... LP, Vinyl record album

An Alan Lomax collection. CD

The second album from one of the greatest Pacific Northwest underground rock bands ever – the raucous and timeless Dead Moon! Raw and rumbling garage, psych and even frayed and ferocious takes plain ol' hard rock get stomped out on Unknown Passage. It was probably all too loose and primitive to get them any kind of mainstream exposure, but man, it's as gratifying as just about any underground rock of the time that comes to mind. Includes "Dead Moon Night", "My Escape", "A Miss Of You", "I'm Wise", "Evil Eye", "I Tried", "Demona", "On My Own" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful album from Idrissa Soumaoro and L'Eclipse – one recorded during a time of great political unrest in Mali, and a set that was never commercially issued – but just originally given away by the Malian Association for the Blind! The album's got all the power of earlier albums from the heyday of 70s Mali music – including Soumaoro's previous group, Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel – many of whom had fled by this point – and Idrissa's snakey guitar lines hold together the larger mix of percussion and vocals from the Eclipse group – which seems to feature some younger singers with a really great range. Overall, the recording style is better than you'd expect for such an under-circulated album – but the sound is still nice and raw, especially on the percussion and vocals. Titles include "Djama", "Fama Allah", "Beni Inikanko", "Nissodia", and "Ben". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing blues from the Georgia scene of the 70s – music that hardly feels like other versions of the genre coming out at the time – partly thanks to the raw recording quality of these tracks! Most of the music features just a singer and guitar – sometimes just one or the other – and the only other rhythm on the record comes from spoons or a bit of drums – which should give you an idea of the lean, rootsy sound of the record! The quality of the music is great, though – and the record feels like some older gem on Arhoolie or Yazoo. Titles include "James Boogie" and "Good Morning Little School Girl" by James Davis, "The Howlin Wolf" and "Old Red #2" by Jim Bunkley, "Poor Boy" and "If I Lose Let Me Lose" by John Lee Ziegler, "Love Blues" and "Hoochie Coochie Wagon" by William Robertson, and "Have You Ever Seen Peaches Grow On A Sweet Potato Vine" by Jimmy Lee Williams. LP, Vinyl record album

A contemporary group, but one who play with a definite old school vibe – both in the style of their gritty blues, and even in the instruments and studio equipment they use! The vintage gear makes for a nicely raspy approach to the music – one that really helps give the record an edge you might not expect. Studebaker John sings, plays guitar and harmonica, and titles include "Cold Black Night", "Wicked Soul", "Shake It Down Now", "She's All Right", "Mississippi To Chicago", and "Mojo Hand". CD

The funkiest man? Could well be – and this set will more than support that case! By the time of these recordings, Rufus Thomas was already a legendary figure in the Memphis scene – an aging R&B star that also worked on radio and did a fair bit of promotion for other artists, including daughter Carla. At the end of the 60s, Stax brought him into the studio with the idea of pumping up his sound a bit – adding in some of the newer funky styles, which proved to be a perfect fit for Rufus' rough-hewn style of vocals. Tracks on the set feature a number of classic singles from these years, plus a few unissued numbers – with an all funky track list that includes "Funkiest Man Alive", "Give Me The Green Light", "Itch & Scratch", "Turn Your Damper Down", "Funky Hot Grits", "I'm Getting Better", "Sophisticated Sissy", "Funky Mississippi", "Git On Up & Do It", "The Breakdown (part 1)", "Push & Pull (part 1)", "Do The Double Bump", "Funky Robot (part 1)", "Memphis Train 75", and "Funky Bird". LP, Vinyl record album

Music from Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, Bo Carter, Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson, Charley Patton, Leroy Carr, Josh White, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson & more. CD

A heavenly set of southern soul – a package that pulls together a wealth of rare and unreleased singles from the Malaco label – that important Jackson, Mississippi imprint that took on the deeper sounds of the 70s – after the Memphis and Muscle Shoals scenes were losing steam! Some of the artists here are ones who would have ended up on Stax or Volt, had the labels still been going at the time – and instead found a great home on Malaco, a company who also had a great legacy of work in southern blues, and really knew how to bring out the best in a strong-voiced singer! Yet despite that side of the label, the music here is all-soul all the way through – not some of the soul/blues hybrids that Malaco could do well, and instead amazing deep soul, handled with a new sort of sophistication for the 70s! The sound is wonderful throughout – and the set features loads of cuts we'd never heard before – 18 titles that include "Overflowing" by Jewel Bass, "Ain't No Love For Sale" by Tommy Tate, "Sour Love Bitter Sweet" by Joe Wilson, "Lovin On Borrowed Time" by Anita Mitchell, "Got To Find The Nerve" by Hank Sample, "Two Of A Kind" by Dorothy Moore, "Once Upon A Love Affair" by Chuck Brooks, "That's How Much I Love You" by Eddie Houston, and "Talkin About Love" by George Soule. CD

