Fuerteventura is the sophomore album by English-singing, Spanish indie folk songwriter Lourdes Hernández, aka Russian Red, whose acclaimed debut drew comparisons with Cat Power and Feist. A more polished and luminous affair than its predecessor, Fuerteventura was recorded in Glasgow with members of Belle & Sebastian, and produced by Tony Doogan (Teenage Fanclub, the Delgados, Super Furry Animals, Mogwai, and Belle & Sebastian).

Decameron produced four albums between 1973 and 1976 (Some discographies listed a recording called "Beyond the Light" but this never saw release). This long CD contains all of the third disk and a most of the worthiest pieces on the fourth. Considering their short recording career, Decameron exhibited a fairly wide range of musical styles and talent as they flitted from label to label. But it was all loosely in the British folk rock realm with more than a casual nod to the lighter elements of progressive rock in vogue at the time. The enigmatic style of that genre is displayed in the stunning "All the Best Wishes", the reverent "The Ungodly", the intensely melodic "Journey's End" bathed in mellotron, and "The Deal". The lighter pieces are equally engaging, such as "Saturday" about rolling down the windows and blasting the stereo and shouting obscenities at the market crowd, "Road to the Sea" with its rollicking rhythms and musical and lyrical allusions to the nautical, "Fallen Over", and "Tomorrow's pantomime".

As a singer, writer, guitarist, producer, and engineer, Jim Messina made major contributions to music in the 1960s and 1970s as a key contributor to the Buffalo Springfield at the tail end of their history, as a co-founder of the country-rock band Poco, and as one half of Loggins & Messina. Messina was born in California in 1947, and raised in Harlingen, TX until he was eight years old. As a child, his life was divided between his mother's home in Texas and his father's home in California. His father was a semi-professional guitarist and greatly influenced his son's musical career. Messina began playing the guitar at the age of five. As time progressed, he became interested in the guitar parts on Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson records, and later acquired an interest in surf music, a natural outgrowth of living in California. He was heavily influenced by the hits of such outfits as Dick Dale & the Del-Tones, the Ventures, and the Champs. During his high-school years, he organized a group of his own called Jim Messina & the Jesters, their sound heavily indebted to that of the Ventures, Freddie King, and Duane Eddy, and they were good enough to win a string of local band competitions.

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, known professionally as Rodriguez (born July 10, 1942), is an American singer-songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. His music career initially proved disappointing in the United States, but unknown to Rodriguez his albums became extremely successful and influential in South Africa, where he is believed to have sold more records than Elvis Presley. His work also found a following in some other countries in Africa, and also in Australia and New Zealand. Because information about him was scarce, it was incorrectly rumored there that he had committed suicide shortly after releasing his second album. In the 1990s, determined South African fans managed to find and contact Rodriguez, which led to an unexpected revival of his musical career. This was told in the 2012 Academy Award–winning documentary film Searching for Sugar Man and helped give Rodriguez a measure of fame in his home country.

4-CDs sporting Joni's complete recordings for Geffen during the '80s, including all four albums ( Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm and Night Ride Home ) she recorded for the label plus some tasty rarities like a couple of demos, Two Grey Rooms and Good Friends , and a cover of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue that was recorded for the Night Ride Home sessions. And perhaps even more intriguingly for this elusive artist, Joni has provided a personal introduction and in-depth descriptions for each track. Rare photos, original artwork and 24-bit mastering complete the first of what we hope will be several Joni Mitchell boxed sets to come!

Known for the huge hit "American Pie", which earned him the number one American for four weeks in 1972 and in other English-speaking countries, the composer Don McLean (born Donald McLean III in New Rochelle, New York, on October 2, 1945) saw his songs covered by Elvis Presley and Madonna.

For Peter Mulvey’s 17th album, and Righteous Babe Records debut, Are You Listening?, he traveled to New Orleans to record with producer and friend Ani DiFranco and her band. Are You Listening? marks the 25th anniversary of a rich career of approximately 4,000 concerts and over a million miles traveled. Mulvey has shared stages with Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, DiFranco, Greg Brown, the Indigo Girls, and many others. NPR’s Robert Siegel wasn’t kidding when he said, “Peter Mulvey is a 21st century troubadour.”

The highly-anticipated bluegrass project from Sturgill Simpson is officially here. Affectionately titled Cuttin’ Grass, the new album was recorded at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, with the help of his drummer Miles Miller, producer David Ferguson, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, bassist Mike Bub, and more.

On his seventh offering, and his first since 2001's Texoma, Okie beatnik cum Austin songwriter Jimmy LaFave listens deeply to the tender whispers of his Muse and lets flow with his most personal offering to date. LaFave has always given us song pictures of an America that has either disappeared or is on the verge; he has celebrated its highways, its people, and its heart. He has also given us some choice love songs. But on Blue Nightfall he has gone deep into the latter theme and has come up with a beauty. It's not that he's ignored his other concerns; there are road songs and topical tunes as well. But it's in LaFave's love songs that listeners get to hear a depth and vastness that feel new. LaFave's voice is his greatest asset and he uses it to great effect here, and his production is spot-on throughout. The title track, "Revival," "Sweet Sweet Love," "When You Were Mine," and "Rain Falling Down" are all broken-hearted ballads, colored in woven and textured acoustic and electric guitars accented by Radoslav Lorkovik's accordions, pianos, and organs, and supported by a taut yet subtle rhythm section in bassist Will Landin and drummer Wally Doggett.

Chris Hinze’s unceasing interest in the integration of ethnic music in western music cultures brought him all over the world and led him to the by now very successful ‘African-Indian and World Music Fusion’.

A blip in the Byrds' discography that could easily be missed, as all of the songs from these pre-Mr. Tambourine Man sessions are also found on the much more widely available In the Beginning. Byrds fans really need to track this down, though, because six of the 11 cuts are actually entirely different versions than the ones that appear on In the Beginning, and in some cases the differences are substantial…

David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits were "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", "The Ride", "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", "She Used to Love Me a Lot", and "Longhaired Redneck". His most popular songs performed by others are the number-one hits "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)" sung by Tanya Tucker and Johnny Paycheck's rendition of "Take This Job and Shove It". The latter inspired the movie of the same name. Coe's rebellious attitude, wild image, and unconventional lifestyle set him apart from other country performers, both winning him legions of fans and hindering his mainstream success by alienating the music industry establishment.. Coe continues to be a popular performer on the country music circuit.

If the heavy-hitters of outlaw country were acting like rock stars during their mid-'70s peak, then perhaps it was inevitable that the outlaws would start singing rock songs – which is precisely what Waylon Jennings did on 1976's Are You Ready for the Country. Although the title is taken from Neil Young's song – which provides an absolutely storming opener for this ten-song record – there is a bit of a jibe to its sentiment as well, since Waylon not only sings Young, but also the Marshall Tucker Band and Dr. Hook, along with reviving Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park." That selection of material indicates not just the increasing rock-isms of Waylon and the outlaws, it also indicates that Jennings' focus was beginning to blur slightly as he lost the sense of purpose that propelled his records of the first half the '70s, from The Taker/Tulsa to Dreaming My Dreams. Here, the music hasn't really changed, but the flow is no longer seamless and the shifting tones can be a little jarring.

Around the second anniversary of Chas Hodges’ passing, his son Nik began going through Chas’s multi tracks and picking the pieces that he felt his dad would’ve considered finished and ready to be heard by all. Back in 2007, Chas had bought himself a digital hard disk multi track "portastudio" recorder, which allowed him to make fully produced recordings rather than just rough demos, playing all the instruments himself.