With 1970's Workingman's Dead, the Grateful Dead went through an overnight metamorphosis, turning abruptly from tripped-out free-form rock toward sublime acoustic folk and Americana. Taking notes on vocal harmonies from friends Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Dead used the softer statements of their fourth studio album as a subtle but moving reflection on the turmoil, heaviness, and hope America's youth was facing as the idealistic '60s ended. American Beauty was recorded just a few months after its predecessor, both expanding and improving on the bluegrass, folk, and psychedelic country explorations of Workingman's Dead with some of the band's most brilliant compositions. The songs here have a noticeably more relaxed and joyous feel.

This set features the great Sarah Vaughan in a typically spontaneous Norman Granz production for Pablo with pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Louie Bellson. Sassy sounds wonderful stretching out on such songs as "Midnight Sun," "More Than You Know," "Teach Me Tonight," and "Body and Soul," among others. All ten of the melodies are veteran standards that she knew backwards but still greeted with enthusiasm. A very good example of late-period Sarah Vaughan.

Powerhouse German band Eisbrecher returns with the new album 'Kaltfront'!
Eisbrecher has been using its uniquely formidable brand of Neue Deutsche Harte to twist its fingers in wounds that we as a society have inflicted on ourselves. The band remains true to it's unique mixture of thunderous, industrial tinged rock, satirical cynicism & emotional depth on this work to deliver potent messages.

Forest were a late 60's minstrel/medieval type of folk-prog trio in the style of The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Dr. Strangely Strange. They released a couple of albums with dark but subtle acid lyrics, incorporating pipes, harmonium, harpsichord, mandolin, 12-string guitar and percussion to their sound. Their music doesn't have the electricity normally associated with rock, yet it can't be described as straight folk either, the lyrics being rather strange and the band's approach being far too eclectic - thus their inclusion here.
Their eponymous album (1969) is practically a clone of The Incredible String Band whereas "Full Circle" (1970) shows more original songwriting and more diverse arrangements, with themes still dealing with nature, mystery and darkness. Both albums are altogether esoteric, pastoral, serious and communal as befit the times.

Recorded and released in 1967, Bobo Motion is one of percussionist Willie Bobo's best-known recordings of the 1960s. The album is best-known for its version of the Sonny Henry nugget "Evil Ways" that Carlos Santana and his band made their own a couple of years later, but there's more to it than that. Since Bobo signed with Verve in 1965, he'd been releasing wily blends of hot Latin tunes, and soul-jazz interpretations of pop tunes of the day. His five previous albums for the label had all been variations on this theme. On the earlier ones, safer pop and easy tunes played with Bobo's trademark hand drum grooves won out over original material. Indeed, 1965's Spanish Grease and 1966's Uno, Dos,Tres 1-2-3 had featured one tune apiece that featured the cooking Afro-Cuban flavored jams he'd become known for, and the rest were either soul-jazz arrangements of Latin standards or "with it" pop tunes of the day…

Starting soft and staying there, Nightbird takes more than a couple listens to pay real dividends, but that Erasure are revitalized is evident first time through. Gone is the trying-too-hard surface-pop of Cowboy and Other People's Songs and back is the intimate, introspective, and great lyrical moments of the ballads scattered among the duo's best albums. Song after song displays that lead singer Andy Bell has grown remarkably as a writer. His vivid tales of isolation and painful regret don't have that Morrissey sting in the tail, but they're just as good for weepy evenings and are just as honest/cathartic as anything the Mozz has written. Bell's prerelease announcement that he's HIV positive explains the malaise that's here and there on Nightbird, but the man's been secretly dealing with the disease since 1998 and his "coming out" relief is reflected in the album's positive energy and extra helping of hope…