Honky Dalton Conley

This LP, recorded for the Italian label Bubble, is probably Keith Emerson's most eclectic, with a sense of humor thrown in as well. The opening medley of Emerson's "Hello Sailor" and George Malcolm's Baroque-flavored "Bach Before the Mast" provides quite a contrast, moving from a subdued sea shantey to furious solo piano, and finally segueing into a full-fledged rocking strut with a Caribbean twist. He ventures into jazz by playing honky tonk piano and synthesizer on Billy Taylor's "Barrelhouse Shakedown," as Frank Scully plays various percussion instruments, including assorted kitchenware. Emerson was clearly in a playful mood during these sessions, throwing in a pseudo-broadcast of snippets of old standards, interspersed with commentary and lighthearted vocals, at the start of side two, and filling the album jacket with various campy photographs of himself.

Some call it country guitar with a dash of rock, blues and jazz. Others call it modern Nashville-style guitar. We call it Big Twang and no one’s better qualified to help you get a grip on the style than our very own bona fide master twanger, Joe Dalton. Derived in part from "country" guitar, twang is really a modern hybrid of blues, country, rock and jazz guitar. Players like Albert Lee, Arlen Roth, Danny Gatton, Johnny Hiland, Ray Flacke, Leon McAuliffe, Brent Mason, Chet Atkins, Scotty Anderson, Red Volkaert, James Burton and Jimmy Bryant all have their own classic Big Twang signature sound and technique. But today, contemporary players across all styles have incorporated twang influences in their signature sounds.

Guitaristic Theory, Creative Chord Shapes and Harmonic Fretboard Secrets Revealed Whatever your level of play, whatever your preferred style, and whatever you know or don't know about theory — we guarantee at least two dozen monumental aha moments herein for acoustic and electric guitar players alike. Fretboard Epiphanies is an eclectic mix of theory, harmony, chord tricks, tricky licks and even a few "amazing" full-length arrangements (one of them worth the price of admission alone). What ties it all together? Everything you learn will spark dozens of fresh, creative ideas. Fretboard Epiphanies is the ultimate rut buster.

Dalton Reed is a classic gospel-based soul vocalist. There's nothing sophisticated in his approach, staid in his delivery, or polite and detached in his sound. He explodes, attacks, and rips through the 10 tracks on his second Bullseye blues LP, his voice full of animation and expressiveness. These songs are done in the vivid, overwrought manner considered too intense by the urban contemporary tastemakers; you won't hear trendy backgrounds or drum machines on these numbers. This is unapologetic soul from a vocalist who will never appeal to the crossover audience, but is making some of the better R&B in today's market.

Delbert McClinton always understood that it was more than just country music that went down at Texas roadhouses and honky tonks, and his before-his-time rootsy mix of blues, country, R&B, and soul made it hard for his various record labels to market him effectively, although his body of live and recorded work since he got his start as a harmonica player in the early '60s is a very impressive legacy. This set compiles 14 key tracks from his mid- to late-'70s period, including signature classics "Two More Bottles of Wine" and "Solid Gold Plated Fool," among others.

Between 1986 and 1987, Mercury launched its first effort to chronicle Hank Williams' complete recorded works, releasing a series of eight double albums/single CDs which were later collected as a box set. Both the individual compilations and the box set were pulled from the market in the '90s, clearing the way for The Complete Hank Williams, a ten-disc box set which purported to contain all of Williams' recordings…