Following 2023’s Good Rockin’ Tonight: Killer In Stereo, Country Sides: Killer In Stereo is the second LP in our series of remastered Jerry Lee Lewis stereo mixes. Recently inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame, this collection foreshadows Jerry Lee's future country stardom with of his versions of country classics like “Cold, Cold Heart” and “I Love You Because,” plus alternate takes of “How’s My Ex Treating You” and “One Minute Past Eternity.” Pressed on blue and gray splatter vinyl.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Native American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis was the "go-to" sideman for a remarkable group of musicians. Starting in the mid-'Sixties, he toured with Conway Twitty, then become a key part of Taj Mahal's band, playing on several albums and tours including an appearance on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus and his historic pairing with Leon Russell to play on Bob Dylan's "Watching the River Flow" at the Concert for Bangla Desh (after which he accompanied George Harrison). By now, he'd caught the eye of ATCO Records, which released his debut LP Jesse Davis in 1971 featuring Russell, Eric Clapton, Gram Parsons, Merry Clayton, Ben Sidran, John Simon (producer of The Band), Alan White (of Yes), and many others including Delaney Bramlett behind the mixing desk.

Grateful Dead So much more than just the archetypal jam band, the Grateful Dead grew to become an artistic and cultural institution that existed entirely on their own terms. While the band initially came out of a psychedelic revolution in the Bay Area's musically and chemically exploratory mid-'60s, they quickly evolved from their acid rock beginnings, incorporating elements of Americana and Bakersfield country into gently majestic albums like 1970's American Beauty. Their live shows were completely separate from their studio output, based on freeform improvisation borrowed from jazz and made up of extended performances and set list variations that ensured no two shows were exactly like.

Barbra Streisand makes a point of noting that she completed this, her second Christmas album, before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, even going so far as to list the recording dates (July 19-September 7, 2001). And listening to the disc, you can see why. If great artists sometimes demonstrate an uncanny ability to take the temperature of the times with their work, this one can be said to have anticipated the dramatic change in mood that the terrorist attacks occasioned. Christmas music always mixes the celebratory with the nostalgic, some of its classic songs dating from the World War II era when families were separated and feared they might not be reunited. But Streisand's Christmas Memories accentuates that tone well into melancholy.

Bringing together trumpeter Howard McGhee and saxophonist Teddy Edwards, “Together Again!!!!” was originally released on Contemporary Records in 1961. In addition to Edwards and McGhee, the album features Phineas Newborn Jr. (piano), Ray Brown (bass), and Ed Thigpen (drums). This new edition, released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series, features (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes by Bernie Grundman and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP, and presented in a tip-on jacket.

If Simply Streisand, which appeared earlier the same month as A Christmas Album, indicated that Streisand was overly reverent when it came to standards, reverence was no problem with seasonal fare. You don't necessarily look for unusual interpretations of your Christmas music; you just want those old favorites sung well, and for the most part, that's what you got from Streisand. She did lead off with "Jingle Bells?" into which she injected some of her trademark humor while performing at a breakneck pace. Marty Paich arranged and conducted the secular songs like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "White Christmas," which occupied side one, while Ray Ellis handled the religious material on side two. But both were traditional in their charts, and Streisand gave her singing just enough personality without getting in the way of the familiar songs. They were trying to make a timeless classic, and that's what they achieved.

Equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-sorcerer, Van Morrison is among popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues, and Celtic folk produced perhaps the most spiritually transcendent body of work in the rock & roll canon. Subject only to the whims of his own muse, his recordings cover extraordinary stylistic ground yet retain a consistency and purity virtually unmatched among his contemporaries, connected by the mythic power of his singular musical vision and his incendiary vocal delivery: spiraling repetitions of wails and whispers that bypass the confines of language to articulate emotional truths far beyond the scope of literal meaning.

Recorded live at Bournemouth I.E.C. on September 16th 1995, Mercury Music Awards 1995, Danish Radio Big Band at the Helsingor Jazz Festival, August 5th 1995.

The most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel crafted a series of memorable hit albums and singles featuring their choirboy harmonies, ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more polished end of the folk-rock spectrum and was sometimes criticized for a certain collegiate sterility. Many also feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful solo career in the 1970s. But the best of S&G's work can stand among Simon's best material, and the duo did progress musically over the course of their five albums, moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms and gospel-influenced arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's eclecticism on his solo albums. Simon & Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their first mid-'60s hit by almost a decade.

