Grateful Dead - Spring 1990 [18 CD, 2012/FLAC+320]

 

Spring 1990 is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains six complete concerts, on 18 CDs—one concert from each venue of their spring 1990 tour. It was released on August 31, 2012.

Spring 1990 was produced as a box set, with a limited edition of 9,000 individually numbered copies. The box includes a 60-page hardcover book of essays and photos, along with memorabilia such as reproductions of the tour program, ticket stubs, and backstage passes.

Speaking of the album in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Bob Weir said, "For my money, this was our hottest era. We couldn't wait to go on tour; we couldn't wait to play because it was really working for us and it was keeping us amused. We had been working together as a unit for a good length of time.... We got comfortable enough in those tunes so that we could do a little exploration, harmonically, rhythmically, whatever. We could go places with them. Everybody has to be way in tune with each other to be able to do that."

McGuinness Flint discography [1970-1996]

McGuinness Flint was a rock band formed in 1970 by Tom McGuinness, former bassist and guitarist with Manfred Mann, and Hughie Flint, former drummer with John Mayall; plus vocalist and keyboard player Dennis Coulson, and multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle. With a varying subsequent line-up, "they earned a loyal following in Britain, but in the United States they were scarcely more than a cult act, despite a top-flight line-up and a sound that should have been a natural for the era."


Their first single "When I'm Dead and Gone" reached No.2 on the UK Singles Chart at the end of 1970 (and No.47 on the Billboard pop chart and No.35 on the Cashbox pop chart in the U.S..) and the debut album McGuinness Flint also made the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. In 1999, it received another outing, in the soundtrack of the film, East is East.

A follow-up single, "Malt and Barley Blues", was a UK No.5 hit in 1971, but the group floundered under the pressures of instant success, being required to record a second album and reproduce their recorded sound adequately on stage, which resulted in disappointing concerts. Due to a series of illnesses among the band members, most of the concerts on their first tour were cancelled. According to McGuinness, at this time the band consisted of two groups of close-knit friends, the first being Flint, McGuinness, and Coulson, and the other being Gallagher and Lyle. Though these two units generally got along well, a key disagreement between them was that the first group felt the band should focus on touring and performing, while the Gallagher/Lyle camp felt they should focus on songwriting and recording.

The second album Happy Birthday Ruthy Baby failed to chart, as did the title track when released as a single, but contained some Gallagher and Lyle songs, notably "Sparrow", which attracted cover versions.

Gallagher and Lyle quit towards the end of 1971 to record as a duo, and would enjoy major success in 1976 with their hit-laden fifth album Breakaway. McGuinness Flint would continue to play some of their compositions in live performances. After several temporary members came and went, including comedian Neil Innes on piano, the group then recruited bassist Dixie Dean on a permanent basis, and recorded Lo and Behold, an album of Bob Dylan songs (which had not yet been officially recorded and released by the writer himself). This album was credited to Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint, and issued in 1972. A single "Let The People Go" was banned by the BBC as it related to the Ulster crisis, a fate which also befell a contemporary single by Wings, "Give Ireland Back to the Irish".

Coulson left to record a solo album for Elektra Records, and was replaced by Lou Stonebridge on keyboards and Jim Evans on guitar. This new line-up recorded two further albums, Rainbow (1973) and C’est La Vie (1974), but interest had evaporated, and they disbanded in 1975. A splinter group, Stonebridge McGuinness, had a minor hit in 1979 with "Oo-Eeh Baby" (No. 54 in the UK) and released the album Corporate Madness on RCA Records the following year. This group proved short-lived, however, and afterwards McGuinness and Flint both joined The Blues Band, fronted by former Manfred Mann vocalist and harmonica player, Paul Jones. Stonebridge had a stint in early 80s classic soul revival outfit The Dance Band, who recorded for the PRT-distributed Double D label.

McGuinness briefly reunited with Graham Lyle in 1983 to form the Lyle McGuinness Band, a short-lived folk rock ensemble that recorded a single, "Elise", and an album, Acting On Impulse, for the independent Cool King label; in Germany, this set was granted a major label release on Polydor. Lyle's songwriting career exploded soon afterwards with the worldwide success of his composition "What's Love Got to Do with It?" for Tina Turner, ensuring that the Lyle McGuinness Band would not continue. Diamond Recordings reissued the album on CD in 1997 as Elise, Elise, with the addition of the non-album single plus a previously unreleased song.

McGuinness continues to record and perform as a member of both The Blues Band and The Manfreds, the latter outfit being an amalgamation of 1960s Manfred Mann members that has operated since 1992.

Dennis Coulson passed away on January 15, 2006. 

