Bbobby Rush Rawer Than Raw

Taking listeners on a journey through Rush's seminal, prog-heavy early period, Sector 1 is the first in a series of three box sets released by the band in 2011. Collecting the band's first five albums, Rush, Fly by Night, Caress of Steel, 2112, and the live album All the World’s a Stage, the set shows Rush finding their feet artistically as they grow from a Led Zeppelin-inspired blues-rock band on their debut to the wildly ambitious band that released 2112, an album with a 20-minute title track…

Feature-length documentary about the band + full-length, never-before-seen performances of: "Best I Can" and "Working Man" (with John Rutsey, performed live at Laura Secord SS, Spring 1974), "La Villa Strangiato" (live at Pinkpop 1979), "Between Sun And Moon" (recorded at Hartford, CT, June 28th 2002), "Far Cry" and "Entre Nous" from the Snakes & Arrows tour and "Bravado" and "YYZ" from the R30 tour.

On 1977's A Farewell to Kings it quickly becomes apparent that Rush had improved their songwriting and strengthened their focus and musical approach. Synthesizers also mark their first prominent appearance on a Rush album, a direction the band would continue to pursue on future releases…

Rush is a Canadian rock band composed of Geddy Lee (bass, lead vocals, keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitars, backing vocals) and Neil Peart (drums, percussion, lyrics). Forming in 1968, the band went through several configurations until arriving at its current line-up when Peart replaced original drummer John Rutsey in July 1974, two weeks before the group's first United States tour…

Digital (Web) version contains one bonus track A Passage to Bangkok (Live in Manchester). To celebrate 40 years of Permanent Waves, Rush has reissued their iconic studio album as a super deluxe edition box set containing 3 LPs, 2 CDs, and several fan collectibles. These live tracks come from three stops on the Permanent Waves World Tour 1980: Manchester Apollo, Manchester, England; Hammersmith Odeon, London, England; and Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri. Permanent Waves is the band’s first of many iconic visits to Le Studio recording studio in Morin Heights, Quebec which has been nicknamed Rush’s Abbey Road Studios.

Neatly chopping up the band’s career into three segments, Rush’s Sector series of box sets breaks the Canadian prog rockers' early musical legacy into easy-to-digest morsels. On Sector 2, we find the band transitioning from its early developmental period into mainstream success with the albums A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, and the live album Exit…Stage Left…

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Rush's eponymous debut album. This deluxe collector's box set brings together live performances by Rush from each decade of their career. It includes 'Rush in Rio,' 'R30,' 'Snakes & Arrows Live,' 'Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland,' and 'Clockwork Angels Tour,' plus a spectacular bonus disc of previously unseen and unreleased live material stretching from 1974 to 2013…

Bobby Rush got dirty on 2013's Down in Louisiana but with 2014's Decisions, he returns to his slick blues-funk ways, but this doesn't mean it's a rote affair by any means. He has teamed up with the band Blinddog Smokin' and, for the first time in his career, recorded with fellow Louisiana legend Dr. John. Mac Rebennack shows up on the opening "Another Murder in New Orleans," a deeply soulful and searching portrait of the violence that often plagues the Big Easy but, really, that's the only instance when good times aren't on Rush's mind. He leers about being a "Funky Old Man" and winks about what happens on "Bobby Rush's Bus," two songs that set the pace and attitude for much of the rest of Decisions.

Although Albert King is pictured on the front cover and has the lion's share of tracks on this excellent compilation, six of the fourteen tracks come from Rush's shortlived tenure with the label and are some of his very best. Chronologically, these are his next recordings after the Cobra sides and they carry a lot of the emotional wallop of those tracks, albeit with much loftier production values with much of it recorded in early stereo. Oddly enough, some of the material ("All Your Love," "I'm Satisfied [Keep on Loving Me Baby]") were remakes – albeit great ones – of tunes that Cobra had already released as singles! But Rush's performance of "So Many Roads" (featuring one of the greatest slow blues guitar solos of all time) should not be missed at any cost.