Kirk Knuffke on cornet and voice, Mark Helias on bass, and Bill Goodwin on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Serving time has never been this groovy – thanks to a whole host of prison-themed tunes from the postwar years, presented here in a package that's especially strong on blues and R&B! Sure, most folks know "Folsom Prison Blues", but this package digs much deeper to come up with two dozen near-lost tracks that also echo the legacy of incarceration that frequently interacted with the music business during years when even the most minor infraction might get a singer or instrumentalist locked up. We're not saying that all these artists have experience behind bars, but the set does resonate strongly as a showcase of the too-common theme of jail and prison in American music. Titles include "Jailbird" by Smiley Lewis, "But Officer" by Sonny Knight, "Hey Mr Warden" by Danny Cobb, "Prisoner's Song" by Fats Domino, "Please Mr Jailer" by Wynona Carr, "Ball & Chain Blues" by Josh White, "Jail Bird" by El Pauling & Royal Abbit, "Prisoner's Plea" by Billy Boy Arnold, "Jailhouse Blues" by Ottille Patterson, "When I Leave These Prison Walls" by The Larks, and "I'm A Prisoner" by Eddie Boyd. CD

The rainy season's plenty pleasant with a collection like this – a batch of 30 rain-themed tunes from the worlds of soul, rock, country, and vocal music of the 50s and 60s – all served up with the top-shelf level of presentation we love from Bear Family! The cuts are great – a really unusual mix of material that will help make the cloudiest day a lot more pleasant – all presented with detailed notes on all the many different artists you'll find within! Titles include "Just Walkin In The Rain" by The Prisonaires, "Face In The Rain" by Chas McDevitt, "Raining" by Jerry Byrne, "So What Let It Rain" by Lefty Frizell, "Sittin Home Prayin For The Rain" by Bobby Lord, "It Rains Rain" by Bill Wimberley & The Country Rhythm Boys, "The Rains Came Down" by Dorsey Burnette, "Ain't Never Seen So Much Rain Before" by Christine Kittrell, "Raindrops Keep A Fallin" by El Pauling & Royal Abbit, "Rhythm Of The Rain" by The Cascades, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" by Carole King, "Walking In The Rain" by Robert & Johnny, and "Rain Rain" by George Jones. CD

A set that really expands the legend of Factory Records – the famous label who gave the world New Order, Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, and other important post-punk bands – as the set focuses on the equally legendary Hacienda nightclub, which the label opened in Manchester in 1982! Manchester was already a city with a hell of a music scene – but at the Hacienda, all sorts of sounds and styles mixed together – in a spirit that was similar to some of the energy on the New York scene at the time, particularly at a club like Danceteria – where the quest for the new took clubbers way past standard genre designations! The Fac 51 in the title was Factory's way of giving the club a catalog number that was in keeping with its record releases at the time – and the beautiful package features plenty of information on the club and the scene – along with 65 tracks by artists who include Gang Of Four, Section 25, Defunkt, Heaven 17, Medium Medium, The Birthday Party, Kurtis Blow, Shalamar, Barry Gray, Simple Minds, Rockers Revenge, 23 Skidoo, Royal Family & The Poor, Josef K, John Cooper Clarke, Stockholm Monsters, Swamp Children, Iggy & The Stooges, Sugarhill Gang, Laura Lee, Temptations, Trio, Bow Wow Wow, Valentine Brothers, Soft Cell, The Associates, Loose Joints, Suicide, Pale Fountains, and many others. CD

A mighty nice collision of sounds – and one that really gets at the special spirit of music on the left side of the scene at the start of the 80s! Sure, punk broke things open in the late 70s – but a few years later, that initial shock gave way to a much more fluid, experimental sort of scene – one in which different sounds and styles could resonate with each other in a really great way – some barriers between rock and soul forever taken down, and the door from the artier side of the spectrum open to bring some fresh ideas into the mainstream! Writer Jon Savage was a very important part of the scene at the time – and here, he recalls the musical moment not just with a great array of tracks that leap between genres, but also with well-penned notes that get at the thought behind the tunes included on the 35 track set. Titles include "Hydraulic Pump (part 2)" by P Funk All Stars, "We're So Cool" by Au Pairs, "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, "Don't Make Me Wait" by NYC Peech Boys, "Poor Old Soul (part 2)" by Orange Juice, "Sound Of The Crowd" by Human League, "Underground" by The Bizarros, "Twist & Crawl" by The Beat, "These Days" by Joy Division, "The Apartment" by Giorgio Moroder, "She's Lost Control" by Grace Jones, "More Bounce To The Ounce" by Zapp, "Flight" by A Certain Ratio, "Euthenics" by Modern Eon, "Too Many Creeps" by Bush Tetras, "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" by Brother D with Collective Effort, "Mack The Knife" by Psychedelic Furs, "Pictures" by Josef K, "Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, "Art On 45" by Royal Family & The Poor, and "Our Love" by Donna Summer. CD

