No Name in The Street

What's in a name? If you love mid-'60s folk-rockers the Mamas & the Papas, this four-volume U.K. Complete Anthology (2004) speaks for itself. The 101 selections run in excess of five hours centering on the vintage long-players If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966), The Mamas & the Papas (1966), The Mamas & the Papas Deliver (1967), The Papas & the Mamas (1968), People Like Us (1971), and The Monterey International Pop Festival (1971)…

Trumpet is a unique three-CD boxed set of solo trumpet music recorded over one week in the beautiful natural acoustics of St. Mary's Church, the medieval stone church in the Town of Pohja on the Southern Coast of Finland. All compositions by Wadada Leo Smith. Trumpet represents a culmination of Smith's recorded solo trumpet work that has comprised of six albums before Trumpet, starting with his very first album as a leader, Creative Music - 1: Six Solo Improvisations, in 1971 and ending with his dedication to Thelonious Monk, Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk, in 2015.

It's been more than 50 years since John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot first joined their voices together in song as The Mamas and The Papas, yet the group's shimmering harmonies, rich melodies and affecting "words of love" are every bit as resonant today as during the turbulent 1960s. This month, the rich legacy of the California dreamers is being celebrated with a remarkable new 4-CD collection from TJ Lubinsky's TJL Productions!

McQueen Street was a hard rock band from Montgomery, Alabama, consisting of Derek Welsh on lead vocals, Richard Hatcher on bass, Michael Powers on guitar, and Derek's brother Chris Welsh on drums. The band was originally known as "Klass", which formed in 1987 and played mostly covers and was well-known on the southeast rock music club circuit in the late 80's. The band changed its name to McQueen Street and signed a record deal with SBK Records, a division of EMI in 1990. They got their name from the street where the recording studio was located in their hometown. The band's debut album, titled "McQueen Street" was produced by Tom Werman with additional production on one track from Steve Stevens of Billy Idol's band, who also played guitar on the album. Jeff Scott Soto, formerly of Journey also contributed to vocals.

.The Mamas & the Papas Gold is a two-disc, 32-track set that does an admirable job of mixing the major hits with well chosen album tracks. Unlike MCA's 1991 similar package Creeque Alley, solo tracks are ignored with the focus being only on the five studio albums recorded as a group: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, The Mamas & the Papas, Deliver, The Papas & the Mamas and (thankfully) only one track from the contractual obligation swan song People Like Us…

In 1990 Neil Hannon started recording and releasing under the name The Divine Comedy. Thirty years and twelve great albums later, Hannon is rightly adjudged one of the finest singer songwriters of his generation. To celebrate, Divine Comedy Records are remastering and reissuing nine of the band's classic albums.