Astoundingly strong early recordings by Mississippi blues hero RL Burnside – with violence-tinged songs performed with a clearer, though no less tough voice than we heard on the songs that made him a bit more famous in 1990s! Includes RL's takes on traditionals played on acoustic guitar and accompanied by little more than foot stomps and handclaps! Really vital stuff, whether you're hearing RL Burnside for the first time, and finding this after more famous later recordings. Includes "Just Like A Bird Without A Feather", "Goin' Down South", "Come On In", "Rollin' And Tumblin'", "Jumper On The Line", "Hobo Blues", "Sat Down On My Bnd And Cried" and more, CD

Some of the deepest soul to ever come from a Detroit label – a great run of singles cut by Denise LaSalle for the Westbound label – all of them pretty darn wonderful! Denise has roots that start in Mississippi, and she spent plenty of time in Chicago – so by the time she hit Westbound, she had a great interstate approach that really pulled some great styles together! In a way, these sides were crucial in helping push southern soul forward in the 70s – not just in the production, which was tight, but never too smooth – and which helped give her bluesy inflections a hip, modern sort of mode – one that was often well-suited to the subtle gender politics of the tracks too. Ace did a great job with this smoking set – and not only includes all the key singles, both a-sides and b-sides – but even throws in some great notes, and a few rare radio spots too! Titles include "Do Me Right", "Man Sized Job", "Trapped By A Thing Called Love", "Keep It Coming", "Here I Am Again", "My Brand On You", "What Am I Doing Wrong", "Don't Nobody Live Here", and "Your Man & Your Best Friend". CD

Mississippi blues singer and bottleneck guitar great Fred McDowell is joined by his wife Annie Mae and singers Fannie Davis, Grace Bowden and James Collins – the Hunter's Chapel Singers of Como, Mississippi – on a great set of spiritual material that's just as rawly emotional as his best blues recordings! This set was recorded in '66 is praiseworthy to say the least, and stands up with his best and most starkly moving recordings, even with the additional singers. Includes "Jesus On The Mainline", "I Know I've Been Converted", "You Got To Move", "Amazing Grace", "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning", "When You Come Out Of The Wilderness", "It's A Blessing", "This Little Light Of Mine" and more. CD

A well-titled set – as it's the mid 70s, and the Ohio Players were certainly turning out a lot of gold! Their move to Mercury Records from the smaller indie Westbound was a real winning move – as it gave them a smoother soul feel that only expanded their groove, not restricted it! This tasty "best of" set features most of their top work from those years – with killer tunes that include "Love Rollercoaster", "Fire", "Skin Tight", "Who'd She Coo", "Feel The Beat", "I Want To Be Free", "Fopp", "Far East Mississippi", "Only A Child Can Love", "Jive Turkey (part 1)", and the great "Sweet Sticky Thing"! LP, Vinyl record album

A much better record than you'd expect – one of Duke's funkiest sessions, and a hard swinging big band set with a great late 60s feel! The group is all-class all the way – with players that include Pearson, Bob Cranshaw, Mickey Roker, Marvin Stamm, Julian Priester, Frank Foster, and Jerry Dodgion – and the tracks are short, but with an expansive groove that takes this one way past regular big band jazz, and into the mode of some of the hipper European groups at the time. Includes the classic track "Groundhog", which has a nice funky break on it – plus the cuts "New Girl", "Bedouin", "New Time Shuffle", and "Mississippi Dip". Plus, this CD also features 6 bonus tracks lifted from the album Now Hear This – an equally great album in a similar mode, with titles that include "Make It Good", "Minor League", "Disapporachment", "Tones For Joan's Bones", and "The Days Of Wine & Roses". CD

Fantastic early work from John Prine – exactly the kind of sounds that made him so different from both the 60s generation of folksingers, and most of his hip 70s contemporaries too! In one breath, Prine manages to embrace musical worlds that run from New Orleans up through the Mississippi Delta, into Memphis and Nashville, on up to the Chicago scene in which he made his name – which is where the biting wit and special vision of his sound really comes into focus! Prine was reportedly discovered in a small Chicago club by Kris Kristofferson and Roger Ebert – but from the sound of his well-developed talents here, he hardly needed any big names to point him out – as the man's in very comfortable company of his own, working with Steve Goodman on second guitar and David Bromberg on electric guitar, mandolin, and dobro. Titles include "The Late John Garfield Blues", "The Frying Pan", "Billy The Bum", "Clocks & Spoons", "The Great Compromise", "Take The Star Out Of The Window", and "Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You". LP, Vinyl record album

