Awakening… (1969). From the legendary hard rocking South African psych rock scene, alongside such greats as Freedom’s Children, and Suck, comes The Third Eye. Awakening is the Third Eye’s debut full length, originally released in 1969, and is a masterful and complex album of late sixties South African heavy psych, featuring fuzzed out guitars, great brass arrangements and virtuosic organ work, provided by the young Dawn Selby, who, at the time of recording was all of 14 years old!…

Rust is the real deal. Originally recorded in 1969, their album, Come With Me, is something of a lost mini-classic. Originally released on the independent German label Hor Zu, and bringing it to light in the early 21st century. Great, psychedelic rock tunes are embellished with phased vocals, treated piano, samples of radio broadcasts, washes of organ, and electronic effects. Mind you, this isn't total freak out music, or anything. Songs like You Thought You Had It Made and Rust revel in blues licks, and rock with a genuine joy, even if the subject matter of their lyrics is somewhat pessimistic, and softer tunes like Please Return and the gorgeous Find a Hideaway are full of acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies.

To Our Children's Children's Children is the fifth album by The Moody Blues, released in November 1969. It was the first album released on the group's newly formed Threshold record label, which was named after the band's previous album from the same year, On the Threshold of a Dream…

This super blend of psych-pop and experimental acid rock originnaly appeared on the legendary Mainstream label in 1969. Recorded by a bunch of Canadian musicians who'd fetched up in New York, it received no airplay or promotional support and was soon deleted, but has gone on to become one of the most sought-after major label LPs of the period. Enjoyable from start to finish, it's a treat for all fans of melodic psychedelia.

Anthems in Eden is a 1969 album by Shirley and Dolly Collins, with the Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow. The album originally consisted of a 28-minute set of folk songs plus seven other individual pieces performed by the same group. The musical arrangements for these eight pieces included early music instruments, such as viols, recorders, sackbuts and crumhorns. In 1976, six new songs were recorded with a different assortment of accompanists, to replace the original seven individual songs. This 1976 album consisting of the 28-minute set plus the six new songs was released by Harvest Records under the title Amaranth. Subsequent releases have combined all fourteen pieces under the original title, Anthems in Eden.

The Music Of Hoagy Carmichael is the focus of a 1969 album released by Bob Wilber & Maxine Sullivan. This pressing on Audiophile was remastered in 1993.

Blues for Elvis - King Does the King's Things is the fifth studio album by Albert King. The songs in this album are versions of songs previously recorded by Elvis Presley. On the album sleeve there is a review by Albert Goldman, Music Critic of LIFE Magazine, who says, among other things "For the first time on record, the King of Blues is meeting the King of Rock." and "…you're gonna love every minute of this musical feast fit for kings".

Smokestack Lightnin' was an American rock band of the mid-1960s, which frequently played at the famed Sunset Strip club Whiskey A Go Go. They appeared in the 1968 film Dreams of Glass and their 1969 album, Off the Wall, gained some respect over the years since the group disbanded in 1970.

Berry Gordy hated these two-fers: too much for too little money; but he doesn't own the masters anymore and Universal International has revitalized the concept via digitally remastered CDs. This combo features Time Out, which spawned the hits "Doggone Right," "Baby, Baby Don't Cry," "Abraham, Martin & John," the popular B-side "Here I Go Again," an uptempo take of "My Girl," and two fine Smokey Robinson songs: "Once I Got to Know You (Couldn't Help But Love You)" and "I'll Take You Anyway That You Come." Four in Blue, aka the Miracles' forgotten album, has some good moments that few know about because none of its tracks emerged as single; not even a B-side. "You Send Me (With Your Good Loving)" sounds like a hit; "When Nobody Cares," a cry for racial tolerance; "Don't Say You Love Me," a great Richard Morris production; and Holland, Dozier, Holland's "My World Is Empty." Not as arresting as Time Out, but solid.

Although Albert King is pictured on the front cover and has the lion's share of tracks on this excellent compilation, six of the fourteen tracks come from Rush's shortlived tenure with the label and are some of his very best. Chronologically, these are his next recordings after the Cobra sides and they carry a lot of the emotional wallop of those tracks, albeit with much loftier production values with much of it recorded in early stereo. Oddly enough, some of the material ("All Your Love," "I'm Satisfied [Keep on Loving Me Baby]") were remakes – albeit great ones – of tunes that Cobra had already released as singles! But Rush's performance of "So Many Roads" (featuring one of the greatest slow blues guitar solos of all time) should not be missed at any cost.

The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper is a double album recorded at the Fillmore West venue; the album is a successor to the studio album Super Session, which included both Bloomfield and Kooper in addition to Stephen Stills, and had achieved commercial and critical success earlier in 1968. The performances, recordings and production cannot be described as flawless; in his sleeve notes, Kooper describes the difficulties of finding rehearsal space, Bloomfield's insomnia, and the failure of a vocal microphone during "Dear Mr Fantasy"; the track "I Wonder Who" is faded during a Bloomfield solo for no apparent reason. Nevertheless, the album remains an important, if raw, document of a live blues-rock performance of the period and, apart from its intrinsic qualities, is notable not only for one of the earliest live recordings by Carlos Santana but also for Bloomfield's debut as a vocalist. Whilst he is not historically noted in this role, in "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong", according to Kooper, "he displays consummate homage to the traditional guitar-voice trade-offs; a lesson in phrasing and understanding."

Overshadowed throughout his life by his older brother, Edmond Hall, Herb Hall had a softer and smoother tone on the clarinet and was talented in his own right. The son of a clarinetist (Edward Hall) and one of five musical brothers, Herb started out playing banjo with the Niles Jazz Band during 1923-25 before switching to clarinet and alto. He played with Kid Augustin Victor's band in Baton Rouge in 1926 and in 1927 moved to New Orleans. After performing with Sidney Desvigne, Hall had a longterm association with Don Albert (1929-37 and 1938-40) including a relocation to San Antonio that lasted until 1945. Hall freelanced in Philadelphia (with Herman Autrey) and New York, was with Doc Cheatham in 1955 and toured Europe with Sammy Price (1955-56)…

Jefferson Airplane's first live album demonstrated the group's development as concert performers, taking a number of songs that had been performed in concise, pop-oriented versions on their early albums – "3/5's of a Mile in 10 Seconds," "Somebody to Love," "It's No Secret," "Plastic Fantastic Lover" – and rendering them in arrangements that were longer, harder rocking, and more densely textured, especially in terms of the guitar and basslines constructed by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady…

Digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of albums from Blues drummer John Dummer and his band: Cabal and John Dummer Band (1969). Cabal, released under the name John Dummer's Blues Band,' featured Dummer joined by Tony McPhee, Dave Kelly and his sister Jo-Ann. For the next album, released under the name John Dummer Band, McPhee had departed for the Groundhogs with pianist Bob Hall replacing him.

It's a mite ragged around the edges, but Bell's 1969 debut session certainly sports the proper ambience - and no wonder, with guitarists Eddie Taylor and Jimmy Dawkins and pianist Pinetop Perkins on hand to help out. No less than four Little Walter covers and two more from Muddy Waters' songbook dot the set, but many of the best moments occur on the original numbers. Delmark's CD reissue includes three previously unissued items.