VA - The Roots of Led Zeppelin (3 CD, 2009/FLAC)

 3-CD set featuring a collection 60 audio recordings which cover the whole spectrum from Blues to Country to Rock ‘n’ Roll and R & B. Led Zeppelin made an immediate impact with their debut in 1969 and their influence since its release has been immense, this set delves into the musical past to see who influenced them, put together chronologically so that you not only hear how the individual genres progressed but you also hear how they all cross-pollinated on their way to becoming the Rock sound of the Sixties.

Sam Cooke - The Man Who Invented Soul [4 CD , 2000/FLAC]

This set is near essential to fans of Sam Cooke, despite the fact that it contains none of his gospel recordings for Specialty Records or any of the work from the final year of his career (owned by ABKCO Records). Scattered every few minutes across this four-disc collection are reminders of just how far ahead of all existing musical forms Cooke was, creating sounds that stretched the definitions of song genres as they were understood and created completely new categories. Indeed, he was so successful that it's easy to underestimate the impact and importance of many of his early triumphs. "You Send Me," which opens this set, may seem today like the safest, tamest pop music, but in 1957 it was a genre-bending single, a new kind of R&B/pop music hybrid and one that quietly shook the foundations of the music business when it hit number one.

Disc one offers a fresh appreciation of the best of the early Keen Records sides, drawing on the best of nearly two years of singles and the strongest of Cooke's LP tracks in the best account to date of his early career in popular music. Disc two begins Cooke's RCA years, and the quality of his singles, which clearly and easily bridge the gap between genres, races, and generations, improves dramatically. The development of Cooke's writing and singing and his growing confidence and range culminate with disc four, which encompasses the Night Beat album and Cooke's live performance from the Harlem Square Club. The sound is extraordinary throughout, expansive, rich-textured, and vividly detailed; a choice earlier CD release, The Man and His Music, by comparison, sounds thin and tinny.

Spirit - Original Album Classics (5 CD, 2010/FLAC)

 

1968 Spirit

1968 The Family That Plays Together

1969 Clear

1970 Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus

1972 Feedback

Michael Bloomfield - From His Head to His Heart to His Hands (3 CD, 2014/FLAC)

 From His Head to His Heart to His Hands, the 3 CD/1 DVD anthology features released and unreleased gems from solo sessions to live performances from The Fillmore East and Fillmore West, The Bottom Line and other historic venues. This compilation also will feature a fascinating new mini-documentary combining vintage audio interviews with Bloomfield and live performances with new reflections from his friends, collaborators and admirers.

Guitarist Mike Bloomfield never fully got his due as one of the go-to sidemen of his generation or for his importance as a common thread in the patchwork of genres that changed the face of rock and roll in the 1960s and 1970s - until now. Bloomfield's incredible career will be chronicled in From His Head to His Heart to His Hands.

Journey discography [1975-2011]

 

Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco, by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the late 1970s and 1987, when it temporarily disbanded. During that period, they released a series of hit songs, including 1981's "Don't Stop Believin'", the top-selling catalog track in iTunes history; and their highest-charting U.S. hit, "Open Arms". The band enjoyed a successful reunion in the mid 1990s with a Grammy-nominated hit, "When You Love a Woman", and later regrouped with a series of lead singers.