Beauty On a Back Street

UK four CD set. The story of Back Street Crawler is a sadly short one, but also a tale of what might have been. After forming in 1968, the British blues rock legends Free finally called it a day after 1972's "Heartbreaker", just as the band was on the verge of cracking America. Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's first move was to record his solo album Back Street Crawler for Island Records in 1973. Joining forces with Terry Wilson (bass), Mike Montgomery (keyboards) and Tony Braunagel (drums), who had played together in Bloontzfrom, plus singer Terry Wilson-Slesser, Kossoff's Back Street Crawler solo record gave the new band their name, who were then signed by Ahmet Ertegun to Atlantic Records. Disc One features the 1975 album The Band Plays On. Disc Two contains the album 2nd Street (1976). Disc Three is Live At Fairfield Hall, Croydon (1975). Disc Four features Paul Kossoff's final live performance (Live At The Starwood Club, Los Angeles: March 3rd, 1976) plus four previously unreleased outtakes.

This collaborative effort between Queen Esther, Charlie Burnham, Mark Peterson, Aubrey Dayle and guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer reflects a singular, down-home vision of the blues and backwoods roots music. Blues & Grass is less about jamming and instrumentalists and more about chant and incantation, about old-time spirituals and story-telling.

This collaborative effort between Queen Esther, Charlie Burnham, Mark Peterson, Aubrey Dayle and guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer reflects a singular, down-home vision of the blues and backwoods roots music. Blues & Grass is less about jamming and instrumentalists and more about chant and incantation, about old-time spirituals and story-telling.

Beauty & Crime is the seventh studio album by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It is her first album of new material since 2001's Songs in Red and Gray and her first for Blue Note Records. It was released on July 17, 2007. Beauty & Crime won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, on February 11, 2008. On Beauty & Crime, Suzanne Vega's Blue Note Records debut, the Manhattan native uses New York City as the backdrop for a collection of eleven new songs that juxtapose acoustic guitar-driven melodies with coolly synthesized beats; intensely personal lyrics with compelling, short story-like narratives; images of today's scarred cityscape with memories of Vega's old Upper West Side 'hood and Lower East Side haunts. The past commingles with the present, the public with the private, familiar sounds with the utterly new, just like the city itself. Making her first new studio album in six years, Vega says, "I feel like I really stretched my limits. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone–to sing in keys I wouldn't have sung in before, to work with different textures, to be unafraid of doing what ever sounded good to me. I wanted to make a modern classic."

Winner of the Best Book Award in the PETA Vegan Food Awards 2016.