An overlooked album of blue-eyed soul from Essra Mohawk – a singer who seemed to get better as the 70s moved on, and who works here with some nice jazzy touches in the backings! The album's got some great arrangements from Sonny Burke, who also plays keyboards – and the overall presentation of the album is more soul than you might expect, right down to some of the clubbier rhythms at the bottom, which are the more familiar approach of the Private Stock label at the time! Essra's vocals are great throughout – very distinct, in ways that make the album a surprising treasure – on titles that include "Summersong", "I Wanna Feel Ya", "God Help It", "Appointment With A Dream", and "Holy Trinity". CD

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A really groundbreaking set, and one that goes past all the southern rock cliches you might know – to find that special place in southern music where elements of soul, rock, funk, and country all come together – served up here in the hands of some key artists from the end of the 60s and the start of the 70s! Given that the Soul Jazz label usually digs deep into the worlds of reggae, soul, and global styles, we can really trust them on a musical journey like this – one that almost completely rewrites this generation of southern rock as you may know it from a mainstream perspective – especially the sort put forth in music magazines and classic rock radio! As usual, the presentation and notes are great – and titles include "If Love Was Money" by Dan Penn, "Out In The Woods" by Leon Russell, "Be What You Want To" by Link Wray, "Please Be With Me" by Cowboy, "Stone Fox Chase" by Area Code 615, "Hush" by Joe South, "Smokies" by Barefoot Jerry, "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" by Cher, "Ain't Wasting No Time" by The Allman Brothers, "Papa Won't You Let Me Go To Town" by Bobbie Gentry, "Thirteen" by Big Star, "Big D" by Waylon Jennings, "I'm Leaving Here Tomorrow Mama" by Billy Vera, "I Forgot To Remember To Forget" by Travis Wammack, and "Polk Salad Annie" by Tony Joe White. (Funky Compilations, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

The Beatles at their late best – 1968's self-titled set, now immortalized as The White Album! The White Album capped offed a period of intense creativity for the band with a double that's as freewheeling as anything they'd ever release. It's got raw rockers with wry lyricism, tender acoustic balladry, psych blues jams and some flat out weird bits. As was always the case, John's and Paul's songs cover the majority of the sides, but The White Album also features what's arguably George's most vital moment as a Beatle with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Other tracks include "Back InThe USSR", "Dear Prudence","Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Martha My Dear", "Rocky Raccoon", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", "Julia", "Yer Blues", "Sexy Sadie", "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1", Good Night" and more. CD

The Beatles at their late best – on 1968's self-titled set – now immortalized as The White Album! The White Album capped offed a period of intense creativity for the band with a double that's as freewheeling as anything they'd ever release. It's got raw rockers with wry lyricism, tender acoustic balladry, psych blues jams and some flat out weird bits. As was always the case, John's and Paul's songs cover the majority of the sides, but The White Album also features what's arguably George's most vital moment as a Beatle with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Other tracks include "Back InThe USSR", "Dear Prudence","Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Martha My Dear", "Rocky Raccoon", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", "Julia", "Yer Blues", "Sexy Sadie", "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1", Good Night" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "I Feel Free", "Politician", "Badge", "Sunshine Of Your Love", "Crossroads", "White Room", "Strange Brew", and "Swlabr". CD

A pretty wild set from Elephants Memory – one that's as trippy as you'd guess from the group's image on the cover – and equally collaborative too! There's a strong mix of male and female vocals here – over guitar and rhythms that move effortlessly between blues rock and psych – all with a pretty loose, freewheeling sense of production – but enough tightness to make some of the chorus moments snap out nicely! Wes Farrell produced, but seems to really let the band do their thing – and in addition to songs written by group members Stan Bronstein, Michal Shapiro, and Richard Sussman – there also seems to be some song contributions from Tony Visconti too. Titles include "Hot Dog Man", "Talkin A Walk", "RIP", "Jungle Gym At The Zoo", "Don't Put Me On Trial No More", "Crossroads Of The Stepping Stones", "Band Of Love", and "Brief Encounter". LP, Vinyl record album

