Lazy

1999's Superharps was a great record featuring four top blues harmonica players. Two years later, Superharps II was an attempt to duplicate the success with four other harmonica wizards (in this case Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Raful Neal, and Snooky Pryor). There are five individual features, eight songs that have two harmonicas, and a remake of the closing "Harp to Harp," which has all four harmonica players.

1999's Superharps was a great record featuring four top blues harmonica players. Two years later, Superharps II was an attempt to duplicate the success with four other harmonica wizards (in this case Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Raful Neal, and Snooky Pryor). There are five individual features, eight songs that have two harmonicas, and a remake of the closing "Harp to Harp," which has all four harmonica players.

Lazy Farmer's sole album is solid and full-bodied (if conventional and unremarkable) British folk, with a repertoire heavily grounded in traditional tunes. Indeed, eight of the 12 tracks on Lazy Farmer are traditional in origin, while another, "The Cuckoo," is not exactly uncommon to the English-speaking folk world. With a quintet featuring four vocalists, two five-string banjo players, and two multi-instrumentalists in John Bidwell (flute, flageolet, guitar) and Jake Walton (dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, guitar), the band has a richer, deeper sound than many British groups with a similar style. Collectors might be most attracted to this by the presence of noted U.K. folk figure Wizz Jones, though he wrote just one of the cuts, the wistful "When I Leave Berlin," which is one of the set's highlights. The cover of Ralph McTell's "Standing Down in New York Town" makes one wish they'd put more contemporary songs onto the album…

Lazy Lester is, without doubt, one of the great blues harpists, whose somewhat lethargic style is distinctive and unique. I'm a Lover Not a Fighter acts as something of a tribute to the Louisiana blues scene of the 1960s, and reflects the growing interest in Louisiana blues that Lester's recordings have initiated. Containing such swamp blues classics as "I Hear You Knockin" and the inimitable title track, this release sees Lester in fine form, ably backed by some of the best musicians in Louisiana. Indeed, although showing further signs of the artist's creative renaissance will appeal to devotees, this disc also acts as a perfect introduction to the artist's work, and to both groups, this disc comes highly recommended.

The prime of Lazy Lester's recording career was his stint for Excello Records in the 1950s and '60s, and he hadn't recorded in the studio for quite some time when the Rides Again album was cut in England over the course of four days in late May 1987. You wouldn't say this is a peak of his work by any means, but if you accept that he couldn't be reasonably expected to replicate the magic of his vintage swamp blues with producer J.D. Miller, it's fairly decent. Lester himself is in good voice and blows the harmonica well on a set mixing remakes of Miller-era material with newer songs. While the backup band (including members of the Junkyard Angels and Blues 'N'Trouble) were journeymen without high name recognition, they play in a suitably loose and energetic style…

2006 release by studio-based outfit Lazy featuring soft and sweet Bossa Nova/Electronic Сhillout versions of some of Pink Floyd's most memorable tunes including 'Wish You Were Here', 'Money', 'Another Brick in the Wall', 'Comfortably Numb' and more. If the girl from Ipanema had been raised in Swingin'London in the late '60s and early '70s, then she probably would have sounded like this!