Capo Plaza Richard Mille (feat. Lil Tjay)

On his 1994 debut album, Bloomed, Richard Buckner built a memorable song around the line "This is where things start goin' bad," but Buckner made that notion the overriding theme of his second full-length release, 1997's Devotion + Doubt. Written and recorded in the wake of the collapse of Buckner's first marriage, Devotion + Doubt abandons the largely acoustic, string band-influenced approach of Bloomed in favor of a stark, dusty sound that suggests a sleepless night in a motel room in the Arizona desert. J.D. Foster's production and the accompaniment from Calexico founders Joey Burns and John Convertino is often as spare as a whisper in the dark, but the production is a perfect match for the deep insinuations of Buckner's textured voice and the artful, impressionistic heartache of the lyrics, and this is a significantly more ambitious and accomplished effort than Bloomed, as fine as that album was.

Part of the ultimate audiophile Prestige stereo reissues from Analogue Productions - 25 of the most collectible, rarest, most audiophile-sounding Rudy Van Gelder recordings ever made. All cut at 33 1/3 and also released on Hybrid SACD. All mastered from the original analog master tapes by mastering maestro Kevin Gray.

Richard Ashcroft presents his new album Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1. The album features twelve newly recorded acoustic versions of classic songs from his back catalogue spanning both his solo career and his time with The Verve.

Wild, raw, rough-edged Chicago slide guitar blues, this is jumpin', partyin' music in the tradition of Hound Dog Taylor and J.B. Hutto (Lil' Ed's uncle). Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, it includes nine original compositions plus covers of Hutto and Albert Collins tunes.

Slide guitarist Lil' Ed Williams & the Blues Imperials bring the energy of live performance to their seventh Alligator release, Full Tilt. The highlights on this disc tend to reflect that of the album's title, especially the spirited cover versions of the Contours' "First I Look at the Purse" and Hound Dog Taylor's "Take Five," along with the originals "Hold That Train," "Candy Sweet," and "My Baby Moves Me." Lil' Ed's raucous guitar chops are at center stage on those tracks and the additional backing from horn players Eddie McKinley and David Basinger and pianist/organist Johnny Iguana add some extra kick. There are a few lukewarm tracks that are a bit too rote and, unfortunately, bring down the overall good-time party appeal of this disc. Still, fans of Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, or electric modern blues in general, will want to add this to their collections.