd Rundgren and shows what great songwriter Jesse is. The best of Americana long before the word Americana was invented.

Ry Cooder produced this gem of southern soul album in 1988 for two voices that can be heard on a couple of his albums.