Dark Star Records is Pleased to Announce that we are Now Offering a Special Epic New Hard Rock Metal Compilation Album WE STAND WITH UKRAINE and All Proceeds for this Limited Edition Box Set goes to Help the People of Ukraine. MESSAGE FROM TONY MARTIN (EX BLACK SABBATH VOCALIST): "I have had the pleasure of spending time in Ukraine AND Russia, the fans and the people have always been warm and welcoming. So It is with great sadness that now our thoughts and hearts go out to the people of Ukraine to support them during this time of troubles. This group of artists have given the only thing they can to help. And though the profits of this album will go to the displaced and suffering the MUSIC go's to EVERYONE in a hope that it can bring people together in the only way that music CAN bring people together. We love our fans and want you all to be safe."

We all know that Eric Clapton is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. What is not that well known, is that he has collaborated with artists such as blues legend Pinetop Perkins, Jamaican guitarist Arthur Louis or trombonist Chris Barber (an institution within British music). Moreover, few probably have heard the versions of his songs by Koko Taylor and Ann Peebles, and we’re pretty sure that almost no one has delved into the obscure blues records that have influenced Clapton early in his career. This is The Many Faces Of Eric Clapton, a deep look into the intimate world of one of the best British artists ever. A different kind of album, to collect… and that it won’t be available on streaming services!

Budgie's fourth release, In for the Kill! (originally on MCA), confirmed their consistent metal songwriting. Like past releases, the album features huge metal riffs courtesy of guitarist Tony Bourge and wailing vocals from bassist Burke Shelley. "Crash Course in Brain Surgery" (their second song to be covered by Metallica) contains a repetitive and continuous riff, while "Zoom Club" stresses the importance of the almighty power chord…

Eddie Higgins has been on the jazz scene for a long time, but he seems to be a best-kept secret by those able to track down his various releases for independent labels in the U.S. or Japanese titles, such as this one from Venus. This 2003 session features the veteran purely as a soloist, performing a dozen of his favorite ballads…

The 21st century saw Tony Joe White resume his recording and performing career, and experience a resurgence of critical interest in his older music as well. Since 2002, "the Swamp Fox" has recorded sporadically for his own Swamp imprint, and also had his back catalog remastered and reissued. Earlier in 2010, Rhino Handmade made available That On the Road Look, a previously unreleased live date. The Shine is a (mostly) low-key, basic affair. White wrote or co-wrote everything here with his wife, Leann. The band is a quintet: White plays guitars and harmonica with drummer Jack Bruno, cellist John Catchings, bassist George Hawkins, and Tyson Rogers on piano, organ, and Wurlitzer. The sound is warm and raw; the album feels like it was cut mostly live from the floor (with guitar and vocal overdubs added) and it's full of natural atmospherics. White's acoustic nylon-string guitar is prevalent, sometimes more so than his quavering, downright spooky baritone. His electric six-string work paints the backdrop.

Kabuki is one of Japan's typical theater genres, and it is still very popular today. It was created in the 17th century by a woman. As its popularity grew, it quickly became an entirely male art. Music plays a vital role in Kabuki. It sets the time and place of event; it expressed the actors' sentiments, for example. There are two types of plays in Kabuki: epic plays which recount the feats and deeds of the samurai class, and a more popular repertoire recounting the lives of the peasant and merchant classes. As for the Jiuta-Mai, it is the classical chamber music style of Japan. Before the 17th century, the voice was predominant, but afterward, in particular during the Edo period, the instrumental part became longer, taking a place thus far occupied by the voice. The Jiuta ensemble, also called Sankyoku (meaning "three instruments"), is composed of the shamisen, the koto, and the shakuhachi. This high-quality CD offers three excerpts from different Kabuki plays (of three different styles) and two works from the Jiuta-Mai repertoire. All these pieces are more than 200 hundred years old.

The term ‘brunette’ refers not only to a young woman with brown hair, but also to a musical form that was highly fashionable from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth. The genre evolved from the air de cour, extremely popular in France since the beginning of the seventeenth century. The compositional process, however, remained very similar: to write a short, tender song, dealing with themes of love or nature, which could be sung alone or accompanied by a harmonic instrument. The late seventeenth century also saw the appearance of an instrument that soon became a favourite of composers and amateur musicians: the German flute, now called the traverso or Baroque flute.

Simon Stokes the crazy hard psych rocker par excellence. Grandson of big band leader Harry D. Stokes, Simon Stokes was known as a loner, sleepwalker, and fan of the classic monster movies his grandfather loved. As a teenager, Stokes became obsessed with the blues and R&B via the legendary DJ Symphony Sid. Beginning in 1965, Stokes recorded a number of 45s in LA as the Flower Children and Heathen Angels. He then got a deal as a staff writer at Elektra the same day they signed his friends The MC5 and The Stooges! That’s not it for impressive connections. Simon Stokes made this album, beyond Captain Beefheart in the psychedelic blues stakes, in 1968, and became a cult figure with Biker groups everywhere…

The figure of Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838) enjoys a peripheral familiarity among music-lovers as the friend and amanuensis of Beethoven. A bond had formed when Ries’s father Franz taught Beethoven in Bonn. While Beethoven doubtless cast his eye over his friend and student’s pieces from time to time, he sent Ries to his own teacher Johann Albrechtsberger for lessons in composition.

Two 16th-century masters of the Spanish vihuela, speaking afresh to the 21st century through the modern guitar of Giuseppe Chiaramonte.

Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has had a remarkably consistent career. Although he has spent periods (such as the 1970s) in relative obscurity and others as almost a jazz superstar, Henderson's style and sound has been relatively unchanged since the 1960s. This lesser-known album finds Henderson in typically fine form in an acoustic quartet with pianist Chick Corea, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Billy Higgins. Carter and Corea contribute two songs apiece, Henderson gets to perform his "Joe's Bolero" and the tenor sounds majestic on "What's New."

Spanning 2CDs, the original demos from the recording sessions of one of Dream Theater’s most esteemed albums, Falling Into Infinity. These 16 tracks, recorded throughout 1996 and 1997 as demos for what would ultimately become 1997’s Falling Into Infinity studio release, spotlight some of the band’s most highly regarded works from that era. Also featuring rare material never formally released as part of the final studio album including “Raise the Knife”, “Speak to Me”, and “Cover My Eyes", Falling Into Infinity Demos, 1996-1997 is a can’t-miss collection in Dream Theater’s eminent archival series.