Big Joe Williams - The Original Ramblin' Bluesman, 1945-1961 (2 CD, 2019/FLAC)

Big Joe Williams was the epitome of the rambling, wandering  itinerant bluesman so romanticised in the early days of blues discovery and record collecting. He rambled across the United States from coast to coast in the 1920s and '30s.

This 2CD collection features many of his most famous recordings in the post war years.

His most famous composition was 'Baby Please Don't Go' eventually a major pop hit for Belfast's blues rockers, Them in the UK and later for Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes in America.

The really exciting attraction of this compilation is the CD debut of the 8 tracks he recorded with Chicago pianist Erwin Helfer in 1957. These 8 tracks only ever appeared on two very rare UK Eps on the Collector label.

This overview of Joe's career goes on to embrace his career in the 60s when he became a popular performer on the global blues network.

 

Foreigner – The Complete Atlantic Studio Albums 1977-1991 [7 CD, 2014/FLAC]

  

Foreigner achieved massive success on a global scale during the Seventies and Eighties thanks to a long list of hit singles and sold-out tours. Today, the group's sales exceed 80 million records, a figure that places Foreigner among the best-selling bands of all time. Their classic songs continue to resonate with fans in the modern era, having just recently received RIAA gold and platinum awards for digital sales on six of their iconic rock anthems.

Rhino celebrates the band's prolific tenure with Atlantic Records with a seven-disc collection that brings together Foreigner's first seven studio albums, as well as a number of bonus tracks.

Presented in a clamshell box, the collection retraces the group's history at Atlantic Records between 1977 and 1991 and features 80 tracks, including nine Top 10 hits. The set includes: Foreigner (1977), Double Vision (1978), Head Games (1979), 4 (1981), Agent Provocateur (1984), Inside Information (1987) and Unusual Heat (1991).

J.J.Cale discography [1971-2019]

 

John Weldon Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013), professionally known as J. J. Cale, was an American singer-songwriter, recording artist and influential guitar stylist. Though he deliberately avoided the limelight (being temperamentally averse to celebrity) his influence as a musical artist has been widely acknowledged by figures such as Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Eric Clapton who described him as “one of the most important artists in the history of rock”. He is considered to be one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz.

Many songs written by Cale have been recorded by other artists, including "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton; "Call Me the Breeze" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mayer, Johnny Cash and Bobby Bare; "Clyde" by Waylon Jennings and Dr. Hook; "I Got The Same Old Blues" by Captain Beefheart, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Freddie King; and "Magnolia" by Beck, Lucinda Williams, Iron and Wine, Jose Feliciano and Ben Bridwell.

J.J. Cale-(1971)- Naturally

J.J. Cale-(1972)- Really

J.J. Cale-(1974)- Okie

J.J. Cale-(1976)- Troubadour

J.J. Cale-(1979)- 5

J.J. Cale-(1979)- In Session At Paradise Studio

J.J. Cale-(1980)- Shades

J.J. Cale-(1982)- Grasshopper

J.J. Cale-(1983)- #8

J.J. Cale-(1989)- Travel-Log

J.J. Cale-(1992)- Number 10

J.J. Cale-(1994)- Closer To You

J.J. Cale-(1996)- Guitar Man

J.J. Cale-(1997)- The Very Best of J.J. Cale

J.J. Cale-(2001)- J.J. Cale Live

J.J. Cale-(2004)- To Tulsa and Back

J.J. Cale-(2007)- Rewind

J.J. Cale-(2009)- Roll On

J.J. Cale-(2013)- Breezin At The Cafe- The 1988 Broadcast

J.J. Cale-(2019)- Stay Around

UFO - Complete Studio Albums 1974-1986 (10 CD, 2014/FLAC)

 UFO are an English rock band that was formed in London in 1969. They became a transitional group between early hard rock and heavy metal and the new wave of British heavy metal. Over a career spanning 48 years, UFO have released 22 studio albums, 14 live recordings and 16 compilation albums. They achieved major success in the late 1970s and early 1980s with several albums and singles in the UK and US Top 40 charts, and have sold over ten million records worldwide.

1974 - Phenomenon 

1975 - Force It 

1976 - No Heavy Petting 

1977 - Lights Out

1978 - Obsession 

1980 - No Place To Run 

1981 - The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent 

1982 - Mechanix 

1983 - Making Contact 

1985 - Misdemeanor 

 

VA - When the Sun Goes Down (The Secret History of Rock 'n Roll) [4 CD, 2002/FLAC]

True to its description as "100 Pioneering Blues Classics," the 4-CD When the Sun Goes Down is a choice sample of blues and other related African-American styles from the vaults of Bluebird, one of the more productive roots labels of the past century. The "Secret History" tag is also apropos, given how many tunes here influenced or were directly copied by many of the well-known names in rock in the past 50 years. 

The chronologically organized discs -- Walk Right In,The First Time I Met the Blues, That's Chicago's South Side, and That's All Right -- capture some of the best music from the mid-Twenties until the mid-Fifties. When the Sun Goes Down might exist thanks to the success of resurgent compilations like the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, but it is equally true that current technology facilitates its existence. Modern digital surgery converts scratchy old 78s into translucent documents on prison songs, fiddle tunes, jug band jigs, country blues, urban stomps, and a cappella sermons. There are too many gems to mention. Larger-than-life artist and activist Paul Robeson evokes the very meaning of spiritual in "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Leadbelly delivers on prison cuts "Ham an' Eggs" and "Midnight Special," a tune about a Texas train that symbolized freedom to Sugarland penitentiary prisoners, Leadbelly included. Dylan favorite Blind Willie McTell does up his standard "Statesboro Blues," while Bonnie Raitt-fave Sippie Wallace supplies a definitive "I'm a Mighty Tight Woman." Then there's Big Boy Crudup's "That's All Right," made famous by Elvis. And how about country crooner Jimmie Rodgers doing "Blue Yodel #9" with Louis Armstrong on cornet? A few cuts could have been omitted, but with 100 tunes, who's complaining? And with liner notes as entertaining as the songs they describe, When the Sun Goes Down is a time capsule of African-American sonic expression, nothing less than American popular music from the last century.