Dan Mccarthy

What a guy! What a picker! What a set! A seminal, and hugely-praised set from one of the most influential musicians in country music. It not only includes all of his Capitol recordings from 1946-1955, but it also includes incredibly rare recordings for King, Bel-Tone, and other small labels, some done under pseudonyms like Tem Martin and the Shepherd Brothers. The famous Merle Travis guitar is featured on the rare guitar-only albums, and the hits here include Divorce Me COD, Steel Guitar Rag, No Vacancy, and Cincinnati Lou. As always, though, the real story is in the rare singles, album cuts, and unissued recordings where Merle's guitar and his winning humor shine. A feast for any fan of finger-style guitar.

Swiss trumpeter / flugelhorninst Franco Ambrosetti opens his Lost Within You with "Peace," from the pen of pianist Horace Silver. The original rendition comes from Silver's Blowin' The Blues Away (Blue Note, 1959). It was a composition that Silver stumbled upon when he was "doodling around on the piano, and it just came to me." It featured Blue Mitchell's characteristically brassy trumpet tone. It was unusual in the Silver songbook—an introspective, patiently deployed ballad, instead of the normal hard-charging, romps that dominate his music.

Walter Block leaned on 82 of the world's most prominent libertarian thinkers and ask them to tell their life stories with an eye to intellectual development. The result is the most comprehensive collection of libertarian autobiographies ever published. Their stories are thrilling and fascinating. They reveal their main influences, their experiences, their choices, and their ambitions.