Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Rachel Sweet - And Then He Kissed Me (1981) & Blame It On Love (1982) (2005)

Reb - Discogs - Link👇

Monday, December 30, 2024

Afro Cuban All-Stars - 1997 - A Toda Cuba Le Gusta

Afro Cuban All-Stars - 1997 - A Toda Cuba Le Gusta @320

It would be fair to say that the Afro-Cuban All Stars are Cuba's most important contemporary musicians. Their leader, Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, has been a pioneering figure for decades and his work with the likes of the Buena Vista Social Club has officially solidified his position as the guiding voice of Afro-Latin music. World Circuit has decided to reissue the band's debut album from 1997, A Toda Cuba Le Gusta, and it's no surprise given just how iconic it remains to this day. If you're a fan of rhythmic jazz with a Caribbean twist then this is the right material for you. If you're a record collector whose into the spicier end of the jazz scale then this is unmissable. Whoever youre, you're bound to enjoy this marvelous collection of tracks. (Juno)

ANDY

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Vikings of Blues

Soul Food

(2021)

Active for 2 months 320

Enjoy them!!

Various Artists

Female Tribute To Tom Waits Vol. 1

[224]

(2008)

Active for 2 months 320

Enjoy them!!

Various Artists

Female Tribute To Tom Waits Vol. 2

[224]

(2008)

Active for 2 months 320

Enjoy them!!

Various Artists

Female Tribute To Tom Waits Vol. 3

[224]

(2008)

Active for 2 months 320

Enjoy them!!

Cab Calloway

Calloway Story

(1989)

Active for 2 months 320

Enjoy them!!

Braindogs

Real Live Brains

(2019)

Active for 2 months 320

Enjoy them!!

Thursday, December 26, 2024

VA – Caltone Special (2005)

leeds

Info

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VA – Chartbusters: 20-I-Toppar (1998) @320

A nice collection of cover versions!!

Reb - Discogs - Link👇

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

VA – Dancehall '69 (40 Skinhead Reggae Rarities) 320

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Info

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1994 - A John Prine Christmas

1994 - A John Prine Christmas @320

For anyone who'd lost track of John Prine after the 1970s, the idea of a rather cynical singer/songwriter recording a holiday album must have seemed a rather odd one. But Prine, while never relinquishing his wry sense of humor, had mellowed quite a bit since writing about getting kicked off of Noah's ark in "Sweet Revenge." Besides, by 1988 he had his own record company, and it's always nice to have a perennial favorite in the catalog. The first two songs are originals and are probably the best songs on the album, with Prine once again offering his observations on relationships gone sour. The first, though, surprisingly relates that even though the narrator's girl dumped him a year ago on Christmas, he's learned to go on with his life. The bitterness, however, creeps back in to "All the Best." Prine opens this live piece with a funny monolog about him and a friend nailing a train set to the dining room table, and then delves into a sad story of love thrown away like yesterday's Christmas tree. He also includes a new version of "Christmas in Prison," a solid song from his third album, Sweet Revenge. The remainder of the album is filled with holiday classics, including a fun take on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." The downside of the album is that it's awful short -- 32 minutes -- and even then, one of the songs -- a duo with Margo Timmins on "If You Were the Woman and I Was the Man" -- doesn't even come close to fitting the holiday spirit (though it may have fit on the Dirty Santa soundtrack). Still, this isn't the run-of-the-mill holiday product, and Prine can still write a good song when he sets his mind to it. Old fans will be glad to see that even cynics can age gracefully. (All Music)

ANDY

B.B. King & Larry Carlton - In Session - Live Broadcast Recording 1983 (2019) @320

Reb - Discogs - Link👇

Billy Fury - A Thousand Stars The Best Of 2014 (320)

leeds - for the tracklist check out discogs via the info link below

Info

Link

Monday, December 23, 2024

Diana Krall - 2005 - Christmas Songs

Diana Krall - 2005 - Christmas Songs @ 320

Christmas Songs is the eighth studio album by Canadian singer Diana Krall, performed with the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. It was released on October 26, 2005 by Verve Records. This is Krall's first full length album of Christmas songs (not counting her 1998 EP Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas), and her first studio album with a big band.

ANDY

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Dan Hicks - 2010 - Crazy For Christmas

Dan Hicks - 2010 - Crazy For Christmas @320

Ever since his time with San Francisco’s Charlatans in the late 1960s (he was the drummer in the short-lived but influential group), Dan Hicks has been turning out his fascinatingly wry, hip, and jazzy version of country swing, and while he’s had no mainstream commercial success (i.e. no big radio hits), he has a loyal and devoted following and now, some 40-plus years later, he’s released a delightful holiday album that perfectly spotlights his musical strengths. Crazy for Christmas has an easy, unhurried and charming pace to it, with Hicks’ assured, relaxed vocals giving this set of skewed originals, parodies, and traditional pieces (albeit run through the Hot Licks wringer) a joyously irreverent charm. The opener, “Christmas Mornin’,” sets the stage perfectly, detailing life at the North Pole with Christmas Eve approaching, a place where Rudolph the Reindeer is “finishing up a beer” and Santa has to break up the elves’ dice game to get things rolling in the right direction. Then there’s “I’ve Got Christmas by the Tail,” which sums up how everyone really wants to feel during one of the most socially demanding and busy times of the year. The traditional holiday fare that Hicks tackles here, like his swinging vocal version of “Carol of the Bells,” is wonderfully re-imagined, making this set both a fun and distinctive Christmas album, but also a warm reminder of just how consistent, steady, and poignantly funny Hicks can be; any season of the year. (AllMUsic)

ANDY

Friday, December 20, 2024

Happy Holidaze

Just in case you're sick of the usual holiday songs on infinite loop, here are a few new 'alternative' selections for you. Happy Holidays everyone.

Bob Dylan - 2009 - Christmas In The Heart

Bob Dylan - 2009 - Christmas In The Heart @320

I love this album. It’s a perfect follow-up, not to Dylan’s trilogy of albums vacuum-cleaning the American song tradition for inspiration, but to his Theme Time Radio Hour. (And for the record, my negative evaluation of his latest studio albums does not stem from indignation over ‘theft’, should anyone have gotten that impression, but from a number of lacklustre performances of material of declining quality.)

It’s hilarious. Finally, the ‘wolfman’ voice has found a home where it belongs: as a counterweight to the saccharine, a way to scare the living soul out of the unsuspecting innocent, and perhaps – just perhaps – blow some meaning into these songs again.

Because surely it’s hilarious. But that’s not the main reason why I’ve played this album more than any Dylan album since Time out of Mind. The reason is simple: the way he sings ‘ad Bethlehem’ in Adeste fideles sends shivers down my spine; his demonstration of Santa’s laughter in Must be Santa is the funniest thing since ‘Talkin’ WWIII Blues’; the sombre tone of Do you hear what I hear? is stunning and a perfect counterpart to the angelic serenity of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, perspectivizing both qualities and leaving us, not somewhere undefined in the middle, but somewhere where there is room for both sombre and serene, hilarious and breathtakingly beautiful.

Of course, it’s a brilliant idea of Dylan to make a Christmas album, because it’s the last thing anyone would have expected (and, for that reason alone, perhaps not at all surprising). But Christmas in the Heart is much more than a funny idea, a joke, or, for that matter, just a nice way to do charity. It’s obvious that he loves this stuff. And somehow, amid the croaking and the frolicking, he manages to communicate that love, at least to this listener.

And when love is communicated, what more can one ask? Have yourselves a merry Christmas! (DylanChords)

ANDY