A trio of classic CTI Records albums from tenorist Stanley Turrentine – with bonus tracks too! First up is Cherry – one of the best CTI albums from the early 70s – and one of Stanley Turrentine's funkiest records as well! The album's got a sharper edge than most other Turrentine albums of the time – a quality that goes beyond Stan's already soulful approach to the tenor, and which brings in some tight changes and more pronounced rhythms that really give the best cuts a great groove! The group's a sextet – with Bob James on electric piano, Milt Jackson on vibes, Cornell Dupree on guitar, Ron Carter on bass, and Billy Cobham on drums – and titles include a monster version of Weldon Irvine's "Sister Sanctified" – a great funk tune that's probably best known as the sample for "My Philosophy" by BDP! Other tracks include "Speedball", "Cherry", and "The Revs". On Don't Mess With Mister T, Stanley Turrentine meets Bob James – on a record that's one of the 70s classics on CTI! Bob James handles the arrangements – with that laidback, mellowfunky approach to jazz that he helped pioneer at the time – lots of modal chords in the rhythms, and these wonderfully soulful solos by the great Stan himself! James plays keyboards on the set – and Harold Mabern adds some piano too – and the lineup also includes the mighty Eric Gale on guitar, and Idris Muhammad on drums. Titles include the great title cut – a remake of Marvin Gaye's "Don't Mess With Mister T", plus "Too Blue", "Two For T", and "I Could Never Repay Your Love". Sugar Man is a classic set from Stanley "Sugar Man" Turrentine – a nickname the reedman had at the time, given the success of his famous CTI Records version of "Sugar"! This set follows in that same great mode – jazzy, but a bit funky too – although couched with this gentle sense of soul that's perfect for that spacious style of soloing that Turrentine perfected over the years – a way of blowing openly, and without too much fuss – but managing to hit all the right notes along the way! There's a great glow to the whole record – an excellent easygoing sense of soul – and titles include an incredible reading of "Vera Cruz", done with Deodato on piano, and at a breakaway speed that's just great, and worth the price of the record alone! Other tracks feature piano by Harold Mabern or organ by Butch Cornell – and titles include "The Stretch", "Just As I Am", and "Pieces Of Dreams". Bonus tracks include "The More I See You", "Don't Mess With Mister T (alt)", "Mississippi City", and "Harlem Dawn". CD

A key late 60s country crossover set, but one that also inspired a fair bit of funk as well! The title cut's a well-known gem – one that's been covered instrumentally in some break-heavy versions, but which sounds even more amazing here in Bobbie's original version – one of the moodiest pop tunes we've ever heard, with lyrics, and a way of presenting them, that still leaves us breathless all these many years later. There's also some other funky bits here too – Gentry's raspy "Mississippi Delta" – an original number that almost seems to unseat Tina Turner for down-home soul – and the groovy "Sunday Best", "Niki Hoeky", "Papa Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You", and "Chickasaw Country Child", all numbers that echo the same lilting acoustic guitar grooves of "Billie Joe". LP, Vinyl record album

A mighty hefty set from the Grateful Dead – but one that's needed in order to live up to the legendary nature of the performance! The group sprawl out magnificently on all twelve sides of the record, some of which only feature one song, but in super-high fidelity that really captures the improvisational nature of their jams. As usual with their live performances, there's some great surprise songs that make an appearance – including "El Paso", "Me & Bobby McGhee", and "Big River" – alongside extrapolations of tunes that include "Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo", "Truckin", "Jam", "US Blues", "One More Saturday Night", "Weather Report Suite", "Greatest Story Ever Told", "China Cat Sunflower", and "Sugaree". LP, Vinyl record album

A pivotal moment in the development of southern soul – as the album was one of the first really big hits to come out of the growing Malaco scene in Jackson, Mississippi. The style of the record is a mix of older female southern soul styles, plus some of the warmer mellow production that was coming out of the Alston/Miami scene at the same time. And although Malaco mostly moved into cheesy blues during the early 80s, this one's very much in a popular crossover soul style. Features the title hit "Misty Blue", plus "It's So Good", "Too Much Love", "Ain't That A Mother's Luck", "Enough Woman Left (To Be Your Lady)", and "The Only Time You Ever Say You Love Me". CD

Maybe one of the earliest hip hop singles from west of the Mississippi – a track not from LA, but from the unlikely city of Phoenix, Arizona! The rhythms have a bumping, bassy boogie feel – very South Bronx in construction, with lots of room for changing choruses between the Poor Boy Rappers – sent home by some moogy touches in the middle! 12-inch, Vinyl record

Very wild work from the enigmatic Bobby Beausoleil – a set that has the underground talent taking on songs by Eden Ahbez and Screamin Jay Hawkins – as well as turning out plenty of unusual tunes of his own! The music is very moody, and full of dark corners and currents – almost this slight goth reworking of modes from the American south – music from Mississippi down to New Orleans, but reworked through the freakier, fuzzier side of the spectrum. Maybe imagine if Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda had survived their trip down south in Easy Rider – then holed up for decades to come up with sounds like this! Titles include "Voodoo Shiraya", "Nature Boy", "The Bones Of My Mind", "Ghost Highway", "Hard Road", and "The Subterranean Path". LP, Vinyl record album