A record with a strange mix of elements on the outside – a confusing title, a proggy-cover image – but one that's got a sound that's a perfect maturation of the fantastic sound of Alexis Korner in the 60s! Korner's one of the overlooked heroes in British music – a strong devotee of American blues, and maybe so much so that sounds more like his inspirations than most – but never in a slavish way, as Alexis is always able to full absorb the sound, and make you feel like it's coming from his own deep soul – and over the years, he really shifted things in these slight, but powerful ways – making his music a huge influence on a big generation of UK rock acts to come. Here, the double-length set is almost a "thanks back" affair – as Korner records with a huge all-star array that includes folks like Robert Plant, Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, Graham Bond, Lol Coxhill, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ray Warleigh, Harry Beckett, and many more – a fantastic crossroads of all that's hip in British rock, blues, and jazz at the start of the 70s. Titles include "I Got A Woman", "Rockin", "She Foold Me", "I Wonder Who", "Dee", "Love Is Gonna Go", "Clay House Inn", "Evil Hearted Woman", "Mighty Mighty", "Sunrise", and "Hellhound On My Tail". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing sounds from British pianist Keith Tippett – a startling crossroads of musical scenes that beautifully brings together the best jazz, rock, and jazz rock impulses on the UK scene at the time – still with a freshness and clarity that the work would never reach a few years later! The sound here is brilliant – often a bit funky at the bottom, and definitely stretching out to freer jazz ideas on the solos, yet always managing a sense of soul and swing that really gives the record a rock solid core – so that even loopy lines seem to land back on the ground, and set the group on fire with a whole new energy. In addition to Tippett's work on electric and acoustic piano, the set also features Elton Dean on alto and saxello, Marc Charig on cornet, Nick Evans on trombone, and Robert Wyatt on drums – on titles that include "Gridal Suite", "Five After Dawn", "This Is What Happens", "Thoughts To Geoff", and "Black Horse". (Jazz, Rock) CD

A creative left turn for Waits – written for an ambitious theatrical project, which to a certain degree takes him into surprising new territory and is all the more exciting for it – but still comes through as great late Island-era Tom Waits album in its own light! The Black Rider stage work was written in collaboration with Waits, director Robert Wilson and William Burroughs, and while the songs have the overtures and shaggy orchestral flourishes inherent to and geared to theater, the songs are still so distinctively Waits-ian in all its woozy glory. Includes "November", "Just The Right Bullets", "Black Box Theme", "Russian Dance", "I'll Shoot The Moon", "Crossroads", "Ain't No Sin", "Lucky Day", " The Briar And The Rose" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

You might not know Les Cousins, but back in the city it was a very important club on the London scene – a crossroads of blues, folk, and other styles – with an influence that was every bit important in England as the Greenwich Village clubs were in the US! This massive 3CD set does a great job of documenting the sounds that passed through its stage – not via live recordings, but over a well-chosen array of cuts that demonstrate just how hip British work of the time could be – folk-plus material, of the sort you'd hear on the best albums on Island Records or Transatlantic, all very much of the generation of Nick Drake and Fairport Convention! The 3CD set does a really great job of showing the wide range of acts from this moment – including many we haven't had on other reissues in recent years – in a great box that features 72 tracks, and very detailed notes on the material. Includes work from The Levee Brothers, Roy Harper, Dr Strangely Strange, Strawbs, Owen Hand, Dave Evans, Anne Briggs, Tom Yates, Duffy Power, Ron Geesin, Jackson C Frank, Martin Carthy, Dando Shaft, Shelagh McDonald, Al Jones, Sweeney's Men, Sam Mitchell, Tir Na Nog, Beverly, Michael Chapman, and many others. CD

