Change 1997

The More Things Change… is the second studio album by heavy metal band Machine Head, released on March 26, 1997 through Roadrunner Records. It is the band's last release to feature original lead guitarist Logan Mader, and the first to feature drummer Dave McClain.

Introducing an amazing blues album filled with the raw blues spirit. This is the strongest blues album of 1997 by the indomitable Carter Brothers, who perfectly expressed the enthusiasm of 1960s Southern blues in the modern era. Thirty years after their 60's Jewel Records work, which became a hot topic when it was first released as an LP on P-Vine, they have finally returned. This long-awaited work is a worldwide event. The power of Roman Carter's hard vocals and the heavy movement of the sound and beat are absolutely amazing!
This electric blues act with a soul bent recorded for Jewel Records, among other labels. Roman Carter (lead vocals, bass), Albert Carter (guitar), and Jerry Carter (vocals, piano) came from Garland, AL, and began recording in 1964 for producer/songwriter Duke Coleman's local label. Stan Lewis' Jewel Records…

With each successive album, Tinsley Ellis has moved further and further away from mainstream blues grooves and closer and closer to hard rock. While his guitar playing is as explosive as ever, it also remains unfocused, the end result being soloing that never reaches a musical climax, but is nonetheless played with an unrelenting energy that music fans who like their blues with rock muscles will appreciate. Tracks like "Diggin' My Own Grave," "One Sunny Day," "Soulful," "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," and "I Walk Alone" sound like they could be on anybody's blues-rock or roots rock album, and even legendary producer Tom Dowd can't do much with Ellis' consistently flat and generally lifeless vocals.

Former Roomful of Blues saxophonist Greg Piccolo stretches his musical wings even further on this, his third solo outing since leaving the group in 1990. In addition to his brawny tenor sax wailings, Piccolo also plays lead guitar (in a crude, but effective style somewhat reminiscent of Roy Buchanan and Carlos Santana) and alto sax this time around, coaxing acid-jazz sounds out of the latter instrument. With his regular working combo Heavy Juice providing stellar support in a multiplicity of styles (Piccolo jumps from swing to bop to acid jazz to soul ballads and even a taste of rock'n'roll on this one) and 14 Karat Soul providing backup vocals on "Money" and the title track, Red Lights is Greg Piccolo's most musically ambitious album to date.

It's quite difficult to find a young person who knows about the Scorpions. Even when their careers were peaking in the '80s, they were never widely recognized, existing always as more of an underground band. The lack of hit singles produced by the group is by no means a judgment of its talent, however, as Deadly Sting: The Mercury Years proves. Some may find the fact that Mercury made the compilation a double-disc set surprising – again due to the band's small following – but the album is far better than the single-disc collection Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads. Following chronologically from 1979 to 1993 (thus covering the years in which the band enjoyed its most success)…

Born in 1965 in Chicago Bernard Allison was introduced into the roots of black music and playing electric guitar by his father, the living blues legend Luther Allison. At the age of 20 he played with the "Queen of Blues" Koko Taylor for two years and took part in countless sessions with musicians like Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jeff Healy.
He joined the tourband of Luther Allison in 1989 after a furious collaboration of "Father & Son" at the '89 Chicago Blues Festival. A recording of this formation is to be heard on the Luther Allison album "Let's Try It again". Bernard released his first solo album in 1990 with the significant title "The Next Generation"…

Elvin Jones may have established himself as one of the greatest drummers of all time, but equally important to him was his nurturing of young musicians. His Jazz Machine opened the door to several upcoming musicians, including Delfeayo Marsalis, Antoine Roney and Ravi Coltrane. He characteristically took delight in their playing, thus forging an emphatic bond. His attitude also served to enrich the music of the band.

Former Roomful of Blues saxophonist Greg Piccolo stretches his musical wings even further on this, his third solo outing since leaving the group in 1990. In addition to his brawny tenor sax wailings, Piccolo also plays lead guitar (in a crude, but effective style somewhat reminiscent of Roy Buchanan and Carlos Santana) and alto sax this time around, coaxing acid-jazz sounds out of the latter instrument. With his regular working combo Heavy Juice providing stellar support in a multiplicity of styles (Piccolo jumps from swing to bop to acid jazz to soul ballads and even a taste of rock'n'roll on this one) and 14 Karat Soul providing backup vocals on "Money" and the title track, Red Lights is Greg Piccolo's most musically ambitious album to date.

The best collection yet devoted to Procol Harum's classic early period ties together the many facets of their sound and their early history, including numerous outtakes and all of the music on four albums from 1967 through 1970. The clarity of the sound makes the first album - which was roundly criticized, especially in England, for having been cut in mono in late 1967 - seem a lot more muscular and progressive here than it did in its original release form. The producers have tampered with the song order on A Salty Dog, moving that record's title track in amongst disc three's single sides for time considerations while still leaving "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg" off of the first CD (the original commercial flaw with the debut album in England was the absence of either of those songs, and the seven-month-plus delay in getting it out)…