A Sky Without Eagles

Whoa. There are many Etta James collections out there. The standard-bearers thus far have been the Chess Box and the Essential Etta James. This set attempts to do something else and goes deep into her catalog to dig out the gems from her years with Modern, Argo, Cadet, Chess, Warner Brothers, Island, and Private Music/BMG, and presents the full spectrum of her five-decade career. As such, there are many different kinds of songs here revealing the complexity of the vocalist herself, and as such, thus becomes a real portrait of the artist. Juxtapose, for instance, early sides like "The Wallflower Dance (Dance With Me Henry)," with its wild R&B bravado and the deep soul-blues of "All I Could Do Is Cry," the balladry of "The Man I Love," the bone-crushing blues of "The Sky Is Crying," and the torch song ballad technique on "My Dearest Darling," and the despairing soul inherent in songs such as "All the Way Down," and the listener begins to get an idea of just how vast and deep James talent really is. These 23 cuts give a fine and full picture of all that diversity without sacrificing a note of quality.

Los Angeles jazz, rock and blues jams are frequently heavily infused with latin percussion; Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Alvin Lee guitar licks; George Duke, Willie Dixon, Berry Oakley and James Johnson bass runs; and horns. Oh yes, the horns. Although they rarely take the lead, they act as point and counter-point. Quick blasts of power followed by torrents of blues guitar licks. When the music slows an Angeleno mestizo Eagles sound a mixture of country, blues, folk and rock - predominates. And, of course, all of it is layered in an often hypnotic blues, country or latin-tinged rhythm punctuated by lead and background vocals. That summarizes The Delgado Brothers and the contents of their September 2009 release, Learn to Fly.

A practical, no-frills clamshell box set celebrating the soft rock/folk-pop hitmakers' '70s heyday, the Warner Bros. Years 1971-1977 rounds up seven complete studio albums and one live LP. Comprised of America (1971), Homecoming (1972), Hat Trick (1973), Holiday (1974), Hearts (1975), Hideaway (1976), Harbor (1977), and America Live (1977), all of which were remastered in 2014, the collection is aimed squarely at completists…

America's debut album is a folk-pop classic, a stellar collection of memorable songs that would prove influential on such acts as the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg. Crosby, Stills & Nash are the group's obvious stylistic touchstone here, especially in the vocal harmonies used (compare the thick chordal singing of "Sandman" and "Children" to CS&N's "You Don't Have to Cry" and "Guinevere") and the prominent use of active strummed acoustic guitar arrangements (contrast "Riverside" to CS&N's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"). America's intricate interplay of acoustic guitar textures is more ambitious than that of their influences, however…

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the American rock band Journey, originally released in 1988 by Columbia Records.It is the band's best-selling career disc, spending 330 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart (more than any other compilation album, except for Bob Marley's 'Legend' disc, in history). Additionally, as of late 2014, it has logged nearly 1,000 weeks on Billboard's Catalog albums chart.(As of December, 2008, it was reported to have been the sixth highest certified 'greatest hits' package in the United States according to the RIAA, behind only similar collections by The Eagles, Billy Joel, Elton John, and The Beatles' red and blue compilations.)It continues to be one of the most popular 'best of' packages, at times selling close to 500,000 copies globally per year. The album has been reissued several times and was digitally remastered for compact disc by Legacy Recordings, issued on August 1, 2006, with a bonus track. In Japan, the album has been reissued as Open Arms: Greatest Hits with the song "Open Arms" appearing as the first song on the album. A second Journey compilation album, Greatest Hits 2, was released in 2011.