Epic/Legacy's double-disc set The Ultimate Ted Nugent falls short of its billing for a couple of reasons. First of all, even if the sound is very good, there are no liner notes – just shots of Ted doing his guitar-face on-stage, plus pictures of his Epic albums. Second, this concentrates just on his Epic recordings, without dipping into the Amboy Dukes, while also ignoring latter-day recordings for other labels, including his manly tribute to the great hunter, "Fred Bear" (if you live in Michigan, where you can't go a day in hunting season without hearing this song, you know this is a crucial omission). So, what do you get? A double-disc collection of Ted the "wildman" at his peak – which is good for those that just want the prime and the prime only, but it's a bit much for those that just want hits. As far as music goes, it's pretty good, since it does have those basic hits, but it's still a bit much and it could have been produced with a bit more care.

Weather Report started out as a jazz equivalent of what the rock world in 1970 was calling a "supergroup." But unlike most of the rock supergroups, this one not only kept going for a good 15 years, it more than lived up to its billing, practically defining the state of the jazz-rock art throughout almost all of its run. Weather Report also anticipated and contributed to the North American interest in world music rhythms and structures, prodded by keyboardist/co-founder Joe Zawinul. And WR, like many of jazz's great long-lived groups, proved to be an incubator for several future leaders who passed in and out of the band in a never-ending series of revolving-door personnel changes.

Pour le neuvième volume de ses passionnantes Bootleg Series, Dylan offre les prémices de son art. D’incroyables démos enregistrées entre 62 et 64 sur lesquelles les futurs chefs d’œuvre folk du Zim, alors obsédé par son maître Woody Guthrie, prennent forme. Comme le brouillon génial et essentiel des Saintes Écritures à venir… Indispensable.

Van Morrison Equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-sorcerer, Van Morrison is among popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues, and Celtic folk produced what is regarded as perhaps the most spiritually transcendent body of work in the rock & roll canon. Having penned iconic songs such as "Gloria," "Brown-Eyed Girl," and "Moondance," Morrison has, from the very beginning – as frontman for Irish blues rockers Them during the early 1960s to a solo career that has lasted more than 50 years – been subject only to the whims of his own muse. His solo recordings, beginning with the mystical, jazzy folk of Astral Weeks in 1968, cover extraordinary stylistic ground, yet retain a consistency of vision and purity of execution unmatched among his contemporaries. His swinging meld of jazz, pop, folk, blues, and Celtic soul fueled the albums of his Warner Bros. period from the late '60s (Moondance) to the early '80s (Common One).

UFO, an English hard rock institution, helped pave the way for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, with seminal acts like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Def Leppard citing the band as a significant influence. Led by vocalist Phil Mogg, who has been the group's sole constant member since its formation in 1968, UFO enjoyed commercial success in the '70s and '80s with hits like "Rock Bottom," "Lights Out," and "Doctor, Doctor." Their 1979 concert album Strangers in the Night is often cited as one of the greatest live rock albums. UFO underwent numerous lineup changes over the years – guitarist Michael Schenker, formerly of Scorpions, joined the band in 1973 and contributed significantly to their sound before leaving in 1978 – but managed to release 22 studio albums, 14 live recordings, and numerous compilations before ceasing operations in 2024.

To anthologize the often overshadowed solo career of Brother Gregg Allman, Capricorn Records released this luscious, 34-track, 2CD collection in 1997 entitled One More Try: An Anthology. But, instead of packing it with “hits,” someone got the bright idea to stuff it full of demos, band rehearsals and 26 previously unreleased recordings. Which is very cool for fans and collectors. So… is there a buzz killer here, you ask? Of course. Just two years later, Capricorn unceremoniously deleted the collection. Maybe the bean counters were bummed at the lack of radio-worn favorites, or Capricorn thought a by-the-book Best Of would sell better. Perhaps Allman himself just changed his mind about having it out there. Who knows? But what got overlooked is that One More Try: An Anthology might be the single most interesting release in Allman’s solo catalog. The recordings often showcase Gregg alone on acoustic guitar. Some are live band rehearsals. Even the Allman Brothers Band staple, “Wasted Words,” appears here as a loose studio jam featuring Johnny Winter, Buddy Miles and the late Berry Oakley. Polished or not… profitable or not… perhaps this is the best way Gregg Allman deserves to be heard, by himself or just casually jamming with friends.