VA - Time Life - Solid Gold Soul (1965-1980s) (14 CD, 1996-2000)

 

While the Rhythm & Blues series and the Solid Gold Soul series were not identical, they had a huge overlap, so are covered here together. Essentially, the Solid Gold Soul series was a reissue of the earlier Rhythm & Blues series with much more colorful artwork. Although there were CDs in each series that were not in the other, a vast majority of the CDs in Solid Gold Soul were exact reissues of the earlier Rhythm & Blues series.

The Rhythm and Blues series was a late 1980s-early 1990s subscription offering that concentrated on music from the R&B or soul charts. The series was successful, and eventually reached 24 volumes plus a budget 2-CD compilation, covering the early 1950s to the mid-1970s.

Starting around 1996, the volumes of the Rhythm and Blues series by year were reissued as the Solid Gold Soul series, with completely different artwork, even though the CDs inside were trackwise and sonically identical to the corresponding volume in the earlier Rhythm and Blues series. The new series used the R838- prefix instead of the old RHD- prefix. The Solid Gold Soul series did not include all the volumes in the Rhythm and Blues series, and later issued new volumes that weren't included with the older series, eventually reaching 31 volumes plus a budget box set and a special edition CD. In the late 1990s, Time-Life was selling both series side by side. 

 

 

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Complete Recorded Works 1935 - 1943 [2 CD]

 

Cripple Clarence Lofton (March 28, 1887 - January 9, 1957), born Albert Clemens in Kingsport, Tennessee, was a noted boogie-woogie pianist and singer.

Though Lofton was born with a limp (from which he derived his stage name), he actually started his career as a tap-dancer. Lofton moved on from tap-dancing into the blues idiom known as boogie-woogie and moved on to perform in Chicago, Illinois.

With his distinctive performance style, Lofton found himself a mainstay in his genre: His first recording was in April 1935 for Vocalion Records with guitar accompaniment from Big Bill Broonzy. He later went on to own the Big Apple nightclub in Chicago and continued to record well into the late 1940s, when he retired.  Lofton lived in Chicago until he died from a blood clot in his brain in Cook County Hospital in 1957.

Lofton was an integral part of the boogie-woogie genre in Chicago. Some of his more popular songs include: "Strut That Thing", "Monkey Man Blues", "I Don't Know" and "Pitchin' Boogie". His talent was likened to that of Pinetop Smith and other prominent boogie-woogie artists including: Meade Lux Lewis, Cow Cow Davenport and Jimmy Yancey.

 

 

Bob Weir discography [1972-2016]

 

Bob Weir (born Robert Hall Weir, October 16, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, RatDog, and his newest band Furthur, co-led by former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.

During his career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang most of the band's rock-n-roll tunes (Jerry Garcia sang The Dead's more melodic tunes). He is known for his unique style of complex voiceleading, bringing unusual depth and a new approach to the role of rhythm guitar expression.

 

Bob Weir - Ace [1972]

Bob Weir - Blue Mountain [2016]

Bob Weir - Weir Here, The Best Of Bob Weir [2004] (2 CD)

Bobby & The Midnites - Bobby & The Midnites [1981]

Bobby & The Midnites - Where The Beat Meets The Street [1984]

Kingfish - King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Kingfish [1995] (2 CD)

Kingfish - Kingfish [1976]

Ratdog - Evening Moods [2000]

Marmalade - Fine Cuts: The Best Of Marmalade (2 CD, 2011/FLAC)

 Marmalade was a Scottish pop rock group from the east end of Glasgow, originally formed in 1961 as the Gaylords, and then later billed as Dean Ford and the Gaylords. In 1966 they changed the group name to the Marmalade. The most successful period for the band, in terms of UK chart success, was between 1968 and 1972. From the early 1970s, after the original players began to drift away, the band evolved with many further changes and still exists to this day touring the nostalgia circuit, although with the departure of Graham Knight in September 2010, there are now no original Marmalade members remaining in the band.

Fine Cuts: Best Of  was released Sep 13, 2011 on the Salvo label. .2011 two CD compilation from the Scottish popsters who scored hits in the late '60s and '70s. Includes the UK number one smash hit 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da' and the major US hit 'Reflections Of My Life' and many more.

 

 

VA - Never Ever Land (83 Texan Nuggets From International Artists Records 1965-1970) [3 CD, 2008/FLAC]

 

It's not unusual for a small independent record company to be defined by its first major success, and that was certainly the case for the maverick Texas label International Artists. IA began life in 1965 as a fairly ordinary regional outfit releasing pop/rock stuff, but when they scored a nationwide hit with the 13th Floor Elevators' proto-psychedelic anthem "You're Gonna Miss Me," the label's de facto A&R chief, Lelan Rogers, dove headfirst into Texas acid culture and IA became a home for consciousness-expanded acts such as the Golden Dawn, the Bubble Puppy, Endle St. Cloud, and the truly crazed Red Crayola. 

Never Ever Land is a three-CD set designed to give a reasonably comprehensive picture of International Artists' strange and memorable five-year lifespan. Disc one is focused on Texas garage rock, and features some of the fuzzier and more straightforward material from the 13th Floor Elevators, the Red Crayola, and the Golden Dawn alongside lesser-known teen rock acts such as the Beach Boys-influenced Coastliners and the frantic Chayns. Disc two is devoted to IA's psychedelic acts, though since several already popped up on disc one the distinction may seem vague to some; at any rate, while most of this music isn't as eccentric as AI's reputation would suggest, this is still a solid set of acid-influenced rock, ranging from the tight hard rock of the Bubble Puppy and the earnest folk-rock of the Rubayyat to the country-flavored sounds of Ginger Valley and the brilliantly "huh?"-inducing sides from the Red Crayola. Finally, the third disc rounds up various odd and ends, from the sublime (two superb acoustic tracks from Roky Erickson with Clementine Hall) and the worthy (a couple selections from Lightnin' Hopkins' IA set Free Form Patterns) to the ridiculous (Sonny Hall's dunderheaded country novelty "The Battle of the Moon"). The set is accompanied by a thick booklet featuring a short history of the label, an entertaining interview with Lelan Rogers, and an AI discography. Never Ever Land reveals the dirty little secret that much of International Artists' output wasn't as bizarre as their most famous releases would lead you to expect, but the first two discs serve as an excellent overview of the heady era when teenage rock gave way to something more adventurous, and the third delivers some superb moments while filling in the gaps in the IA story; it's a loving tribute to a label whose existence was in many respects a brave leap into the musical unknown.