Direct Current Direct Current

This is Volume 1 in a new chamber series which explores the music of composers who were forced to flee Europe during the 1930s. The survey begins with works by the German-born Jewish composer Paul Ben-Haim (né Frankenburger) who immigrated to Palestine in October 1933. Ben-Haim was an accomplished pianist, conductor, choral coach, and composer who made a significant cultural contribution to his adoptive country. The list of musicians who commissioned, performed, and recorded his music includes Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, and Leonard Bernstein. Among the Israeli composers he taught are Eliahu Inbal, Avraham Sternklar, Noam Sheriff, and Shulamit Ran.

"I came to play" says Sonny Moorman. "I was raised in the bars my folks owned in and around Hamilton, OH and got to hear world class artists Lonnie Mack, Cal Collins, Dumpy Rice, Troy Seals, Wayne Perry, and a score of others up close and personal and learned one thing – all the hype in the world doesn't mean a thing unless you can back it up!" Those are words Sonny has lived by through the decades of roadhouses, bars, and juke joints from coast to coast. He backed it up gig after gig, night after night, and year after year until his own "hype" got too big to go unnoticed any longer……

Gretchen Wilson set the country music charts on fire with her smash single "Redneck Woman" and her debut album, Here for the Party (2004). The track – though composed by colleague John Rich (of Big & Rich) – became an anthem for women all over America. Written especially for Wilson, it is from-the-gut, working-class feminism for the post-feminist age, straightforwardly sung with a celebratory vengeance. As a slice-of-life singer who embodied and brought to life each cut on the album, she became an "overnight sensation." Her follow-up, All Jacked Up (2005), was recorded and rushed out by Sony a year later…..

S.E. Willis' first CD, "Airn Beats Nairn," establishes him as a solid and original creator of roots-based American music. It is a collection of twelve songs, all written by Willis, with styles varying from New Orleans funk …….

Two hours of Popa Chubby at the top. This unforgettable concert was filmed on March 27 2004. Popa plays songs from his three latest albums, and demonstrates that his charisma and strong stage presence have a lot to do with his current popularity. His playing bridges the gap between the blues, funk and rock, and even flirts with jazz and country.

Judas Priest was one of the most influential heavy metal bands of the '70s, spearheading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal late in the decade. Decked out in leather and chains, the band fused the gothic doom of Black Sabbath with the riffs and speed of Led Zeppelin, as well as adding a vicious two-lead guitar attack; in doing so, they set the pace for much popular heavy metal from 1975 until 1985, as well as laying the groundwork for the speed and death metal of the '80s.

"Monster" Mike Welch has erupted on the national music scene! This 17-year old fiery guitarist follows the success of his debut release (These Blues Are Mine, which reached #3 on the Living Blues Radio Chart) with another album of all-original, hard hitting blues. Axe to Grind highlights the incredible songwriting, singing and guitar playing of this blues disciple who was recently profiled in People Magazine, Blues Revue, The Los Angeles Times and has been featured on Entertainment Tonight, A Current Affair and NBC London. With a cross country tour slated for 1997, including performances at the major blues festivals, Monster Mike is ready to take the country by storm. If you don't believe in Monsters yet . . . this one will convince you.

One hundred and eleven musicians celebrating a large-scale symphony that sounds like Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, or Arnold Schoenberg. In fact, the composer of this symphony, Alfred Schnittke, had precisely these composers (and many others) in mind back in 1981. Whereas he initially mirrored certain styles from figures as Mahler, Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, he was soon also borrowing concepts from trivial music, folklore, jazz, tango, as well as many other styles. He himself described his compositional technique, but an aesthetic programme: a serious effort to break through the vicious circle of the self-satisfied and self-sufficient avant-garde music.

L.A.-based Evildead was the thrash metal band founded by former Agent Steel guitarist Juan Garcia, following that group's apparent breakup in 1987. Alongside vocalist Phil Flores, guitarist Albert Gonzalez, bassist Mel Sanchez (previously his bandmate with Abattoir), and drummer Rob Alaniz, he signed with Germany's Steamhammer label, and by the close of 1989 they had released both an EP (entitled Rise Above) and a full album (optimistically named Annihilation of Civilization) of particularly brutal thrash metal…