蔡琴<魂萦旧梦>金片子(1碟装cd) 蔡琴

This reissue British artist Mike Cooper's two excellent albums, originally released in 1970 and 1971, respectively; his departure from folk-blues is evident on these two documents. His diversity is one of the most striking traits of his work, considering that Cooper has worked in free improvisation, avant-garde, Hawaiian guitar music, and – much later in the '90s – even drum'n'bass-inflected electronica. As a British folk-blues artist of the '60s, obvious comparisons to Bert Jansch and John Renbourn abound. Like many of his contemporaries of that movement, he progressed to a folk-rock singer/songwriter mode by 1971 and gave listeners Places I Know, which is rooted in the tradition of Tim Buckley, Jackson Browne, and Randy Newman's sophistication with the form.

It's hard to argue with this two-fer issued by the fine Beat Goes On label from Great Britain, as it pairs two of former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason's finest records on a single disc. Alone Together featured the hit "Only You Know and I Know," as well as "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave," and "Look at You, Look at Me." Headkeeper contains "Pearly Queen," his solo version of "Headkeeper," "Feelin' Alright?," and "World in Changes." What these discs most reveal is just how deep Mason's roots went into R&B, soul, and into country as well. If anything, Mason would have been right at home on a Delaney & Bonnie record as his sensibilities were closely allied with theirs. Mason was always underrated and, in America at least, under-noticed. These records are as fine as anything Eric Clapton ever issued solo. The comparison is fair because they were both digging into the same territory at the time, only Mason's delivery and understated guitar playing come off as far more emotionally honest.

Early Plague Years combines Thinking Plague's first two albums on one CD. Moonsongs was a 1986 cassette released the next year on LP by Dead Man's Curve. …A Thinking Plague was first released on LP in 1984, then on cassette in 1986. Both were long out of print and impossible to find. The remastering is fabulous, giving these albums a sound far superior to what they ever had. Due to time limitations, a few edits had to be done. "Warheads" misses four bars toward the end, the improv "Collarless Fog That One Day Soon" fades out two minutes earlier, and the percussion section on "Moonsongs" has been shortened a bit. Nothing dramatic and all seamless, but one can't help but wonder why Cuneiform put the second album first on the CD. Fans of Thinking Plague and of American avant-prog bands like the Motor Totemist Guild, U Totem, and 5uu's will be delighted, but newcomers to this style should begin with In This Life or In Extremis.

These two RCA LPs came out in '64 and '65 when Chet was at the height of his success with the label, scoring his biggest country hit (#4) with Yakety Axe . That classic joins 23 others by the late Nashville icon, including Freight Train; Winter Walkin'; Alone and Forsaken; Guitar Country ; his own versions of Johnny Cash's Understand Your Man and Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, and more!