A great array of bug-related tunes from the glory days of the 45rpm single – mostly rock numbers, but with some cool instrumental, soul, and exotica tracks thrown into the mix as well! The package is one of the weirdest of the many great themed compilations we've stocked from Bear Family records – and is different than some of the more monster-oriented collections that come out every year for the Halloween season – as the work here is definitely filled with references to spiders, flies, and other six-legged critters – as you'll dig on cuts that include "Hornet's Nest" by Curtis Knight, "Tarantula" by Bruce Gist & The Invaders, "Black Widow" by The Nobles, "The Fly" by Chubby Checker, "Tsetse Fly" by Martin Denny, "Get Away Fly" by Buddy Lucas, "Lady Bug" by Chet Poison Ivey, "The Wedding Of The Bugs" by Moon Mullican, "Tarantula" by The Storms, "The Web" by Abie Available Baker, "Little Cricket" by The Royal Teens, "Tarantula" by The Tarantulas, "Fly Trouble" by Hank Williams, "The Spider & The Fly" by Bobby Christian, "Beatle Bug" by Link Davis, and "The Bug" by the Swing Kings. CD

A mighty nice collision of sounds – and one that really gets at the special spirit of music on the left side of the scene at the start of the 80s! Sure, punk broke things open in the late 70s – but a few years later, that initial shock gave way to a much more fluid, experimental sort of scene – one in which different sounds and styles could resonate with each other in a really great way – some barriers between rock and soul forever taken down, and the door from the artier side of the spectrum open to bring some fresh ideas into the mainstream! Writer Jon Savage was a very important part of the scene at the time – and here, he recalls the musical moment not just with a great array of tracks that leap between genres, but also with well-penned notes that get at the thought behind the tunes included on the 35 track set. Titles include "Hydraulic Pump (part 2)" by P Funk All Stars, "We're So Cool" by Au Pairs, "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, "Don't Make Me Wait" by NYC Peech Boys, "Poor Old Soul (part 2)" by Orange Juice, "Sound Of The Crowd" by Human League, "Underground" by The Bizarros, "Twist & Crawl" by The Beat, "These Days" by Joy Division, "The Apartment" by Giorgio Moroder, "She's Lost Control" by Grace Jones, "More Bounce To The Ounce" by Zapp, "Flight" by A Certain Ratio, "Euthenics" by Modern Eon, "Too Many Creeps" by Bush Tetras, "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" by Brother D with Collective Effort, "Mack The Knife" by Psychedelic Furs, "Pictures" by Josef K, "Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, "Art On 45" by Royal Family & The Poor, and "Our Love" by Donna Summer. CD

A huge look at the Liverpool scene in the UK – but one that doesn't focus on the generation of the Beatles and Brit Invasion groups – and instead brings some great attention to the city's contribution to the post-punk years and beyond! The package is tremendous – 100 songs in a huge booklet of notes – tracing an evolution from the late 70s years, when Liverpool was as creative and fervent of a scene as other North England territories, like Manchester and Sheffield – but also one that could quickly develop some tuneful aspects too, which no doubt helped the rest of the UK music scene of the 80s find a way to expand in some great global directions! Throughout the whole time covered here, there's a great tension between experimentation and commercial success – one that's covered beautifully by the many tracks in the collection, and also documented in the hefty notes within. There's far too many tracks here for us to list – but let us say that the package is overflowing with work by artists as diverse as Dalek I, The Wild Swans, China Crisis, Pink Industry, Care, Box Of Toys, Deaf School, Big In Japan, Pale Fountains, Icicle Works, Dead Or Alive, The Lotus Eaters, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Mr Amir, Brenda & The Beach Balls, Jegsy Dodd & The Sons Of Harry Cross, The La's, Jactars, Magic Carpets, Barbel, The Walking Seeds, Thomas Lang, Ministry Of Love, Nightmares In Wax, OMD, The Planets, Spitfire Boys, Geisha Girls, Royal Family & The Poor, Public Disgrace, It's Immaterial, The Balcony, The Yachts, Teardrop Explodes, Original Mirrors, The Press Gang, Moderates, Egypt For Now, Those Naughty Lumps, Flock Of Seagulls, Freeze Frame, Echo & The Bunnymen, and many more! CD

A hot host of killer rockabilly, R&B, and other smoking styles from the late 50s and early 60s – all pulled together in tribute to the long-running Rocks series from Bear Family records! The package has 30 tracks in all, the the blend of artists is really great, and shows just how much blues, R&B, and other pre-soul styles were important on the scene next to the rising wave of rockabilly and other early rock styles. And in fact, the package probably has more from those worlds of music than you'd expect from an collection that foregrounds the word "rock" – key proof that the name was initially lifted from black music, then used to peddle white pop as the years went on. Features work from The Treniers, Roy Milton, Little Junior Parker, Ella Mae Morse, Arthur Crudup, The Drifters, 5 Royales, Shirley & Lee, Amos Milburn, Lloyd Price, Slim Harp, Clyde McPhatter, Louis Prima, 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