Kokomo Arnold - Complete Recorded Works (4 CD, 1991/FLAC)

James "Kokomo" Arnold (February 15, 1896 or 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense style of playing and rapid-fire vocal delivery set him apart from his contemporaries. He got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for Decca Records, a cover version of Scrapper Blackwell's blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana.

Joe Walsh solo discography [1972-2014]

  

Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B. King.

Elvis Presley - Young Man with the Big Beat: The Complete '56 Elvis Presley Masters (4 CD, 1996/FLAC)

 

In 1996, RCA released Elvis 56, a single-disc compilation of 21 masters and one alternate take Presley recorded during 1956, the year he became a phenomenon. Fifteen years later, RCA/Legacy bested that set with Young Man with the Beat: The Complete ’56 Elvis Presley Masters, a deluxe five-disc box encompassing two discs of studio recordings, a disc of live recordings, a disc of outtakes, and a disc of interviews. Arriving just a few years after quintuple-disc box The King of Rock & Roll: The Complete ‘50s Masters, the 1996 disc almost seemed unnecessary, as it covered the same ground only not as thoroughly, and Young Man with the Big Beat doesn’t quite escape that criticism, either, as it appears just a year after the gargantuan Complete Elvis Presley Masters box, but the intent of the two boxes is wildly different.

The Kinks – The Kinks In Mono [10 CD, 2011] [FLAC]

 

UK-only 10 CD box set from the British Rock legends. This box includes The Kinks' first seven LPs (The Kinks, Kinda Kinks, Kontroversy, Face To Face, Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur ) as well as three extra CD's collecting the EP's and remaining Mono material plus a 32 page, pop annual style book with new notes, rare photos, memorabilia, discographical information and more. The EP disc contains Kinksize Session, Kinksize Hits, Kweyt Kinks, and Dedicated Kinks while the final two discs contain various singles from around the world. Each CD is housed in a digipak, encased in a rigid Dansette style box to hold all the digipaks and book.

 

VA - American Roots Music [4 CD, 2001]

 

The successes of the breakthrough soundtrack from the film O Brother Where Art Thou? and the in-depth PBS television series Ken Burns' Jazz seem to have combined in the 2001 production of Palm Pictures' four-part TV series American Roots Music. The series touches on the development of the distinctly American styles of traditional folk, country, blues, gospel, Western swing, bluegrass, cajun, zydeco, Tejano, and Native American music. Corresponding with the television event, Palm has released a four-CD box set soundtrack with a 48-page booklet covering the styles covered during the show. Much like a broadened version of the amazing Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom, 1950-1970 CD set, American Roots Music has pulled together an impressive list of performers, including the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe, B.B. King, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson, Son House, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, the Staple Singers, Clifton Chenier, Flaco Jimenez, and Bob Dylan. The depth of the track selection is impressive, as is the breadth of the performers chosen. The producers have chosen to include some studio recordings, and some audio tracks taken from the film archives, making for a somewhat uneven sound quality. While the previously unreleased nature of these select tracks will appeal to collectors and die-hard fans, those just exploring these styles might be turned off by the rough quality of these performances. The discs span more than eight decades of music, acting as a good overview of these genres for new listeners, while Americana enthusiasts will view it as another great collection of the most influential American roots artists in music history.