Amazing Rhythm Aces

Fred James & Mary-Ann Brandon are the real deal. If you like southern roots Americana and blue eyed soul music, you’ll love the sound these two journeyman performers conjure up. Their new CD release on SPV Records showcases their exceptional song-writing and musicianship. Their harmony blend is all their own but harkens back to the classic duet sounds of Delaney & Bonnie, Billy Vera & Judy Clay and Bonnie Raitt & Delbert McClinton. It’s a sound that is timeless. This record has wound up being a loose chronicle of their life together. It's a love story with all its twists and turns. Their life together has not always been easy. They have lived, loved, fought and played with passion. For this album they went back to record some of the music from the early days and dug into their country and R&B roots to bring you a southern stew pot of blue eyed soul. This is, in fact, a record that has been a quarter of a century in the making.

Versions of two dozen of the finest compositions from one of Muscle Shoals’ most admired singer/songwriter/musicians of the 60s and 70s.

This Time Life Singers & Songwriters collection highlights several classic singles released between 1974 and 1975. Among the 24 tracks are the original versions of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John, "Miracles" by Jefferson Starship, and "Sunshine on My Shoulders" by John Denver, in addition to strong tracks by Carly Simon, Harry Chapin, James Taylor, and Jim Croce. This enjoyable sampler will please any die-hard soft rock fan.

Jesse Winchester - Learn To Love It (1974) {Wounded Bird Records WOU 6953 rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 196 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 73 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 17 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1974, 2006 Bearsville Records / Wounded Bird Records | WOU 6953
Rock / Folk Rock / Folk / World / Country

As the title suggests, making a virtue of necessity had always been one of Jesse Winchester's goals, and by the time of the release of his third album, the American expatriate had gone ahead and assumed Canadian citizenship. This seemed to free him to comment explicitly on his antiwar exile in "Pharaoh's Army" and especially a version of the old campaign song "Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt" updated with new lyrics: "In the year of 1967, as a somewhat younger man, the call to bloody glory came, and I would not raise my hand."

"National Working Woman's Holiday" was a perfect example of Kershaw's strengths and weaknesses: few people, if any, had sung about the psychological toll the economic reality of the two-income family took on Southern men whose mothers had probably stayed at home to raise them. Unfortunately, Kershaw addresses it with a song whose chorus sounds like it belongs on a T-shirt. He still sounds too much like Jones to be a great singer, but he gets in a couple of strong ballads with "If You Every Come This Way Again" and "Southbound." It also contains a cover of The Amazing Rhythm Aces' 1975 hit "Third Rate Romance."