The Who - Maximum As & Bs: The Complete Singles (5 CD, 2017/FLAC)

 Having issued the four seven-inch vinyl single boxes during 2015/6, Universal Music effectively present all those A and B sides (and EP tracks) on CD with a new The Who box set: Maximum As & Bs: The Complete Singles.

This five-disc, 86-track collection from the Brunswick, Reaction, Track and Polydor labels of course includes all and every hit, along with all the B-sides, many on CD for the first time.

The CDs come in separate wallets, and are housed in the familiar lift-off-lid style box that Universal use regularly. It also comes with a 48-page booklet, with track-by-track annotation by “acclaimed Who writers” and the usual selection of period photos and images of memorabilia.

 

 

VA- Time Life : The Rolling Stone Collection - 25 Years of Essential Rock [7 CD, 1993]

 

 

The Rolling Stone Collection : 25 Years of Essential Rock

 

 

Earl Van Dyke - The Motown Sound: The Complete Albums & More (2 CD, 2012/FLAC)

 2012 two CD collection devoted to the works of Motown session keyboardist (and Funk Brother extraordinaire) Earl Van Dyke. Originally, some of the Hitsville studio musicians would be ''allowed'' to cut soulful Blues and Jazz tracks for the company's Workshop Jazz label, as long as they handled the regular gig, cutting hits on the Hitsville U.S.A. assembly line. By 1964, however, Workshop Jazz was dead. Motown made good on their promise, somewhat, giving Earl Van Dyke a rare opportunity in the spotlight by issuing in his name a single and a subsequent LP, That Motown Sound. Earl's artistic disappointment belies the gems contained within those vocal-less Motown hits and the additional bonus tracks from Motown's vaults that comprise Disc One of this set. Additional previously unheard nuggets can be found amongst the bonus tracks on Disc Two. 

 

 

Lead Belly - Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 1-3 (3 CD, 1996-1998/FLAC)

 

The bulk of the best performances by Leadbelly -- whose influence on the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s cannot be overstated -- were recorded during the '40s for Folkways Records founder Moses Asch. Inferior copies and re-recordings of these tunes have appeared over the years, but the original masters have sat in the vaults of Folkways. The three-volume Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Lead Belly Legacy collection shows what we've been missing: the compilers dug out the best available versions of Leadbelly's finest songs and carefully transferred them from the original acetate masters. As the liner notes promise, "these recordings can again be heard the way they sounded in the early 1940s, for in the original masters you can still hear the ringing of the guitar and thumping of the bass." This 34-song first volume is a must for anyone interested in the roots of American folk. It opens with "Irene," which (as "Goodnight Irene") became a national hit for the Weavers less than a year after Leadbelly died on welfare; it includes many more of his most-famous tunes, among them "Rock Island Line," "Cotton Fields," and "Good Morning Blues."

 

 

Al Basile discography [1999-2021]

Al Basile grew up in a park in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1966, and in 1970 he was the first to receive a Master’s Degree from the Brown University Writing Program. He began his musical career as a cornet player with Roomful of Blues in 1973, and has worked with the Duke Robillard Band as a songwriter and recording member since 1990, appearing on twelve CDs and a DVD; his songs have been used in films and television and covered by such artists as Ruth Brown. He has nine solo blues and roots CDs out under his own name, the last four having reached the top 15 on the Living Blues airplay charts in their year of release. They have all been produced by Robillard and feature his guitar playing and many former Roomful members: guest artists have included the Blind Boys of Alabama and jazz great Scott Hamilton. He has been nominated twice, in 2010 and 2012, for a Blues Music Award as best horn player. While hundreds of his songs have been published since the Sixties, his poetry and fiction has begun to be published in recent years. He taught full time at the Providence Country Day School in East Providence, RI from 1980-2005 and since then has concentrated on his writing, performing, and recording.

 

1999 - Down On Providence Plantation

2001 - Shaking The Soul Tree

2003 - Red Breath

2004 - Blue Ink

2006 - Groovin' In The Mood Room

2008 - The Tinge

2009 - Soul Blue 7

2010 - The Goods

2012 - At Home Next Door (2 CD)

2014 - Woke Up In Memphis

2015 - B's Expression

2016 - Mid-Century Modern

2017 - Quiet Money

2018 - Me & The Originator

2019 - B's Hot House

2020 - Last Hand

2021 - B's Testimony