McGuinness Flint.1970- McGuinness Flint

McGuinness Flint.1971- Happy Birthday, Ruthy Baby

McGuinness Flint.1972- Lo and Behold

McGuinness Flint.1973- Rainbow

McGuinness Flint.1974- C'est La Vie

McGuinness Flint.1996- The Capitol Years

Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers Band, North Mississippi All-stars - Another One for Woody - 11/22/2010 New York, NY (FLAC/320)

 Ten years after One For Woody, late bassist Allen Woody’s musical family re-assembled at New York’s Roseland Ballroom for Another One For Woody. The emotional high point of the evening came when Woody’s daughter, Savannah, came out with Gov’t Mule to sing Soulshine…

One of Woody’s closest friends and musical companions, Warren Haynes, kicked off the show with a brief acoustic set joined by Kevn Kinney and Edwin McCain. Luther and Cody Dickinson, billed as the North Mississippi Allstars Duo, followed leading the way for guest-laden sets from Gov’t Mule and the Allman Brothers Band. A singalong, instrumental take on Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here closed the show some time around 1:30AM.

 

VA - The Many Faces Of Jimi Hendrix (3 CD, 2017/FLAC)

 2017 triple CD collection celebrating the music of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. We start Disc One with Hendrix playing with Curtis Knight, a little-known Harlem artist, who had his own band, The Squires, in which Jimi played for a while. Next, we find Jimi playing with rock and roll pioneer Little Richard on the track 'I Do Not Know What You've Got But It's Got Me'. Then, we meet Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, bass player and drummer of Experience, the trio with whom Hendrix became a superstar, guided by the hand of producer and manager Chas Chandler. We can hear Mitch Mitchell playing with Bruce Cameron, a fantastic guitarist with a style very reminiscent of Hendrix. We also include in The Many Faces the band Cork, that Noel Redding created along Corky Laing (from Mountain) and with guitarist Eric Schenkman from the Spin Doctors. Before joining Band Of Gypsys as it's drummer (the brief group that Jimi set up after the dissolution of Experience) Buddy Miles had a solid career as member of Electric Flag. As a fun trivia fact we decided to include two songs performed by Betty Davis, who used to be a very close friend of Jimi (many say she was his lover). The second CD of The Many Faces consists of recording sessions prior to Jimi's rise to stardom, some alongside saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood, others with the very same Experience (a brilliant version of the song 'Red House') and also with Little Richard's band. Finally, on CD 3 we immerse ourselves in Jimi's repertoire, his fantastic songs, songs that sometimes have ended up being eclipsed by the fact that he was a guitar God. These recordings are performed by artists who in many cases have Hendrix's music as a starting point for their own career. Needless to say the versions are amazing. Now, let's just get comfortable and enjoy The Many Faces Of Jimi Hendrix.

 

Leadbelly - The Remaining Library Of Congress Recordings (5 CD, 1997/FLAC)

 

The recordings on this Leadbelly CD were originally made for the Library of Congress from July 1934 to March 1935, under the supervision of John and Alan Lomax. These sessions took place at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola while Leadbelly was still a prisoner, and also at Little Rock, Pine Bluff State Farm, Gould, Shreveport, Bellwood Prison Camp, Wilton and New York City.

The tracks that Leadbelly recorded in these sessions include many songs that he would play throughout his career. They include 2 versions of Irene and the cocaine peddler song Take A Whiff On Me. The track Boll Weavil documents the story of the insect which ravaged cotton crops in the southern states at the start of the 1900’s. Although it affected the black sharecroppers, it had an even greater impact on the prosperity of the white plantation owners. As Paul Oliver points out in “Songsters and Saints” (pp 250-251), it’s subversive nature (small, brown and inconspicuous, attacking the crop from within and virtually indestructible) gave it symbolic significance with Southern blacks (a compilation CD of including several recordings of Boll Weavil songs can be found on Document Records DOCD-5675). This Leadbelly CD also includes the track Matchbox Blues a song that Blind Lemon Jefferson, who Leadbelly dueted with on the streets of Dallas earlier on in his career, recorded for both Paramount and Okeh Records in 1927 (Documents DOCD-5017, DOCD-5018, DOCD-5019,  DOCD-5020).

The sound reproduction is, by today’s high fidelity-stereophonic standards, rather dim. A great many of these recordings were made in field settings on early, primitive portable disc-cutting equipment. This equipment along with various aluminium and acetate discs, though not of the highest quality in so far as sound is concerned, has served to preserve the many brilliant performances of Leadbelly. It is felt that Leadbelly never sounded as well anywhere else as he did when he was recording for the Library. He appears relaxed, strong, crisp and creative.