One of the most well-known rock groups from Continental Europe, Denmark's Savage Rose recorded a wealth of intriguing and eclectic progressive rock in the late '60s and '70s. In their early work, one hears faint echoes of the Airplane, Doors, Pink Floyd, and other psychedelic heavyweights combined with classical jazz and Danish-Euro folk elements…

One of the most well-known rock groups from Continental Europe, Denmark's Savage Rose recorded a wealth of intriguing and eclectic progressive rock in the late '60s and '70s. In their early work, one hears faint echoes of the Airplane, Doors, Pink Floyd, and other psychedelic heavyweights combined with classical jazz and Danish-Euro folk elements…

Tempest has a band name that might suggest a group of sneering, leather-wearing, head-banging metal heads, but the group's music is less threatening and more expansive than its name suggests. Tempest plays traditional Celtic music with a rock & roll intensity that's accented by a wide range of influences from the blues to American country music, Cajun 2-steps, and Arabic music, with some old-time San Francisco psychedelic flair…

Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1967. Initially playing blues rock, the band developed its sound to incorporate elements of hard rock to forge a progressive rock signature. The band is led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and featured a revolving door of lineups through the years including significant members such as longtime guitarist Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, drummers Clive Bunker, Barriemore Barlow, and Doane Perry, and bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, and Dave Pegg….

Finnish prog-folk trio Auri is the side project of Nightwish members Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley, together with the former's wife, singer and violinist Johanna Kurkela. The trio had planned to record an album together as early as 2011, but had been unable to do so owing to their commitments to their other musical projects. In 2014, they worked together on Holopainen's solo debut, The Life and Times of Scrooge, but that album did not stray too far from the bombast of his day job. Finally, in 2017, during downtime from Nightwish, they managed to pursue their alternative sound. Naming their project Auri after a character from Patrick Rothfuss' popular fantasy novel series The Kingkiller Chronicle (which also inspired some of the lyrics), they set about recording their self-titled debut album at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios in Wiltshire, England.

Even in Michael Chapman’s vast and wildly diverse catalog of releases, Playing Guitar the Easy Way is an outlier. Issued in 1978 during his association with Criminal Records, this is the innovative and storied guitarist’s instructional album. Like all things Chapman, this one has a twist or two. For starters, it can be listened to on its own. The music is played on acoustic six- and twelve-string guitars—there is even an electric piece in “English Musick”— that come off as standalone originals and/or original derivations on folk standards. This is also one of (if not the) very first guitar instruction recordings—with an accompanying booklet of tablature—to showcase the use of different tunings such as the now ubiquitous DADGAD.

A unique phenomenon in popular music history, Jethro Tull have been and still are one of the most successful live performing acts on the world stage, rivaling Led Zeppelin, Elton John and even the Rolling Stones. After forty years at the bottom, at the top and various points in between, with now some 30-odd albums to their credit and sales totaling more than 50 million, Jethro Tull are still performing typically more than a hundred concerts each year. This concert recorded in 2008 is one of their best.

Although Sweet Child is usually cited as the group's high-water mark, Basket of Light finds them at their most progressive and exciting. Highlights of this album – which actually reached the Top Five in the U.K. – include the buzzing jazz dynamics of "Light Flight," their moving rendition of the traditional folk song "Once I Had a Sweetheart," their reinvention of the girl group smash "Sally Go Round the Roses," and "Springtime Promises," one of their finest original tunes.

A 14-song, 63-minute collection (originally a double LP) comprising many of the highlights (but no "Light Flight") of the original group's history from 1968 through 1972. The notes are minimal, and there are no original release dates or any identification of the albums (The Pentangle, Sweet Child, Basket of Light, Cruel Sister, etc.) whence this material originated. The latter are the only flaws in what is otherwise a fine if not completely comprehensive cross-section of the group's work, showcasing their many and varied sides – Bert Jansch's, Danny Thompson's, and Terry Cox's jazz leanings in "Train Song," John Renbourn's more traditional approach in "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme," their forays into medieval music ("Lyke-Wake Dirge") and progressive folk ("House Carpenter," "Bruton Town"), etc., much of it projected by Jacqui McShee's clear, soaring vocals. The CD also highlights their early records' effective use of stereo as a format for their contrasting technique, especially among the guitars and the rhythm section.

Also known as Jethro Tull: This Is the First 20 Years. It consists of interviews with fans, record company executives and frontman Ian Anderson giving a rough chronology of the band, interspersed with clips from music videos and live performances…

In 1969, Sea Shanties established High Tide as one of Britain's heaviest bands and the choice of George Chkiantz (who had previously worked with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin) as co-producer for their second album seemed to signal the group's intention to continue in the same direction. In comparison with their hefty debut, however, the self-titled follow-up is a relatively subdued affair. The interplay of guitarist Tony Hill and violinist Simon House is still very much at the core of High Tide's distinctive hybrid of psychedelia, prog, and hard rock, but while Hill lays down his characteristically intricate, searing guitar lines, he forgoes the sort of weighty, molten riffage that made Sea Shanties such a behemoth.