Dan Pontrefact

This double-CD release from Britain's Beat Goes On label should interest anyone who's even slightly serious in appreciating Dan Fogelberg's music. For starters, in the absence of any upgrades since the late '80s in the sound of Sony Music's domestic Fogelberg CDs, the remastering of Souvenirs is more than a little welcome – the man's whole early catalog ought to have been remastered long before 2006, based on the crisp results here and the fresh edge it adds to music that is otherwise extremely familiar. And then there's the contents of the first disc, containing Fogelberg's debut Home Free album, which was not a success at the time of its release. Fogelberg and original producer Norbert Putnam remixed the original multi-track tapes from Home Free when it was time to do the CD release, and issued what was, in effect, a somewhat different album, with instruments shifted around in the mix and alterations in the framing and conceptions of various songs.

Smooth jazz keyboardist Dan Siegel has been helping to shape the genre since his recording debut in 1980. Born in Seattle and raised in Eugene, OR, Siegel started taking piano lessons at age eight and was fronting a rock band at 12. After attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he received a degree in composition from the University of Oregon and began recording his own works.