Wonderfully righteous work from Burnt Sugar Arkestra – a group who've been giving us great records for years, but who are maybe even more important to the scene than ever before! The core of the record is the long title track – a very jazzy tune that builds up over loops set down by composer Greg Tate, with a flowing, snakey vibe that allows for plenty of long trumpet, tenor, flute, and alto solos over the guitars and Fender Rhodes that work the rhythms – maybe almost in electric Miles territory, but more laidback. That tune is then reworked on a number of variations that are very different – mostly instrumental, as the main track – but finishing up with a bit of vocals near the end of the record – a great contribution from singer Lisala Beatty! Titles include "Angels Over Oakanda", "Repatriation Of The Midnight Moores", "Oakanda Overdrive", and "Lisala Oer Inna Oakanda". LP, Vinyl record album

Cool groovy Woody – with Fender Rhodes from Pat Coil! Titles include "Isn't She Lovely", "Sugar Loaf Mountain", "Fire Dance", "Sunrise Lady", and "I Got News For You". LP, Vinyl record album

A posthumous collection of work from Freddie King – material recorded in a variety of different sources, but all of it with Freddie's well-honed guitar sound in the lead! Some tracks were done down at Criteria Studios in Miami, and have a warmly southern sort of glow – others were done in the UK with Mike Vernon with a bit more of a rockish feel, and a few more were done for radio, with a slightly rougher edge than the rest. Titles include "Pack It Up", "Shake Your Bootie", "Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do", "Woman Across The Bridge", "Sweet Home Chicago", "Sugar Sweet", "TV Mama", "Gambling Woman Blues", and "Farther Up The Road." LP, Vinyl record album

The name Channel One is well known to even the most neophyte aficionados of Jamaican music. One of the cornerstone studios on the Kingston scene, the birthplace of so many classic numbers, any collection is of tracks cut there is going to be heavy. This great set collects both well known hits and some tasty lesser known selections, 36 numbers in all! "I Need A Roof" by the Mighty Diamonds, "Without Love" by Leroy Smart, "CB 200" by Dillinger, "Fade Away" by Junior Byles, "Up Park Camp" by John Holt, "Far East" by Barry Brown, "Things & Time" by the Wailing Souls, "Road Block" by Sammy Dread, "Truly (DJ mix)" by Rankin Trevor, "Dances Are Changes" by Barrington Levy, "Ballistic Affair" by Leroy Smart, "Satisfaction" by John Holt, "Natty Burial" by the Lone Ranger, "Natty Have Credentials" by Don Carlos, "Hard To Confess" by the Tamlins, "MPLA" & "Burial" by Revolutionaries, "I Know Myself" by Ernest Wilson, "Welding" by I Roy, "Smoke Ganja Hard" by Little John, "Babylon" by Sugar Minott, "Worries In The Dance" by Frankie Paul and "Queen Majesty" by Jay & Trevor Rankin. LP, Vinyl record album

A French session from harmonica player Sugar Blue – with titles that include "Shed No Tears", "War Zone", "Pontiac", "My Baby Caught The Train", "Another Man Done Gone", and "Begging The Girl To Go". LP, Vinyl record album

John Mayall's definitely getting back to his roots here – and he's also getting help from an all-star cast as well! Mayall's vocals and piano are in fine form – almost with a rough-edged Blues Breakers sort of vibe, but sometimes a bit funkier too – in ways that strongly show the evolution of the older Brit blues groove into some hipper, more soul-drenched territory. Players on the record are a range of familiar names – including Eric Clapton on guitar, Johnny Amond on sax and flute, Harvey Mandel on guitar, Sugarcane Harris on violin, and Keef Hartley on some especially nice drums. Titles include "Prisons On The Road", "Groupie Girl", "My Children", "Home Again", "Blue Fox", "Boogie Albert", "Unanswered Questions", "Goodbye December", "Force Of Nature", and "Dream With Me". CD also features bonus tracks too – including "Accidental Suicide (1988 rmx)", "Force Of Nature (1988 rmx)", "Boogie Albert (1988 rmx)", "Television Eye (1988 rmx)", "Looking At Tomorrow (1988 rmx)", "Mr Censor Man (1988 rmx)", and "Home Again (1988 rmx)". LP, Vinyl record album

Landmark work from The Rolling Stones – and a set that may well stand alongside Exile On Main Street for capturing the group at their height! The record's got the Stones very much in their own space – years from just putting a UK spin on American blues – and instead, finding a way to take all their best influences, and fuse them into a nasty, gritty sound that's complete genius all the way through! Yet at the same time, the set also has them more comfortable with rootsy elements too – but returning to styles in ways that are very different than their youth – with a new sort of mature confidence that holds the album together wonderfully. Titles include "Brown Sugar", "Wild Horses", "You Gotta Move", "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", "Bitch", "Sister Morphine", "Dead Flowers", and "I Got The Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

A rootsy classic from Dr John – an early 70s set in which he turns his talents to a bunch of older New Orleans soul and blues tracks, but serves them up in a style that still has plenty of his mystic gumbo in place! After the freer-wheeling longform sprawls of his more psychedelic albums, the doctor goes back to his Nola roots, and works with lots of great help here from Harold Battiste – who co-produced and did the arrangements – all in a style that's got a real 60s Crescent City vibe, even though the set was recorded in LA. Titles include versions of Sugarboy Crawford's "Iko Iko", Huey Smith's "Blow Wind Blow", and other classics like "Mess Around", "Let The Good Times Roll", "Junko Partner", "Tipitina", and "Stack A Lee". LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Change Partners", "Sugar Babe", "Know You Got To Run", "Open Secret", "Word Game", and "Marianne". LP, Vinyl record album

A sublime pop psych classic from Tommy James & The Shondells – a record that's quite different than some of the janglier work the group was issuing a few years before – and a perfect example of the way that just a few slight studio tricks can really transform a record! The tunes are all short and focused, but produced with lots of cool reverb, echo, and fuzzy touches on the sides – never overindulgent, and still plenty tuneful – but with so many weird little edges that they come through with a sound that's still pretty darn fresh after all these years – even if you think you know these guys from their hits. Titles include "Kathleen McArthur", "Do Something To Me", "I Am A Tangerine", "Smokey Roads", and "Breakaway" – plus the classic hits "Sugar On Sunday", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", and "Crimson & Clover". LP, Vinyl record album

Maceo Pinkard wrote plenty of classic tunes in the pre-War years – and here, they're performed by drummer Sticks Evans & The Broadway Recording Orchestra and featuring such vocalists as Delores Andrews (who we learn on the back cover "likes big men and tiny dogs"), Daisy Banks, Vic Carlo, and The Edgar Battle Singers! Titles include plenty of classics – including "Sugar", "Them There Eyes", "Gimme A Little Kiss Will Ya Huh", "Why Do You Torture Me?", "Mammy O Mine", and "Let's Have A Show Down". LP, Vinyl record album