Better The Band Perry

Released back when there was always two sides to every audio story (i.e., side one and side two), Giuffria's second offering houses an interesting concept: polarizing the huffy from the heavy. This is hardly a revolutionary idea, as such was the common format of most AOR at the time, and perhaps for the sake of balance some silk slips into the steel and vice versa, so the record ultimately ends up heavy on the light. The titular titan's bombastic keyboards float like angel feathers amongst David Glen Eisley's lung-busting vocals (Eisley even scats with axeman Lanny Cordola right out of the gate on "No Escape")…

This mid-'90s Tull studio album has its good moments, mostly shadows of earlier work. All of the songs here have more of a mood of urgency than some of Tull's then-recent albums..

Derek St. Holmes is best known as being the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent. Derek’s voice is heard on some of Ted’s biggest hits, including “Stranglehold.” Brad Whitford is the ‘other’ guitar player in Aerosmith, often hidden in the shadow of the more visually iconic Joe Perry…

Fourth album, same as the first. Ever since he successfully reinvented himself as a lazy lounge singer in 2002 with It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook, Rod Stewart has been reliable as clockwork, releasing a collection of classic pop standards – predictable choices performed predictably – every second or third week of October…

Yes indeed, the Divine Miss Em has still got it. It was the late 1970s when Emma Kirkby first became the leading diva of the early-music revival. More than 20 years on, as this disc of mostly lesser-known Handel treats demonstrates–a follow-up to volume I–Kirkby remains a spectacular Handel singer. The pure tone, control over vibrato, astonishing agility, and immaculate delivery that made her world famous are all still in place; if anything, two decades of experience have made her even more brave and imaginative in the way she embellishes a da capo aria. It must be said that Kirkby also retains a somewhat restricted palette of vocal color. As Ted Perry of Hyperion Records has put it, "She sounds like a nice person, and she is."

The beauty of long musical relationships can be the culmination of many things. The familial bond that is created from sharing and living together, the influence of bandmates on one another and welcome surprises can keep these bonds fresh and enervating. Pianist Anat Fort and her trio mates have been making music together for twenty years and continue to grow and share in new ways, as is evinced on their new recording, Colour.

Known to fans as "Captain Fingers" for his uncommon dexterity on the guitar, Lee Ritenour is a noted jazz artist and session musician who has been one of the leaders in his field since the early '70s. Born in Los Angeles, California on January 11, 1952, Ritenour took up the guitar when he was eight years old, and decided to make music his career when he was 12. Ritenour's parents were supportive of his ambitions, and arranged for him to study with some of the best guitar teachers in Southern California.

James Christian released his first solo album back in 1994 and is known for his participation in the band House of Lords who were newly re-united and released a new CD in 2004.