Caravan World August 2020

Never underestimate the power of a woman with her back to the wall. In March 2020, as Covid blew across the planet, the shutters came down on live venues and recording studios, and the music scene fell suddenly silent, Ghalia Volt faced the same dilemma as every other artist. What now? The answer was One Woman Band. Having joined with the cream of the US roots scene for two acclaimed albums, 2017s Let The Demons Out and 2019s Mississppi Blend, Volts rebirth as a solo performer wasnt a decision made lightly.

New 4cd remastered clamshell various artists boxed set celebrating the finest musical sounds of so-called progressive rock music of 1974. five hours of music featuring tracks by kevin ayers, barclay james harvest, be bop deluxe, jack bruce, budgie, camel, caravan, gong, greenslade, peter hammill, hatfield and the north, hawkwind, jethro tull, man, nektar, pfm, procol harum, nektar, renaissance, todd rundgren’s utopia, stackridge, strawbs, traffic, robin trower, darryl way’s wolf and many more. includes an illustrated booklet with essay by mark powell. Reviews and features in national newspapers, uncut, mojo, record collector and prog magazines plus coverage on relevant websites and fanzines. The next release in their series of compilations celebrating so-called “Progressive” rock music – ‘Round and Round – Progressive Sounds Of 1974’, is a 4CD clamshell box set which gathers together over five hours of music from 1974, another year in which would continue to see Progressive music in all its forms continue to develop and retain its presence as a dominating force with the album buying public.

Chester & Lester is a collaborative album by guitarists Chet Atkins and Les Paul released in 1976. It was recorded in the mid-1970s when Chet was in his fifties and Les in his sixties. Chet coaxed Les out of his decade-long retirement for this recording. The liner notes state there is very little overdubbing and the majority of the album was live in the studio. Chester & Lester peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's Country album chart and No. 172 on the Pop album chart. It peaked at No. 27 on the Country chart again in 1978. At the Grammy Awards of 1976, Chester & Lester won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance.

It was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with an alluring woman on the album jacket for best results. Liberty Records co-founder Si Waronker called it Exotica; the soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, tiki torch-wielding armchair safariers. In the five years after Exotica—Martin Denny’s 1957 landmark Liberty debut—arrived, hundreds of other ethnographic forgeries washed up in record racks all over the U.S., bearing titles like Sophisticated Savage, Sacred Idol, Chant of the Jungle, Polynesian Paradise, Exotic Paradise, Taboo, Primitiva, Forbidden Island, Afrodesia, Hypnotique, Percussion Exotique, and a barrel’s worth of other portmanteaus. “All of those ica and itiva endings I came up with because I thought I was being cute,” Waronker said. “And I don’t know why, but nobody got wise.”

It was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with an alluring woman on the album jacket for best results. Liberty Records co-founder Si Waronker called it Exotica; the soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, tiki torch-wielding armchair safariers. In the five years after Exotica—Martin Denny’s 1957 landmark Liberty debut—arrived, hundreds of other ethnographic forgeries washed up in record racks all over the U.S., bearing titles like Sophisticated Savage, Sacred Idol, Chant of the Jungle, Polynesian Paradise, Exotic Paradise, Taboo, Primitiva, Forbidden Island, Afrodesia, Hypnotique, Percussion Exotique, and a barrel’s worth of other portmanteaus. “All of those ica and itiva endings I came up with because I thought I was being cute,” Waronker said. “And I don’t know why, but nobody got wise.”