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After 'The Riddle of Santa Catherina' and 'The Riddle of Isla de Pascua', Avatar is back with the next 'Riddle' album. This time, we pass over Sodom and the Dead Sea and head 45 degrees east, to the midst of the desert to a remote location, north of Aqaba, into the heart of the Nabataean kingdom. The lost city of Petra. A city carved into living rock, known to many as the 'Red Rock'. The stunning story of Petra takes us almost 2000 years back in time, to this lost and forgotten city, considered as a myth by the western world. It was accidentally rediscovered in 1812. 'The Riddle of Petra' includes 11 new and unreleased tracks from Avatar's artists, as well as new and promising names.

Muddy Waters had his second coming 30 years ago, when longtime friend and disciple Johnny Winter and his Blue Sky label returned him–after a series of listless recordings aimed at the rock audience–to the raw, powerful authenticity of his timeless Chess material with a series of powerful albums. Beginning with 1977's acclaimed Hard Again, a subsequent tour produced Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live, recorded onstage in Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia with Muddy's band, Winter, and harmonica player/vocalist James Cotton. Enough live material remained for Legacy to release an expanded version with an entire second disc of unissued concert material. It seems even that wasn't the end. This collection returns again to those remarkable concerts, featuring Muddy on five tracks, among them a rousing "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Trouble No More," "Caldonia," and the closing "Got My Mojo Workin'." Winter and Cotton are no less powerful, Cotton redoing Jackie Brenston's hit "Rocket '88'" and Winter ripping up John Lee Hooker's "I Done Got Over It" and "Mama Talk to Your Daughter."

Reuniting with Rick Rubin, the brothers explore the beauty of heartbreak. Gorgeous acoustic ballads like “I Wish I Was” and “Fisher Road to Hollywood” are wrought with emotion, while the crunchy distortion of “Satan Pulls the String” and stomping beat of “Ain’t No Man” are celebratory anthems of survival and rebellion. Yet, the most memorable moments on True Sadness—like “Mama, I Don’t Believe” and “No Hard Feelings”—are somewhere between the highs and lows, when the Avetts channel Tom Petty’s bittersweet, Wildflowers-era Americana.

The Pecan Tree is a collection of 11 compositions from master pianist/composer Joe Sample that were inspired by his Southeast Texas roots and influences. As a founding member of the pioneering quartet the Jazz Crusaders and as a solo artist, the pianist has created an impressive musical style based upon his early appreciation for jazz, gospel, soul, bebop, blues, Latin, and classical music. The Pecan Tree features many of those musical genres performed with such special guests as Lenny Castro and Paulinho da Costa on percussion, renowned R&B vocalist Howard Hewett, and newcomer Lizz Wright. Sample's Quintet kicks off the set with the title track, a Latin-tinged mid-tempo instrumental that features Sample's beautiful melodicism in harmony with the percussive mastery of Lenny Castro. The ensemble brings their creativity ingenuity to "Hot and Humid," a sweltering musical story of the region's weather condition.

The 12-song album is at times haunting, driven, determined, lonely, angry, and poignant with a delicious element that can only be described as an awakening, a celebration of the female spirit that will touch and intrigue you.