Boats of The Year From 2016

Three CDs. With an Americana music pedigree born of their Appalachia roots, The Everly Brothers ably crossed over from the pop charts to the country music charts during their hit-making heyday. During the mid sixties however they suffered a lean spell for commercial success all the while trying to update their sound. RPM focusses on the following period from November 1966 - November 1968 when the Everlys recorded mostly in Los Angeles rather than Nashville with the duo searching for a musical direction. Disc One presents the The Hit Sound album, recorded from December 1966 onwards, with contemporary rock 'n' roll and pop covered in Everlys harmony style updated with the cream of the LA session crew including Glen Campbell, Larry Knechtel, Ray Pohlman, Hal Blaine. Includes bonus tracks. Disc Two presents the Sing album, the Everlys and their label Warner's response to the prevailing 'youthquake' band sound straddling the transatlantic. On the album are songs by The Buckinghams, Patrick Campbell Lyons, Procul Harum. Includes bonus tracks. Disc Three presents the Roots album, pieced together from the LA sessions at studios like Goldstar, conducted by Lenny Waronker during April-September 1968, again with the Wrecking Crew aided by Van Dyke Parks and James Burton. The Everlys took the chance to pay homage to their country roots with songs by contemporary country writers Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, George Jones as well as more from their own pen. In addition, amongst the bonus tracks here, from the November 1968 sessions held after Roots, are Neil Young's 'Mr. Soul' and Dolly Parton's 'In The Good Old Days'. Waronker had produced Newman in pre-Harpers Bizarre band The Tikis, and with Van Dyke Parkes the subsequent solo album by Newman.

I’m so pleased to be reviewing this CD on International Women’s Day, as it’s an excellent example of what women can achieve with music. I was concerned when I read on the publicity sheet that the album was ‘for and to the sentient beings of our planet’, which sounded a bit pompous to my ears, but there is nothing pompous at all about the CD, which gives us fine jazz-influenced music and lyrics with an original, quirky and sometimes moving twist. For example, there are 2 songs about contemporary concerns: Dear Humans deals with climate change and the earth is speaking to us: ‘I’m as old as the hills/ and forever your mother/but your way of living kills/You need me, sisters and brothers/It seems that you don’t bother."

The very first submarine, which legend claims lurked beneath New York Harbor during the American Revolutionary War. The small ships that rescued thousands from Dunkirk. The destroyer that forced the easing of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Over the centuries, conflicts have prompted advances to ship designs, making vessels stronger, faster, smarter, and capable of changing the course of wars. Join us as we examine the world's greatest Combat Ships, and reveal how they shaped world history and inspired men and women to acts of incredible courage.

Yusuf/Cat Stevens celebrates 1971's landmark album with this extensive Super Deluxe 4CD/Blu-ray Box Set. It includes the 50th Anniversary remaster of the original album on CD and Blu-ray HD Audio completed at Abbey Road Studios and overseen by the original album producer, Paul Samwell-Smith. Also included are 41 previously unreleased demos, sessions, and live tracks, plus 21 previously unreleased TV performances, and an illustrated 108-page softcover essay book.

New Remastered 3cd Clamshell Boxed Set Featuring All The Recordings By Progressive Rock Band Hard Meat. In the late 1960s with the first flowering of the progressive rock and heavy rock movements, bands of both disciplines - and many straddling the two - began sprouting like mushrooms, some flourishing for decades and others a mere fleeting presence in rock's back pages. One of the latter examples were the excellent Hard Meat, a progressive rock trio who recorded an unissued album intended for release on Island Records in 1969 and released two albums in 1970 for Warner Brothers. Featuring brothers Mick Dolan (guitars, vocals), Steve Dolan (bass, vocals) and Mick Carless (drums), Hard Meat came together in late 1968 and came to the attention of producer Sandy Roberton who in turn brought the band to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records.