Rare rockers, early soul, and cool classic country – all the sorts of cuts you'd expect to hear from the mighty Bear Family Records label – but brought together here with school and the classrooms as the theme! A few of the cuts are familiar, but most are nice and obscure – in keeping with the well-chosen tracks we always discover on Bear Family – all presented with very detailed notes and vintage images too! Titles include "School Bus" by The Shades, "High School USA" by Tommy Facenda, "I Wanna Dance With The Teacher" by The Olympics, "Letter To A School Girl" by The Delcados, "The Teacher" by The Falcons, "High School Love" by Ronnie Allen, "School Girl" by The Winstons, "School House Rock" by Billy Harlan, "Talk Of The School" by Sonny James, "School Bus Love Affair" by Wynn Stewart, and "School Girl" by the 5 Royales. 34 tracks in all! CD

A collection of classic country that's got way more to offer than the "depressing" in the title might make you think – not tracks that are purposely over the top and full of bad feeling – but instead the kind of well-crafted work that makes postwar country some of the most carefully emotive music of the time! The set's overflowing with themes of love and loss, but handled with a mature, honest, very human approach – never wallowing too much in depression, and instead often coming across with a slightly redemptive spirit in the realization of the loss. The set features 30 tracks in all – and titles include "Letter Edged In Black" by Hank Snow, "Teardrops & Empty Arms" by Texas Ruby, "A Church A Courtroom & Then Goodbye" by Patsy Cline, "Lonely Street" by Don Gibson, "Call Of The Wedding" by Goldie Hill, "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight by George Jones, "Tramp On The Street" by Carlisle Brothers, "The Old Crossroad Is Waitin" by Rose Maddox, "Lonely Side Of Town" by Kitty Wells, "Are You Afraid To Die" by Stanley Brothers, and "I'm Reading Yaur Letter Again" by Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper. (Folk/Country, Rock) CD

The Beatles at their late best – on a self-titled set that's been long immortalized as The White Album! The White Album capped offed a period of intense creativity for the band, with a double set that's as freewheeling as anything they'd ever release. It's got raw rockers with wry lyricism, tender acoustic balladry, psych blues jams and some flat out weird bits. As was always the case, John's and Paul's songs cover the majority of the sides, but The White Album also features what's arguably George's most vital moment as a Beatle with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Other tracks include "Back InThe USSR", "Dear Prudence","Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Martha My Dear", "Rocky Raccoon", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", "Julia", "Yer Blues", "Sexy Sadie", "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1", Good Night" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A Jerry Garcia solo album, but one with a fair bit of help from the Grateful Dead as well – as the group play on album half the album's tracks! Some of the music still has that slinky vibe of solo Garcia – and a number of tracks are warmed up by Fender Rhodes from Larry Knechtel – but there's also that fuller spirit that the Dead can bring to the music, yet delivered in a way that's nicely laidback compared to some of their own records. A nice meeting at the crossroads – with titles that include "They Love Each Other", "Catfish John", "Comes A Time", "It Must Have Been The Roses", "Might As Well", and "Mission In The Rain". LP, Vinyl record album

The Beatles at their late best – 1968's self-titled set, now immortalized as The White Album! The White Album capped offed a period of intense creativity for the band with a double that's as freewheeling as anything they'd ever release. It's got raw rockers with wry lyricism, tender acoustic balladry, psych blues jams and some flat out weird bits. As was always the case, John's and Paul's songs cover the majority of the sides, but The White Album also features what's arguably George's most vital moment as a Beatle with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Other tracks include "Back InThe USSR", "Dear Prudence","Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Martha My Dear", "Rocky Raccoon", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", "Julia", "Yer Blues", "Sexy Sadie", "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1", Good Night" and more. CD

The Beatles at their late best – 1968's self-titled set, now immortalized as The White Album! The White Album capped offed a period of intense creativity for the band with a double that's as freewheeling as anything they'd ever release. It's got raw rockers with wry lyricism, tender acoustic balladry, psych blues jams and some flat out weird bits. As was always the case, John's and Paul's songs cover the majority of the sides, but The White Album also features what's arguably George's most vital moment as a Beatle with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Other tracks include "Back InThe USSR", "Dear Prudence","Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Martha My Dear", "Rocky Raccoon", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", "Julia", "Yer Blues", "Sexy Sadie", "Helter Skelter", "Revolution 1", Good Night" and more. Includes The Beatles Mini Documentary. CD

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