Kammerflimmern 2004

While there was certainly little to complain about on the original issue of the soundtrack for Standing in the Shadows of Motown, for those who truly sought the magic of the Funk Brothers, this deluxe edition is what they longed for all along. This two-disc collection contains the soundtrack of the Allan Slutsky/Harry Weinger film – plus three bonus tracks – from that historic night at the Royal Oak Music Theater just outside of Detroit. It pairs what was left of the original Motown session gang and their heirs with a host of vocalists, including Joan Osborne, Chaka Khan, Bootsy Collins, Montell Jordan, Me'Shell NdegéOcello, Ben Harper, and Gerald LeVert interpreting the classics. The extra soundtrack cuts feature John Lee Hooker, Jackie Wilson, and Dennis Coffey with the Detroit Guitar Band. But on disc two, the entire grail becomes attainable. Here are 15 musical tracks, the original instrumental sides from "the Snakepit" of the Motown studios, with little or no vocal accompaniment, remixed from the ground up. The producers broke down and mapped out each verse, bridge, chorus, and vamp on paper first. Phone calls were made to the living members and then each tune was knotted together from the recorded evidence, using the input of the Funks and the added guitars of Dennis Coffey and Wah Wah Watson.

This two-CD compilation is the first to specifically focus on Bob Weir (guitar/vocals), both as a co-founder of the Grateful Dead and on his own. While Deadheads typically run hot and cold when it comes to Weir's material, many will inevitably consider Weir Here: The Best of Bob Weir (2004) as essential, due to the incorporation of half a dozen previously unissued tracks ranging chronologically from "Me & Bobby McGee," circa March of 1972, through the informal rehearsal of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" by RatDog. Weir's non-Dead career began while he was still very much a member of the band.

This low-priced 50-track set takes you on a chronological "grand tour" of 50 hit-filled years from one of country's greatest voices, Mr. George Jones.

Artist's Choice: Sarah McLachlan Review by William Tilland
For the most part, musicians are not terribly articulate about their musical likes and dislikes. After all, that's not how they make a living. However, good musicians are almost without exception attracted to musical excellence in some form or another, and the more eclectic their own creative efforts, the wider the net they are likely to cast as listeners. Sarah McLachlan's typical comments about the music she has selected for this Artist's Choice CD don't get much beyond "simple," "beautiful," and "heartbreaking" – but within these vague boundaries, she offers up everyone from Cat Stevens and R.E.M. to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Willie Nelson, and Clannad. It's not always a terribly cohesive program; the stylistic leap from Ali Khan to Emmylou Harris, for example, may represent an aesthetic challenge for some listeners.

Of the numerous various-artist compilation CDs that have attempted to anthologize the recordings of the late '40s and early '50s most crucial to planting the seeds for rock & roll, this three-CD, 60-song set is probably the most definitive. Most prior collections along these lines have failed to present a truly comprehensive picture of rock & roll's roots, whether due to both licensing restrictions and/or track selection that fails to recognize the entirety of the wide spectrum of rock & roll's roots. While you'd need at least a ten-CD box set to approach inarguable definitiveness, The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll: 1946-1954 hits about as many of the key bases as possible within three CDs, including pivotal songs by Lionel Hampton, the Delmore Brothers, Louis Jordan, Hank Williams, Lloyd Price, Howlin' Wolf, the Drifters, Bill Haley, Big Joe Turner, Hank Ballard, and Muddy Waters, to start with just the most well-known artists included here.

Hawaiian Tangos, Hulas & Blues is the 2004 album by guitarist Ken Emerson, with a little help from his friends, including Todd Rundgren. This was released on Hana Ola Records.

Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz—Mulligan was also a significant arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. His pianoless quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the best cool jazz groups. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Several of his compositions, such as "Walkin' Shoes" and "Five Brothers", have become standards.

He Got Out His Big Ten Inch: A Cornucopia of Risque R&B, Rude Blues and Double-Entendre Doo-Wop is a 3CD box set released by Indigo/Sanctuary in 2004. These songs were dirty long before the term rock'n'roll was originated for a music genre, with various songs about rock hard penises and moist vaginas, all spoken in metaphor. Some of these songs were made famous through other means, used in motion pictures or including Aerosmith's 1975 cover of "Big Ten Inch Record".